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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Katelew who wrote (60096)	4/19/2008 5:38:24 PM
From: Mary Cluney	Respond to of 543150

<<<Our population isn't growing....we're at replacement rate. If our Mexicans head back to Mexico for greener pastures, our population will actually decline.>>> Good point. Our country is underpopulated and demographics will skew toward the elderly. Sealing our borders will virtually seal our economy into Depression. I think we need to secure our borders with a sensible border policy, but neither McCain will be able to cope with racist sentiment from the right nor Barack will be able to cope with protectionist sentiments from the extreme left.

To: Katelew who wrote (60096)	4/19/2008 5:40:59 PM
From: Bearcatbob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543150

"Bob, I know you're concerned about energy policy and the lights going out. Have you thought about the fact that the economy is slowing and the retiring boomers will cut back and even more if their benefits are cut....so the point is why do we assume so much additional energy capacity is even needed." Well I am soon to be a retired boomer and I have no intent to cut back on anything. I am 60 and getting out while I am hopefully sufficiently healthy to do all of the things I have delayed. I will be using lots of gasoline. I think many of the other boomers are in similar shape - and SS will be paying for some of it. If my SS is cut - which maybe it should - it won't matter for me. I do appreciate the contributions of all who have driven energy prices higher which has been very good for me. When my wife retired I told her to thank everyone for their gasoline purchases - she being a polite Democrat did not take my suggestion - but she did retire on the earnings of a Republican. As for demand - our population is growing not decreasing. Illegal immigration is a large part of this and will not be challenged by the next administration. We also have more and more electrification as communication technologies spread. I believe the growth of electricity demand is about 3% per year. (Have you ever walked into a dark room at night and noticed all of the LEDs glowing along. How many LEDs are on 24:7?) Lane repeatedly talks about lag time. I suspect that concept is missed by most on this board - but it is very important. The US economy is like a huge ship - its course cannot be changed quickly.