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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (316719)	12/20/2006 8:38:36 PM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1584064

I said- True in an pure economic model. But the issue is anything but pure... there are political, social and health issues that are intangible. Even if the conversion to "renewable energy" was more expensive than "staying the course" with oil, the other benefits from renewable energy might dwarf the additional cost. What is it worth to the US to cut the dollars flowing to your "enemy" by 50%? What's it worth to the US to cut 1/3 of it's trade deficit? What's it worth to the US in health costs to cut pollution by 50% in it's major cities? What's it worth to the US to avoid a future potential war over oil, and to maybe cut military spending? What's it worth to the US economy to add 50% of the money spent on gasoline to discretionary spending? None of these benefits are tangible or fit easily on a spreadsheet... but they are real none-the-less. and you responded- Externalities exist, but they aren't so neatly or easily calculated, and attempts to deal with them also have their own second order negative effects.* Those were all positive and almost surely have "second order" POSITIVE effects. Jeez, what are you thinking.