Heatwave ???

[compig]

In practice it's never gonna happen though.

[LowGear]

Hi Adev,

I think Sarah Palin is looking for a campaign manager.  This is the kind of brain storming that she can sink her teeth in.  Capitalism isn't the only cure-all answer.  Why don't you set up a new petrol company and get the cost of petrol down to $1 USD per liter like it is here.  Of course, we rely on an oligarchy based petroleum industry but it's still under a buck a liter.  Or how about returning the health care program to the capitalistic insurance providers (insurance is really just socialized capitalism)?

Cheers,

Low Gear

[AdeV73]

I think Sarah Palin is looking for a campaign manager.  This is the kind of brain storming that she can sink her teeth in.  Capitalism isn't the only cure-all answer. 

I would agree that capitalism isn't the whole answer, but of all the systems that have been tried in the world so far, it's the "least worst", that I am aware of.

Why don't you set up a new petrol company and get the cost of petrol down to $1 USD per liter like it is here.  Of course, we rely on an oligarchy based petroleum industry but it's still under a buck a liter.  Or how about returning the health care program to the capitalistic insurance providers (insurance is really just socialized capitalism)?

It's actually genuinely impossible to sell petrol or diesel in the UK for less than $1 (about 60p)/litre. Not because of the capitalist system... but because of the taxes imposed by a socialist government. If tax were abolished on fuel, prices would drop to less than $1 litre.

Health care is a thorny issue in the UK - we have a socialist-inspired taxpayer-funded "we'll look after you (badly) no matter what you've got, unless it's TOO expensive to buy medicine for it" - although moves are afoot to add ", or you've ever smoked, drunk alcohol or been fat" to that caveat.

The US system isn't the answer either.

Of course, one option is to simply totally deregulate medical care, rather like it was prior to the 20th century (only with better medicine).

Another option is an (optional) private healthcare scheme, which you pay into much like your pension. The Swiss have one of those, I believe.

This blogger post, whilst not strictly on the same subject as this post, nevertheless makes some good points in a better way than I could manage. Don't click on it if you're offended by swearing, however.... it's a very sweary webpage...

[Stan]

Actually here in Canada, as you all know we have a lot of oil reserves, both traditional and trapped in tar sands, and natural gas.  We also have a lot of taxes on the refined products.  HOWEVER, the oil companies receive billions in tax relief, outright cash grants for exploration, pipeline tax grants, maintenance tax relief, super low export taxes, nonexistent import duties on equipment and supplies etc. etc. etc.

All of the money we pay in taxes at the pumps go straight to the oil companies.  What do you call that?
Stan

[ZackaryMac]

Doesn't make much sense does it.

Here in Nova Scotia we were promised cheap natural gas if they were to pipe it from off Sable Island, and sell it to the US.
Turns out it was going to cost too much to provide it to most of us (as promised), so they didn't do it.
I use wood for heat, and even that is getting hard to find around here, as most of it is being chipped and sent overseas. I will burn old tires in my furnace before I take the wood furnace out and put in an oil furnace (or propane or electric, etc), I will not be forced to heat my home with a method I cannot afford.

See? Things are just as screwed at this end of the country, Stan. 

[Stan]

Ah well, time to buy land in the N.W.Territories I guess. 
Stan

[SHIPCHIEF]

Gee Stan, Isn't that the site of one of the planned North American Biospheres, where no human is supposed to live? 
  My neice married a guy from Tiawan (Steve). They went to Tiawan for the honeymoon. Lots of pictures, and all very good. You could get a grasp of how people live as well as the sights.
I asked him how the apartment blocks were heated, as I didn't see any sign of it. He said they aren't. My sister in law couldn't believe it. So I naturally pressed the point, "what do you do in the winter?". Well, it's near the equator, but sometimes it does get real cold. We just put on more clothes and that's it.
I wouldn't want to do that in Western Washington. But I suppose we will all be setting our thermostats down to about 40 F (That's about 5 C ?) when hyperinflation and Cap & Trade's full efects are felt. Don't think it wouldn't be that way; I went to our family reunion in LaGrande Oregon last year. After visiting with my great aunts & uncles (whio are dying off) We settled in with my contemporaries. They were discussing the 1950s there, with wood heat, cars with 6v batteries and cold winters. When you split wood by hand, you don't put so much in the stove. Every house had a big shelf full of quilts. When friends or relatives dropped by, they got handed a quilt so they could stay warm during the visit.
Even a well tuned Lister(oid) won't be much use if all heat sources are controlled or scarce. We can't burn our fireplaces on assigned days, and we can only use approved fuel in our cars with the proper dies. In fact, we can only use approved wood in our fireplaces, no plywood, nothing painted etc.
Economists are saying that the 'stimulus' didn't work, and things will get worse before they get better. Whether by privation or government control, your options are about to be limited.

[mobile_bob]

boy that Zach fellow is my kinda guy!

"i will burn old tires..."



i remember a time when i was about 5, we lived in a house that was heated by a single potbelly stove
only had cold running water, and an outhouse down the lane a fair piece for a little tyke in the snow.

you know, i don't remember ever being cold, although i am sure it was cold as boobs in a brass bra
(after all that was in the years leading up to global cooling)

we wore more sweaters, flannel, hats,  and stayed busy
and piled on the blankets at night.

funny i don't remember anyone freezing to death,

the way things are going, i better follow in the footsteps of my dad
and go to making quilts!

he makes quilts all winter while it is too cold to go build stuff in his shop.

i suspect the average diy'er is going to fair just fine, if not grumpily

there is going to be one hell of a bunch of folks that are going to burn obama at the stake
though when they find they cannot stay warm in their McMansions without going broke.

btw, i  remember dad being stingey with the split wood as well, probably because a 5 yo was no
help when it came to splitting anything

bob g

[AdeV73]

Actually here in Canada, as you all know we have a lot of oil reserves, both traditional and trapped in tar sands, and natural gas.  We also have a lot of taxes on the refined products.  HOWEVER, the oil companies receive billions in tax relief, outright cash grants for exploration, pipeline tax grants, maintenance tax relief, super low export taxes, nonexistent import duties on equipment and supplies etc. etc. etc.

All of the money we pay in taxes at the pumps go straight to the oil companies.  What do you call that?
Stan

Interesting.... so it turns out that sub-$1 gas is not a result of "pure" capitalism, but taxation-supported "capitalism".


Governments, honestly, who f***ing needs them?

[compig]

Well , you can't expect any self respecting government to miss an opportunity to tax an essential commodity to a level that keeps them in the style to which they wish to permanently enjoy despite the impoverishment that the population has to suffer as a consequence !  Funny how capitalism and communism seem to have converged over the last 25 years !

[Stan]

I remember a conversation with a gal friend of ours who is a rabid left wing socialist (which I'm not by the way) and I told her I thought it might be a good idea to abolish all government and all laws.  She froze for a moment and then said but thats anarchy.  I told her I was a pretty big guy, a very good shot and that after a few days of chaos that things would settle out pretty well for me and my family and the rest of the world around me could either accept me and my way of doing things or I would help them go to hell.  She hasn't spoken to me since.  (thank god  )
Stan

[compig]

Seems we share philosophies there Stan !!

[mobile_bob]

you go Stan!

i will take back half the ugly things i was thinking about you!!! 


lmao

bob g

[Stan]

Tnx guys...    The real problem with governments is that they say they want to do good for the people, but then when you can do good yourself, its usually forbidden by the government.  Case in point.  A guy in BC was running around scamming elderly folks by promising to put siding on their houses.  He'd start, then demand more money and then clear out.  He kept changing his company name so no one could catch up with him to charge him.  Someone's son caught up with him and broke his arm and a couple of his legs.  He (the son) went to jail and the guy is sueing him for lost income??

I wouldn't mind big government saying they would protect me and my family, but when they won't, and then when you try to do it yourself and they throw you in jail, I wish they would just go away.

I don't like anybody scamming me or my family, whether it s the government, GM, or any other organization or person.  I'm perfectly willing and able to protect myself, if other people (or governments) would just keep out of it and mind their own business.
Stan

[mobile_bob]

damn Stan,, you are making real progress here!!!

now all we gotta do is get you to believe "global warming" is a government conspiracy!



or at least get you to thinking that it is at least plausible?

ok, i take back 75% of the ugly things i thought about you



bob g