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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nicholas Thompson who wrote (111466)	12/24/2007 4:28:38 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 173976

Let the market decide not the gov

To: Nicholas Thompson who wrote (111466)	12/24/2007 11:57:07 PM
From: Nicholas Thompson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 173976

I am a fan of free markets, but in this country it depends on who has the pulpit when we talk about free markets . I think the free market works for many things, such as electronics, but when you have a commodity like oil that is full of subsidies and hidden costs which are not paid for directly by the consumer then it does not work and creates wierd sh-- where oversized vehicles are the rage and people live 60 miles from their work and burn hundreds of millions of extra gallons daily. To wit, there are many high subsidies in the petroleum market. 1. Much of the oil comes from unstable countries/areas, this means we have to maintain a larger military than otherwise necessary.- especially true right now -- 2. Taxpayers pay a lot of the maritime industry costs indirectly, costs such as a lot of the coast Guard etc. 3. there are many other external costs of a private transportation oil based economy that taxpayers pick up such as roads , bridges, highway patrols, etc which are not reflected in the gas prices. Then the oil companies get tens of billions a year of tax breaks and govt help. -- probably in the 30 billion range. Etc Etc. Such that the real cost of gas was estimated to be in the 5 dollar a gallon range a couple of years ago and now is probably around $6.50 to $7.00 a gallon. If we could get the govt entirely out of the sector or instead have the oil consumer pay for all the direct and indirect costs , the consumer would totally flip. -- by the way if the negative environmental costs were factored in fully, this cost would be even higher than $7 a gallon.. One immediate result of charging real costs would be a reduction of exurban development and instead an increase in attempts to in-fill housing in the cities. That alone could really help to stop the rape of our most productive farm-land which is a very serious problem people avoid dealing with. etc etc. I am not even talking about alternatives to oil, they are obvious.