I'm starting to think we need another world war for people to start realizing just how good they actually have it.



Sometimes, I wonder what exactly is the matter with you? Seriously, do you realize the stupidity in that logic? A world war would result in our annihilation.

Machiavelli Wrote:Sometimes, I wonder what exactly is the matter with you? Seriously, do you realize the stupidity in that logic? A world war would result in our annihilation.

....ah, a thought that occurred to many before WWI and WWII but alas, we're still here.

That was before thermo-nuclear weapons. It's changed the dynamic. As a kid growing up in the 80's the movies at that time did a great job of showing the horrors of a nuclear bomb. War Games? Terminator?

Machiavelli Wrote:That was before thermo-nuclear weapons. It's changed the dynamic. As a kid growing up in the 80's the movies at that time did a great job of showing the horrors of a nuclear bomb. War Games? Terminator?

We were in proxy wars with the USSR during the entire Cold War (Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan). Not an ICBM launched at one another.

GrayBeard Wrote:

georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:

THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:OPEC has its collective hands around the USA's throat.

That's largely irrelevant. The overwhelming majority of our oil comes from Canada and Russia -- both nations not in OPEC. Oil will *NEVER* again be low enough for us to see $0.99/gallon gas. Given how we are approaching peak oil very soon as well, it will only get worse. We're merely living the gas prices the rest of the world has for the last few decades.

Actually, you are wrong about the irrelevance. IF/When the OPEC nations determine that the dollar is crap, they will switch to trading Oil in Euro's and you will see just how bad our economy truly can get. Our economy is in bad shape.

Why don't we just get out of using OPEC and become energy independent. I know a little start in Alaska where the U.S. can get it's oil. Too bad the Dems haven't allowed the U.S. to tap this resource or build a new refinery in the past 30 years.

nachoman91 Wrote:Why don't we just get out of using OPEC and become energy independent. I know a little start in Alaska where the U.S. can get it's oil. Too bad the Dems haven't allowed the U.S. to tap this resource or build a new refinery in the past 30 years.

....and the environmentalists have made it hard as hell to get oil from Alberta's tar sands due to the high emissions it would release by refining that type of oil.

The Triumph of OPEC

If only there were still oil reserves somewhere in the US....

The tree huggers would rather the US economy land in the crapper than allow exploration of the Alaska wilderness. I think the mere suggestion would get OPEC to up its production.

I've never seen anything to suggest that the US has anywhere near the reserves required to put a dent in OPEC's cartel. The 2004 DOE estimate for the ANWAR oil field put it at 4% of domestic demand. Not insignificant but not nearly enough to scare OPEC. Of course, it was just an estimate & there could be much more up there, but it's not likely to be enough to have have a major effect on the world market.

georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:Just because we've done the best job ever in history doesn't mean we should blindly accept our country rapidly spiraling down the crapper economically, politically, and in regards to civil liberties.

THIS:ncaabbs:

Weak dollar costs U.S. economy its world No. 1 spot

PARIS (Reuters) - The U.S. economy lost the title of "world's biggest" to the euro zone this week as the value of the dollar slumped in currency markets.

Taking the gross domestic product of both economies in 2007, the combined GDP of the 15 countries which use the euro overtook that of the United States when the European currency surged to a record high of more than $1.56 per euro.

"The curious outcome of breaching this latest milestone is that the size of the euro zone's annual output has now exceeded that of the U.S.," the economics department of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank, said in a note to clients.

Taking official estimates of 2007 GDP -- $13,843,800 billion for the United States and 8,847,889.1 billion euros for the euro zone -- the economy of the latter passed the United States once converted into dollars, shortly after the euro topped $1.56.

The dollar sank to $1.5688 per euro late in European trading hours on Friday, at which rate the euro zone's 2007 GDP equates to $13,880,568.4 billion.

The 2007 GDP estimates are as published by the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis and provided to Reuters on request for the euro zone by Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office.