Posted on 05/17/2006 10:55:50 AM PDT by A. Pole
Why're yessir, of cause...a bunch of them thar Wally Arkinsaw hellbillys russled up execs, forc'd 'em to drink moonshine, and sign on dat there dotted line to do bidness with good-old Sam.
An "infeasible" technology producing that much oil?
What is your definition of "infeasible?"
I didn't say union anywhere in my post.
So, what is the function of a citizen? Not citizen of the world as the "free traders" like to think of themselves, but a citizen of a sovereign nation. What is their function? What is their duty?
Energy is needed to process 2 tons of sand for each barrel of oil (from your article). Then $25 or more just to process the heavy oil into lighter oils and they don't give a figure for cost of energy with that. Energy is required to maintain the equipment, heat and feed the workers, etc. All that energy starts at $70 / barrel, then add refining and shipping. I would think the only thing that keeps this maintainable is that they use local natural gas for a lot of the energy inputs. In effect, they are trading the exportable natural gas for more valuable exportable gasoline. So the price of natural gas here goes up even more.
Again, at what energy price? Clearly the authors of this article are clueless.
So you're saying they shouldn't do it because it costs them more to do it this way?
In the economics I learned, if revenues exceed expenses you are making a profit and should stay in business.
What brand of alternate-reality economics do you subscribe to?
Instead of being offered a $50 toaster that lasts a lifetime, made by skilled workers, we get one for $12.99 that lasts 3 years. People think they are "saving" but after the 4th toaster, they are behind and they bought foreign crap instead of domestic.
That is what Wal-Mart means to me. America in the 50's and 60's made high quality, "pricy" things. But they really weren't so pricy. First came the Japanese, then other countries importing CRAP for low prices, and we changed our model. But they actually made crap better than we did, so we lost both ways. Japan turned away from crap into high end electronics. We lagged. They turned into affordable, high quality fuel efficient cars, and we created the Pinto.
Wal-Mart didn't start the trend, they just nationalized it, and sped up the process. Wal-Mart is good in the short run, but not the long run. Yes, we can fill up our landfills with all the crap from Wal-Mart, rinse and repeat, or we can manufacture goods that the growing middle and upper classes throughout the world want to have creating wealth and jobs here that are not greeter or checker or stocker. The choice is ours.
Yes, I want to know it too!
Oh wait, it's not conservative, it's from Patsy Buchanan's site!
Again, at what energy price? Clearly the authors of this article are clueless.
$60,000 of absolute costs.
The basic law of accounting is: Revenues minus Expenses equals Net Income.
If they are in the black, they are in the black. Asking "At what energy price?" is like asking "Why is the sky blue?
Energy is a cost of production, even when you are producing energy.
Making a fetish of "energy cost" sounds like something an Apparatchik would worry about.
They can do whatever they want except pretend that their oil costs $70/barrel. Undoubtedly they are getting lots of free natural gas other free stuff that Canadian taxpayers pay for. Their other inputs require energy to maintain and replace like the truck tires. We're not talking about a nuclear power plant where you could put a wall around it and send relatively small amounts of energy through the wall to run it. Their energy requirements are huge and only possible with government-created economic distortions.
Good article, Gabz!
I was in Wal-Mart today, too. I spent $19.35 and purchased:
Laundry Soap (Formulated in USA)
Birthday Card (Printed in USA; Paper from Wisconsin)
Plastic Tote Box w/cover (Extruded in USA)
Dog Treats (Baked in USA)
Old Roy Canned Dog Food (Cows Killed and Cooked in USA)
Two Bags of Potting Soil (Dug from Earth in the USA)
Works for me. :)
Let me help.
A citizen has no duty to pay more for anything to keep another citizen in a job.
Sort of like the Holy Grail of "alternative enerby sources" you love so much: ethanol?
Very much like corn-based ethanol which I hate. My older engine has had very poor performance since they started mixing that crap in with the gas. The same analysis applies: a heavily subsidized farmer with energy intensive farming methods creates a low energy product which is fermented and added to the fuel. Takes energy every step of the way including transporting that crap from the midwest.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
Wal-Mart does offer cheap toasters.
Just last month, I bought a two-slice chrome toaster made by Cuisinart from Kohl's, on sale, for $42.00.
I saw the identical toaster at Wal-Mart for $45.00. So, it is simply false that Wal-Mart doesn't offer quality products.
Should a college student who wants to buy a toaster not have the option to buy a $15.00 version versus having to shell out $45.00 for a top-of-the-line model?
The notion, which some goobers here continue to push, that Wal-Mart sells nothing but junk is just incorrect. Maybe you haven't been in a Wal-Mart lately, or maybe you're just being disingenuous.
Whatever the case, you are venturing into busybody territory by telling the rest of us what preferences we ought to have in products or in jobs.
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