That's a possibility.
And there is a posibility that Nader could get elected president, but neither one is a posibility that we need to worry to much about at the moment.
At an increase of demand of 2% per year, we have enough coal to last for another 149 years.
I imagine 149 years from now we will have fusion power. If we don't we will have major advances in fission, geothermal and other sources, and possibly solar power satelites.
Nuclear fission is pretty much out because we are running out of uranium and plutonium and there is no safe way to dispose of the radioactive waste.
We are not running out of uranium. And the useable uranium we do have could be extended (if it was nessiary) by building breeder reactors. The radioactive waste issue is real but not a show stopper. The main problem is that current designs for nuclear power plants cost to much but cheaper designs (including ones that are passivly safe) are on the horizon.
Geothermal is on such a small scale its not worth mentioning.
Right now it is. Eventually it has the potential to be a major energy source esp. if fusion takes too long to become a reality and solar power satelites don't work out too well, and new fission plants are blocked by politics.
The dislocation was caused by a lack of gov't regulation.
" Many economists argue that the Great Depression was both caused and prolonged by government action. Richard Rahn wrote, "After the stock market crash in 1929, government revenues fell because of the drop in economic activity. The Hoover administration and the Congress increased taxes in a futile attempt to balance the budget. The tax increase only caused a further drop in economic activity, which enlarged the deficit even more. [1]
Although the initial trigger event may not have been the result of government action, many have argued that incorrect economic policies turned the stock market crash from a momentary crisis into a decade long depression. In particular two policies have been singled out by economists.
The first is the tight money policies of the Federal Reserve which restricted the money supply. The second was the recourse to protectionism with measures such as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act, which raised tariffs on imports in order to protect local producers who were being hurt by foreign competition. In response, many other countries also raised their tariffs, badly hurting US businesses that exported their goods. This led to a chain reaction of tariff increases which fragmented the world economy. "
history.searchbeat.com
Also see
FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
amazon.com
Capitalism is an imperfect creation. It necessitates gov't intervention to insure stability.
Capitalism is imperfect and always will be. Government control is even more imperfect.
Tim |
