oil makes up less than even .1% of our GDP
How many trucks and cars are there in the USA?
How much hauling is done by rail, compared to the road?
How many businesses are locked up in road usage? Aviation usage?
How upset do the American people become when gas gets expensive (which is not very often)
Why is so much of the US Treasury's budget spent on maintaining the vast US 4th fleet in the Persian Gulf, or in 'Aid' packages where Israel is gifted US $4.75 billion in military hardware and $0.25 billion in cash, every year, then have a look at how much 'Aid' America 'bungs' to Egypt, , Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco to keep the mediterranean safe and open for super tankers to get a straight line to Houston.
The oil is locked in with the military, to a point, and it's geo-political hegemony, everywhere, but it's impact on the economy is critical, not marginal.
There is a plethora of non nuclear powered vehicles in the American armed forces. The vast majority of them need petro-chemical fuel to keep them operational.
Domestically...
Ever driven across America? Coast to coast?
I have, twice.
Everything is set up for petro-chemical consumption.
Ever been to a truckstop on I 95? In any state?
Ever flown in to LA during the daytime? You get to watch the seemingly endless processions of traffic jams on the highways and freeways.
Nothing happens in America without the petro chemical dollar being involved.
How many wealthy neighbourhoods do you have to drive around in America, because there are no sidewalks/footpaths?
I've worked i them, up close and personal.
Every city has at least a few. The car is a symbol of wealth, prosperity and success in America. If you have to walk you are deemed poor.
0.1%
Get a job with the Oompah Loompahs statistics dept.
Without oil the American economy runs dry in a matter of weeks. Not months. It is absolutely critically vital to the cogs of American society. On every level.
...our national debt isn't a problem
Oh really?
Do you know how much it is?
Do you know who holds most of it?
Are you aware of how small American manufacturing has become in the last 30 years?
You may as well say, "The nartional debt isn't a problem. The American economy is the strongest economy in the world, it is the fastest growing and we have excellent minds working on it right now, excellent brilliant minds. The best, ever. Beautiful minds."
Sound familiar?
Now lets drag the scenarrio back to reality.
Have a look at the UK model.
Everything used to be made here... once upon a time, and it was good too, now very little has the 'made in GB' logo.
It doesn't go well when manufacturing is heavily outsourced. The trade deficit also goes up and so does national debt.
china is ****** in 20 years when their working class starts asking for rights and it's easy for india to make great strides when you were where they were... remember marginal returns to scale only decrease as you grow
That much is evident judging by how tiny the growth margins are nowadays for America.
The Chinese economy was never going to be able to support 8% growth year on year, it was always going to have to slow but it is still growing.
Can that be said of the UK and the USA?
In 20 years China will be running over 50% of it's economy on renewable energy. Example. They own Volvo and they came out a few months ago and said that any new ranges or upgrades for existing ranges, will, from 2019, be either hybrids or completely electric.
The Chinese are not fools.
They will lead the vehicle market away from fossil fuels because it works for them.
It's a bonus that it works for humanity as well.
They know they are winning the trade war with America and dragging the market away from the petro-chemical dollar into renewables will seriously hurt the American economic hegemony.
The UK passed a law that by 2040 it will be illegal to sell a solely fossil fuel car in the UK.
Wow.
Great going T-May.
Where will the gas guzzling American economy be in 20 years?
Hmmm...?
You're so sure that China will fall over in 20 years, (thats what they were saying about China 20 years ago too...) what does your crystal ball tell you about your own country in 20 years?
Or even 12 years?
Think about all those brown fields in the midwest and huge areas of the southern states landscape, they have the potential to be a gold mine in solar energy.
There just needs to be a political will.
look, i'm not exactly proud to be an american but to say that our economy is going to tank is ludicrous
It's not about being proud.
It's not about being from a country.
It's not about good or evil.
This is not a personal attack against you or an attack against America.
It's economics.
Ludicrous huh?
Your economy is tanking.
You just can't see it.
Have a look at the rise in food banks, the rise in unemployed (yes I mean those waste of paper zero hour contracts too) have a look at levels of homelessness. For a decade journalists and historians in America have been going back to the 'Great Depression' to find numbers that match up.
The far right are finding a voice in American society, they are also finding some sympathetic ears.
It's not hanging off a cliff edge but it is a problem thats developing, not lessening. It's happening by degrees and it's not improving.
It's like the tide is turning and we are watching it happen.
America need sa drastic change in governmental policy and it needs to be one that brings the multi-nationals and the 'hawks back into the mainstream instead of sitting on top of the nest feeding themselves and forgetting the rest.
Russia, India, Iran and China have formed their own trade bloc.
Thats why US sanctions don't mean diddly squat to them.
All three of those big players are all investing heavily with Iran.
China's invesment with Africa has blown the American investment with Africa completely out of the water.
Americs does less than US $100 billion in trade with the African continent each year.
China has flown passed the $200 billion in trade with the African continent and is on its way to being three times the sales total that America possesses.
They don't need to subscribe to the bully boy tactics that have been successful to a point for American oil companies in previous decades.
They build infrastructure for the local area (of course they are busy raping the local mineral wealth in the process) so when they leave (usually after a ten year lease agreement) the locals suddenly find they are no longer in the third world. (and that mountain of bauxite is now a plain)
They have roads, an airport, sewage works, water capture and refinement, admistrative buildings, schools, hospitals etc. (Almost all of it built by flown in Chinese workers)
The American model has been to supply the local chief with the funds and firepower necessary to subjugate his people so the foreign power can extract the oil etc. This is a modification on an earlier British model.
When the Americans leave there is no infrastructure, just a tyrant who has no interest in democracy.
America needs to change it's trading model but it seems very uninterested in doing so...
