Solution to the oil problem

[UShadItComing]

I do have a good idea how to manage money. Managing money, and having a high income, are two completely separate things. How do you think I easily afford good health insurance? Properly managed money.

See that's a difference between you and me. I don't expect "the system" to take care of me. I have worked to improve myself. I don't expect anyone else to provide for me.

So let me get this straight then Andy, you make about 24 k a year and you can afford good health insurance. Good health insurance costs about 6k if I read the others right. That is, insurance that will look after more than a toothache or a head cold!

Sure. If you want to send some cash to me, let me know.

I'll help out good honest Americans in need because I am a caring socialist. I don't help out slackers who can't make a decent living.

Mature a little? Between the two of us, you seem far less mature to me. I don't expect "the system" to equip me. It is up to the individual to equip themselves. Find the film The Pursuit of Happyness. It all about self motivation and choosing to make the effort to advance ones self.

Between you and me I would bet that I am the successful and mature of the two of us.

Maybe when you mature a little, you'll realize it's your job to take care of you, and not everyone else's.

I am now a giver and long ago I ceased to be on the receiving end of the equation. Thank socialist policies for allowing me to succeed. I won't abandon my system becaue I owe my system something back now.

 

[UShadItComing]

Gensen asked:

Do Canadians force irresponsible pregnant women to take care of themselves during pregnancy?

Pay attention Gensen, Andy has already made it clear that Canada looks after it's pregnant women. Granted it is a bit confusing when Andy argues my point for me!

Over your head maybe Gensen?

 

[GenSeneca]

Canada looks after it's pregnant women.

What do you do when women don't show up for their free prenatal care appointments?

 

[BigRob]

Well Gensen, and Rob too, I'm confused on what Andy's agenda really is now.

So here's the issue: Suppose you ran a private hospital and you had 500 beds for patients. And you had 500 beds because you wanted to run your hospital in the most cost efficinet manner. So usually you have say 450 or so beds full at any one time and you have balanced your supply of beds with the demand for beds, like any good businessman would do. You don't want a bunch of beds sitting empty because they are in rooms which will sit empty and this is not your best approach to being cost efficient. So things go along swimmingly until all of a sudden there is a surge in the number of patients. And then you have to ship off a few patients to another hospital because you don't have the beds. Just as the other hospital does for you when they have a overflow.

So here's my question: What would you do? Would you carry *550 beds all the time and see 50 beds be sitting mostly empty or would you choose to coopererate with other hospitals?

See this is where Andy confuses me because if he has any notion at all of how to run a business cost efficiently, he would choose to maintain the average number of 500 beds. Has Andy done a flipflop and is now applauding the method used by Canadian hospitals? Or maybe Andy just doesn't understand how capitalism works? Or is Andy just a commie in sheep's clothing?

*Assuming that 10% is a safe and proper margin of error.

I'm just confused on what Andy's all about now.

What would you two do?

Your logic makes sense, but it would seem that these people had nowhere to go in Canada to find a bed. Are we to assume that every hospital up there is filled to capacity?

 

[BigRob]

So let me get this straight then Andy, you make about 24 k a year and you can afford good health insurance. Good health insurance costs about 6k if I read the others right. That is, insurance that will look after more than a toothache or a head cold!

I have really good insurance, and it costs me $1,000 a year. That includes major surgeries, doctor visits, hospital visits, MRI's, X-Rays, whatever. The only thing that mine does not include is prescription drugs, but I can pay for that no problem, so it is not a big deal.

I'll help out good honest Americans in need because I am a caring socialist. I don't help out slackers who can't make a decent living.

Honest hard working Americans like doctors right? There are plenty of them. Mr. Change has instead decided that they simply should be taxed more.

Between you and me I would bet that I am the successful and mature of the two of us.

Well, it is OK because I have you covered.

I am now a giver and long ago I ceased to be on the receiving end of the equation. Thank socialist policies for allowing me to succeed. I won't abandon my system becaue I owe my system something back now.

I have made (and inherited some) a fortune in this capitalist system here. I give tons of money to charities as well. I will not abandon my system either.

 

[UShadItComing]

Your logic makes sense, but it would seem that these people had nowhere to go in Canada to find a bed. Are we to assume that every hospital up there is filled to capacity?

No, I wouldn't assume that Rob. Maybe assume that hospitals close to the one in question were filled to capacity. But I don't know if it's even a true story because Andy seems to go for the down and dirty more than anything else.

 

[UShadItComing]

I have really good insurance, and it costs me $1,000 a year. That includes major surgeries, doctor visits, hospital visits, MRI's, X-Rays, whatever. The only thing that mine does not include is prescription drugs, but I can pay for that no problem, so it is not a big deal.

Well that seems very reasonable. Are you leaving out some details that we should konw about? ABout $80 a month is great if you don't have an employer paing your health insurance for you. I'm now wondering why the auto workers apparently have their employer paying $6500 a year and in Canada they only have to pay $800.

Honest hard working Americans like doctors right? There are plenty of them. Mr. Change has instead decided that they simply should be taxed more.

If they're making more than 200k I think you are right.

Well, it is OK because I have you covered.

Trust me Rob, I won't be depending on any Americans to look after me!

I have made (and inherited some) a fortune in this capitalist system here. I give tons of money to charities as well. I will not abandon my system either.

I suspected that you were pretty well off and that's the reason why I asked you about Andy's agenda. Seems Andy is still learning how to be a good capitalist. I think he may be reachable!

 

[GenSeneca]

So whats Obama's answer to High Gas Prices?

 

[UShadItComing]

So whats Obama's answer to High Gas Prices?

Inflating tires to max pressure, you mutt!

 

[GenSeneca]

Inflating tires to max pressure, you mutt!

So you are conceding that Obama has no plan to lower gas prices. Thanks for participating.

 

[Sihouette]

As much as I criticize Obama, he is on the right track with his energy policies, somewhat, providing he doesn't flip-flop again.

What Obama needs to do is ignore the media-flood and hype the GOP is creating to inaccurately reflect that "The American People" want more drilling, oil and nuclear. They don't. The media is keeping the focus as always on interviews with pro-oil and pro-nuclear people and anyone, the scores of anyones, the preponderant majority of anyones, who denounce BigOil and promote clean safe and 21st-Century alternatives never make it off the editing floor.

Obama needs to realize that the hype is manipulating him and causing him to waffle on key issues...misreading the purposeful BS the media is shovelling out. If he stopped gazing in the mirror long enough (narcissism can be such a bittch), he might try canvassing people as to their actual feelings if given a choice between generating steam from dangerous or flithy nuclear or coal/oil and instead just harvesting it from geothermal..

He might be surprised to find that a vast majority of people are friggin mad as hell at BigOil, have no sympathy for them whatsoever, and like their representatives, the majority, in Congress, actually desire most greatly to punish BigOil for making them choose between their kids milk money and filling the tank.

The middle class is shrinking to nothing and we are now a nation of super-rich minority and working poor overwhelming majority. And you know what the history books say about when that happens.. More instability courtesy in large part thanks to the BigOil monopoly.

Obama needs to ignore the hype and stick to clean alternatives like a mantra. He needs to discuss how nuclear, coal and oil exist just to produce steam to run turbines, and how we have clean and safe substitutes for those last-century steam producers. He needs to educate the public by graphically discussing the simple mechanics of how we get and produce energy, lay the different types side by side and let the People decide what they think makes sense..

Of course if he starts to do this, the cameras will be snapped off and the editors will have to work overtime. He risks no longer being the media doll.

 

[UShadItComing]

So you are conceding that Obama has no plan to lower gas prices. Thanks for participating.

The point you are missing is that there is nothing can be done about the cost of a barrel of oil because supply and demand is going to dictate it's price. And of course along with that goes the price of gasoline.

The reason you're not understanding me on this is because I don't hook into the Obama/McCain nonsense and there's no reason why I should. The US now simply has to catch up to othere countries which have been proactive and have developed alternatives, built smaller more economical cars, and have taken appropriate steps to cut dependence on oil.

Do you care what the truth is? Most likely not but you will start to care soon after your election is over and your economy continues to suffer because of your dependence on oil from other countries. Maybe you will anyway, but maybe you are in a position now to escape it. Do you care about gasoline prices at the pump? I doubt it because I pay more than you do and I don't really care all that much. In fact I see the positive side of higher gasoline.

 

[GenSeneca]

The point you are missing is that there is nothing can be done about the cost of a barrel of oil because supply and demand is going to dictate it's price.

Obama says increasing our domestic supply would have no effect, that drilling for more oil would have the same effect as filling our tires and getting tuneups... My point would be that if they really are equivelent to each other, lets do both!

2 questions for you:

What can replace Oil for all the things we get out of it?

Do you think oil is bad and that we're killing the planet by using it?

 

[UShadItComing]

Obama says increasing our domestic supply would have no effect, that drilling for more oil would have the same effect as filling our tires and getting tuneups... My point would be that if they really are equivelent to each other, lets do both!

2 questions for you:

What can replace Oil for all the things we get out of it?

Do you think oil is bad and that we're killing the planet by using it?

Good questions which may be illustrating that you have an interest in this issue. But first of all I'll address the drilling issue. There is a lot of background necessary to understand the oil issue but basically I believe that the US doesn't have oil in any significant quantity which is affordable to get out of the ground. I understand that the current political issue is between the libs preventing exploration and drilling and the cons wanting to. But I look at the huge costs of buying foreign oil and the fact that the Iraq war is for oil and I weigh that against the question of it being economical to drill for oil in the continental US. I just can't accept that it's been the libs who have prevented it. But before you start wrapping your mind around an answer to that, try to consider the quantities we are talking about. As I said, there is a lot of background necessary to even discuss this issue.

Most products which are derived from oil will most likely never be produced from other sources. I wish you were a little more specific in your question though. You're probably thinking of plastics and I don't think it would be economical to even attempt to make plastics out of non-petroleum products, although some can indeed be done. I think it's more likely to see alternatives to plastics becoming more in vogue. Are there any plastic products which couldn't be copied in natural substances? I'm really not all that sure. For one instance we have almost copletely weaned ourselves off of cellophanes in favour of plastic wrap. Suffice to say that we will always have some oil in much more limited quantities and the cost of mining that oil will not be prohibitive for some uses.

Yes, I do believe that carbon from petroleum products is having a negative effect on the planet. In my opinion I think it's quite incredible that most of mainstream science is being ignored. This is not a conspiracy theory by the environmentalists nearly as much as it is a refusal to accept the facts. Declining oil will most likely answer the question for us in the near future but it's going to be a question of whether or not it's too late.

 

[Andy]

The point you are missing is that there is nothing can be done about the cost of a barrel of oil because supply and demand is going to dictate it's price. And of course along with that goes the price of gasoline.

Er... if the price is dictated by supply and demand.... then... logically if we increase the supply... (which drilling in ANWR and OCS would do) it would reduce the price... which means we CAN do something.... right?

The reason you're not understanding me on this is because I don't hook into the Obama/McCain nonsense and there's no reason why I should.

From thread Capitalism worked, post #26

The other night Fox news took Obama's suggestion that everyone should inflate their tires and made a big joke out of it. Hannity and Gingrich went on and on laughing their heads off about the idea.

Not hooked in at all.

Do you care what the truth is? Most likely not but you will start to care soon after your election is over and your economy continues to suffer because of your dependence on oil from other countries. Maybe you will anyway, but maybe you are in a position now to escape it. Do you care about gasoline prices at the pump? I doubt it because I pay more than you do and I don't really care all that much. In fact I see the positive side of higher gasoline.

What are you babbling about? The economy is growing. We plan to increase oil production which will reduce our dependance on foreign oil, while reducing prices at the pump. The fact we care should be evident from our actions.

Yes clearly you and the socialists here, do see the positive side of higher prices.