re: #208 recusancy

Oil will just be subsidized more.

When demand exceeds supply by a large margin, it won’t be possible to subsidize it enough to make it affordable.

A gallon of gas contains the caloric energy of about 700 hours of human labor. So, (700 * wage) is a good rough estimate of the “ceiling” price for gasoline. At 5 bucks an hour, that’s 3500 bucks. Considering that much of the work energy we derive from oil just can’t be replaced by human labor, that represents a gap which cannot simply be subsidized away.

Global oil production has not increased since 2004-2005. It remains flat, despite massive extraction efforts. Demand continues to rise exponentially. The global economy is going to crater in the next 10-20 years, unless we can dramatically reduce our dependence on oil for transportation energy, now. As that doesn’t seem likely, we are fucked.

BUT, all that work energy will need to be replaced, and there are lots of unemployed people. So, small silver lining.