[Grovenet] Gas Lines are not fun

[David Morelli]

On Jan 31, 2008, at 10:01 AM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:

>
> Do we have the infrastructure to meet our own needs, even our most  
> basic
> needs, David?

Yes, we do.  It is disappearing as fast as some whiz kid financial  
tycoons can dismantle it, so it would be good to stop that process  
sooner than later.  Today would be a good time.

>
> If so, where is it?

According to some organization called the National Association of  
Manufacturers,
"All too often the perception is that the heyday of U.S.  
manufacturing is in the past, but nothing could be further from the  
truth.  Standing by itself, U.S. manufacturing would be the eighth  
largest economy in the world. "

http://www.nam.org/s_nam/sec.asp?CID=201507&DID=229891

>
> ...
> Where is an adequate US fuel supply for anything but a short term  
> "emergency"?

The US produced about 5.1 million barrels/day in 2007, this is about  
125% of the daily production we had during World War II.  If we could  
fuel a war-time manufacturing and agriculture economy and our  
military actions through out the world, we certainly should be able  
to fuel an economy based upon the technology of the 21st Century.

>
> Even if we have the fuel, how do we maintain our transportation  
> infrastructure without parts and vehicles from other countries?

Ask the people at Precision Cast Parts and Boeing in Portland.
>
> How do we eat without the foreign oil to grow, harvest and  
> transport our crops?

That is a serious issue, we may need to make some life style changes,  
less meat for example.  Lower processed foods.  More foods in  
season.  Possibly even a return to home gardens instead of lawns and  
exotic plants.  And we do need to think about this, especially as  
water becomes less available and we lose species diversity.  We  
really ought to start now.  A good first step would be to tell the  
truth, that we really DO need to act.
>
>
> Why are foreigners, desperate to find something spend their  
> American dollars we've sent them for their goods and services,  
> buying American real estate?

I would guess that American real estate is a better long term  
investment than American consumer goods.   After all, not every  
nation in the world is Hell bent on consumption to the determent of  
long term investment.  Our dollar is too strong relative to our  
trading partners.  They are getting all of the American goods they  
want at the current price.  We cannot move more goods until the price  
of the dollar declines.
>
> We may have an acceptable "balance of trade", at least for the  
> moment, but it's a balance maintained by selling our assets -- non- 
> renewable assets such as the very land under our feet.

We don't have an acceptable "balance of trade".  We have foreign  
investment in our assets, but a bigger problem is foreign investment  
in our liabilities.

>
> ...
> Ron D'Eau Claire


David