01-26-2013, 05:01 AM
Quote:Why do we continue to buy from the B@stards when we have all the oil we need here? Yes ive heard them say "Its the environment, our beaches etc.......whats the real reason (or at least whats your opinion from somebody whos in the know?) Theres got to be more to it then that?
The truth is that the US is not reliant on Middle Eastern oil, since we get most of our oil from ourselves, Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela...here in our region. The real issue is, if we don't maintain a stabilizing presence in all the global trade routes, the regions will collapse into chaos at the dictates of opportunistic warlords & regimes who really seek to oppress their neighbors. If that happens, then the supply goes down on an already insanely demand-driven market, which means the price goes up for us unacceptably, oil being a global commodity that will allow the Canadians, Mexicans, and Venezuelans to match the price that the market will bear in such an unstable market.
Part of the problem with understanding the global marketplace for us in the US stems from:
* Geographic isolation from the world...leading to...
* Geographic ignorance of the world and its trade routes
* communists controlling the framework of the oil debate (Oil is evil, you should stop interfering with it, so we can profit more from it.)
I would suggest seriously re-looking at the world's geography in terms of trade routes, major choke points, regional powers near those choke points, the balance of power in those regions, key oil-producing nations and their markets, oil fields and their pipelines, populations and population centers, etc.
For example, here are the top 10 nations for population:
China 1.347 billion
India 1.21 billion
United States 315 million
Indonesia 237 million
Brazil 193 million
Pakistan 182 million
Nigeria 166 million
Bangladesh 152 million (the diarrhea swamp on the Ganges River Delta)
Russia 143 million
Japan 127 million
What is it about these nations that makes them successful breeding grounds for people? Water, and America has more connected rivers and deep sea ports than all of the other top-10 nations combined. China is next for deep sea ports, which is why they are able to export so much product onto the marketplace, manufactured with US technology, using plentiful slave labor. Russia only has 4 major deep sea ports, and 3 of them are totally constrained by geography. One of those 3 is rented from the Ukraine, which then has to go through Turkey, before its ships can access the Mediterranean.
China has major territorial disputes with Russia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Look at the geography to see why. Brazil has major population centers with access to the sea on the coast, but they aren't connected to each other...too many mountains and jungle in the way.
We've grown up in the US not understanding the uniqueness of our geography, since that isn't taught in the public fool system. If I administered a test to a 10,000 group sample of high school teachers who teach history, civics, & geography, a statistically insignificant number of them would know anything about what I'm talking about. This type of geography isn't taught in school.