Strikes in Iraq

[Road Runner]

Two female suicide bombers in a shop trying on backpacks.

One turns to the other and says; Does my bomb look big in this?


RR.

[donnnnnny]

(grunyen @ Jan. 27 2007,02:15) Just wanted to throw a couple of real-world economic factors into the mix. While for the most part I'm all for doing the job- and by that I mean killing people and breaking things... I'm also an economist at heart.

"Taking" the oil in Iraq would not change the price of oil.

The population increase of the earth is not really a problem. Human's occupy about 5% of the earths surface. There is no realistic point at which we suddenly run out of resources- regardless of what doom-sayers want you to believe.

People do not starve because of a lack of food. People starve because of a lack of freedom, and economic production value.

Japan and Hong Kong are big rocks. By all rights they should be starving. As long as there is a market, people are able to specialize and trade their production value created wealth for food.

The US alone could make enough food to feed the whole world, nto even mentioning the voluminous farmland available in Russia.

We send billions in government funds and private charity to Africa (just for one example) every year. The people are starving not because food isn't coming, but because the rulers take the money and sell the food on the black market.

If you have a house with starving children, and you keep dealing with the grubby parents, you will never be able to dump enough money on the parents that it will make a difference.

I'm about 50/50 on George Bush. But one thing he mentioned in the SOTU speech was very interesting. He proposed that all foreign aid programs be tied to measurable accountability programs on the governments of those countries.

The other reason third worlders starve is a lack of private property rights. No one will invest money in a country, and no locals will start businesses and new ventures when they have no guarantee of protection under the law. When the government can seize your holding at any moment, it's an economic damper.

Again- Hong Kong. Get out of peoples way and they will create wealth. India languished for years while their dozens of political parties and classes faught over the spoils. Red-tape blocked every kind of progress. Now they have finally wised up, and they are having an econoic boom. The incredible increase in Indians who can now afford cars is the primary reason for the price of oil.

Last but not least, gas is not really that expensive. In the US at least, gas is less per gallon than Haagen Dasz ice cream or Evian bottled water- neither of which can propel you to work every day. Although the numbers on the gas pump seem high to our memory, it's one of the few items we remember every single year.

We change the foods we buy, clothing, etc. literally almost every 6 months. And few keep track of what they spend on other items. Inflation happens everywhere, on every product. We just happen to remember that number on a gallon of gas.

The price of gas in the US, when adjusted for inflation, is as low or lower than it's been since the eary 80's. The biggest contribution to the price of gas is the multiple government taxed placed on it. Also, the law allowing every state to choose their own gas stadards means the gas companies have to produce dozens of little "micro-brews", which increases their production costs. The profit margin on gasoline for oil companies is about 8%. Many, many products and industries make higher profit margins than oil companies. You should protest your newspaper, which is likely to be making a 20% to 40% profit margin.

So, be of good cheer gentlemen. The world is not such a scary or hard to understand place. A few simple rules followed and things tend to work themselves out.

If you want less war, less starving people, and a better life for all- the things to promote are less government, fewer laws, more protection of individual rights, FREEDOM, and free markets.

Keep these in mind next time your government wants to take your money, pass more laws, "give" money to some "deserving" group, and intrude on your freedoms.

         

well said and as i said most of the so called problems in this world are media driven histeria ie globalwarming over population food shortage etc etc
.the great problem that will face the eath in the future is under population.onec india and china become middle class.
cheers the flash
nb kahuna is a bomb wearing homo) many ladyboys have told me this

[Tomcat]

(grunyen @ Jan. 27 2007,02:15) The population increase of the earth is not really a problem. Human's occupy about 5% of the earths surface. There is no realistic point at which we suddenly run out of resources- regardless of what doom-sayers want you to believe.

Hang on i thought you said you were an Economist.
Well you have certainly been reading it from your essay.
I also buy the economist magazine for business info but they have an agenda.... one has to read between the lines.

Absolute free markets are no answer IMO. There are other issues , like reality, to factor in.

the population of the Earth is heading for 9.5 Billion in the not so far off future and Brazil, India, Russia and China are growing Industrially.China overtakes Germany this year to become the Worlds third largest enonomy. The worlds resources are dwindling fast .
Cold fusion, the great hope of Science has not been sucessfull.

Also people cant live in the Sea as you seem to suggest.

Copper, Platignum and most of the other minerals that we mine out of the ground cannot be replaced , unless you can tell otherwise. With unexplored mines factored into the equation the known reserves will only last 20 years.

oil is a fossil fuel and annot be replaced and has around 20-50 years left, unless you an tell me otherwise. yes Solar panels and wind farms may help but they wont solve the problem of overpopulation. 9.5 billion people is to many im afraid for the planet.

And what about water. This is one of the worlds biggest problems as it cannot be replenished fast enough due to the use of millions of cheap water pumps that China sells to the rest of the third world.

I am a Businessman Grunyen, i run a real business and even i , who some would call a right wing loony, would say total free markets are no answer.

[Stewart]

[/QUOTE]oil is a fossil fuel and annot be replaced and has around 20-50 years left, unless you an tell me otherwise. [QUOTE]

Not according to Newsweek special edition on energy that I read over Christmas

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16288769/site/newsweek/

Not only does it say that there is lots of the stuff left, but starts to hint that it might actually be renewable

[stogie bear]

Now I think you're doing that 'QUOTE' thing on purpose to send me to the funny farm!

[Tomcat]

Ive read this and it sounds like some junior in an office wrote it...tripe... the guys on another planet.. Of course they will always find more oil but at what cost to extract?

But the fact is it will run out...Ok so they switch to ethanol to make fuel but that that just moves the problem that there are 800 million car users to 2 billion poor who need corn to make bread and not fuel. plus other unknown side effects like chopping down forests to make corn farms.

Economists just think of people as pawns on a chessboard and only think as far as the next annual report. If every Chinaman and Indian want an American lifestyle we will need to find the equivalent of about another 5 earths ....