Oil Company Profits, Good for Mankind?
Hmmmm, how much profit is too much profit? I guess you have to ask yourself should a collections of similar companies profit at the cost of possibily crippling the rest of the economy? (Now, I'm not saying the economy is collapsing, but high fuel cost over a long period of time could drag it down. We shall see.)The oil companies were making record profits a year ago when gas was at $2.30 a gallon. Now at $3.00, they are making money by the barrel load. That 10% is now .30 per gallon when it was .23 per gallon and they're not doing any more work. That additional .07 is a huge increase in profits. (At $4.00 a gallon this summer, if we get there, that will be .40 per gallon for no more work.) Couldn't they just hold at .23 per gallon and be happy with more record profits? What ever happened to the word sacrifice? It's not like they'd go hungry or lose money. Ahhh, with multi-national corporation it's all about making money right now and to be damned with the future. Nothing should stand in the way of making a buck. It's our god given right.
We could start talking about issues of national interest. We're not talking about a jump in Ipod prices or some other superfluous thing. People need gas to get to jobs. This reaches into about every economic segment out there from clothes and food. It will ripple through the economy and will cause inflation. If that gets out of control, then we're talking recession. If it gets bad, depression. Our way of life goes into the dumper.
I know that the price of crude is not in the control of oil companies, but they could help keep prices down.
Also, I think that some of these shortages are manufactered by the oil companies because they have not built a new refinery in over 20 years while demand has grown. They have plenty of crude, but can't refine enough to get it to market, thus creating a shortage.
The war in Iraq and saber rattling over Iran hasn't helped. but that's a whole other ball of wax which I shall not open in this post.
People have seen this coming for decades, but our leaders, Democratic and Republican, have done little to prevent the coming storm. There have been leaders who have tried. People laughed at Jimmy Carter for wearing a sweater in the White House during the 70s. They also laughed at Al Gore when he said the internal combustion engine the greatest enemy of mankind. Hmmm, maybe we should have listened and seriously looked for alternative sources of fuel then. Bush is waking up, but is it too little too late? His proposals seemed to be aimed at energy sources that can be sold for profits, hydrogen and ethenol, with little money going into nearly free sources like solar, geo-thermal, wind and water powered generation. All of these sources should be seriously put on the table because one of these days affordable oil will run out. (Notice I say affordable because there's plenty of oil out there, but if you use up two barrels worth of oil through energy useage to get one barrel, then that's not very affordable.) We have to think beyond today's profits and make long term choices that will sustain us for the next century.
Scott
posted by Scott @ 7:51 AM
1 Comments:
A note for Random...
Sorry to put this here but I didn't see an email addy anywhere.
Thanks for your comment on the Rob Bell piece. The post now actually live at http://michaelkrahn.com/blog/2007/04/22/smashing-brickworld-rob-bells-velvet-elvis-part-5/
I switched from blogger after the Bell piece but some traffic still ends up there.
If its not too much trouble could you go and paste your comment in at the link above? You have some good points that I want to respond to.
Thanks.
Your comment:
Michael:
I know I'm coming to this discussion late in the game, but I wanted to thank you for the time and care you took in reviewing Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis. Also, I wanted to compliment you on the fairness and gentleness of your comments.
I have been "following" (meaning reading and listening to Bell's writings, sermons and videos, not being "follower of") for several years now. His "take" on Christianity resonates with something inside of me. But I know I have to take care not to let my emotions and desires to override my intellect and the truth found in the Bible. I think that Bell does have a genuine heart for sharing God's word and has no intentions to mislead. I also think that the vast majority of his teachings are right on track with scripture, but have to admit that there are times that I think his interpretations don't hit the mark.
But does that mean that when he is wrong (in my opinion) a few times that it invalidates all of his other teachings? I don't think so.
I have been under a number of teachers of the faith and I can't say that I've agreed 100% of the time with them and I never stood up and called them heretics. And please don't think that I think that's what you are saying. But there is a contingent that does and as a Christian, that makes me sad.
What I respect most about him is his call to have an active and engaged faith. All too often, we can fall into stale and disengaged, by rote faith walks.
There are times in which I'm curious as to why he writes these "manifesto" like books because they seem to detract from his message. If you listen to his sermons, they seem so much more line with the scriptures and the books seem to be less clear and more tangential.
I figure if Bell can use analogies and metaphors, so can I.
I'm a huge movie fan and there are times when I see a movie that has it all going. The story, the acting, the editing, the soundtrack -- all the elements of a great movie. Plus it has an ambitious and affecting message. Then there comes a moment where a line a dialog doesn't ring true or the ending is as quite as satisfying as the rest of the parts of the movie.
There are parts of Rob Bell's "movie" that really sing and soar. I find it inspiring and it pulls me closer to God and it encourages me to take a closer walk with my faith. Yet, there are places in his movie in which the dialog or idea beneath the script are off the mark, but on the whole, I think Rob Bell's movie is well worth watching and one that is affecting is a very positive way -- for both the viewer and for the advancement of the Word of God.
Peace,
Random
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