David Dollar: Well both in China and the U.S., a question I like to ask people . . . It is a very almost shallow question. Why can't you cut your energy use in half? Why can't you reduce your environmental footprint? And then at the policy level, I'm all for campaigns to tell people to change their lifestyle; but as an economist, I think people are basically gonna respond to incentives. So another way of asking the same question is, Well why can't we raise the price of gasoline to $5 or $6 per gallon in the United States? Why don't we set a tax so that whenever the world market price goes down, the tax increases to keep the pump price at about $5 or $6? If the world market price goes up, then you can reduce the tax. Just tell Americans the price is gonna be $5 or $6 dollars per gallon forever, and you should change your purchase of automobiles, and how you use automobiles, and how you heat your home; and just, you know . . . I think we can live a good life with significantly less energy input. And I think on the environmental side, energy is the most important issue. But there are water issues as well in many developing countries. So the more general question to people is why can't we live a very productive and happy lifestyle, but with just much less environmental impact.
Recorded on: 7/3/07
Discuss
Chug Bears on March 10, 2008, 11:32 AM
I agree we not only consume to much energy, we also go about it in a very primitive way. Our civilization is technologically stuck on profits over efficiency and cheap manufacturing costs over reliable conveniences. Two hundred fifty million people in the US alone own and are completely dependent on the oil industry.
The human race has evolved as a society and adopted a reliability on products, tools, and material possessions. Please don't mistake me as a spiritualist, I do not think we should live without technology. Quite the contrary.
The Industrial Revolution was a business mans dream. Negotiate clean looking deals and mass produce cheap barely standard products to the middle class. Then calculate the yearly depreciation and cut the prices to make it affordable to anyone. As far as you were concerned, you had the lasted product, yet in a couple years that product was outdated. Products help us use less time with more efficiency. Thats what separates our world from the animal world, we use innovation to produce tools that better suite our needs. The problem is, the bureaucratic business system didn't see much reason why they can't make a little more money giving us their version of "the latest technology." This is why we are slaves to oil now. Automobile companies solely invested in gasoline, thus creating a standstill in alternative energy for transportation.
And here we are today, the Technological Revolution. Beautiful isn't it? Even though we have an infinite free flow of information via the internet, we are still stuck on the dependence of gasoline. Solar power, electrical engines/generators, wind power, hydroelectric plants, and now hydrogen. All becoming increasingly popular solutions and slowly becoming a demand.
I strongly disagree with the idea that we could change, and/or stop climate change. We should use more efficient products, not only to better the environment, but to use the latest technology that doesn't drain the peoples earnings. With all the taxes we already pay, why should the majority of the world be dependent on a product that only an elite few are grossly profiting off of?
Invest in solar panels, hydrogen fuel cells, recycling, and anything else you can think of environmentally. Because the majority of people understand the climate is changing.
Chug Bears on March 10, 2008, 3:32 PM
I agree we not only consume to much energy, we also go about it in a very primitive way. Our civilization is technologically stuck on profits over efficiency and cheap manufacturing costs over reliable conveniences. Two hundred fifty million people in the US alone own and are completely dependent on the oil industry.
The human race has evolved as a society and adopted a reliability on products, tools, and material possessions. Please don’t mistake me as a spiritualist, I do not think we should live without technology. Quite the contrary.
The Industrial Revolution was a business mans dream. Negotiate clean looking deals and mass produce cheap barely standard products to the middle class. Then calculate the yearly depreciation and cut the prices to make it affordable to anyone. As far as you were concerned, you had the lasted product, yet in a couple years that product was outdated. Products help us use less time with more efficiency. Thats what separates our world from the animal world, we use innovation to produce tools that better suite our needs. The problem is, the bureaucratic business system didn’t see much reason why they can’t make a little more money giving us their version of “the latest technology.” This is why we are slaves to oil now. Automobile companies solely invested in gasoline, thus creating a standstill in alternative energy for transportation.
And here we are today, the Technological Revolution. Beautiful isn’t it? Even though we have an infinite free flow of information via the internet, we are still stuck on the dependence of gasoline. Solar power, electrical engines/generators, wind power, hydroelectric plants, and now hydrogen. All becoming increasingly popular solutions and slowly becoming a demand.
I strongly disagree with the idea that we could change, and/or stop climate change. We should use more efficient products, not only to better the environment, but to use the latest technology that doesn’t drain the peoples earnings. With all the taxes we already pay, why should the majority of the world be dependent on a product that only an elite few are grossly profiting off of?
Invest in solar panels, hydrogen fuel cells, recycling, and anything else you can think of environmentally. Because the majority of people understand the climate is changing.
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