Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Morning Politics

Drinking my cup of coffee waking my brain up... Read some articles on Obama to start my day.

I read that GM is going to go bankrupt and is asking the Federal government for a bailout package in the billions. Personally I don't mind but I think they need to mandate certain conditions in order to receive one. I realize that our economy is doing very badly. Everything is connected like the web of life, except this is an economic cash flow version of that interconnected web. Every time something goes wrong (i.e. petro prices rise overnight, housing prices skyrocket, etc...) it sets off a chain reaction that hurts everyone. All these big big banks are collapsing like Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae which is pretty big. So although I don't really have any partiality toward GM, I realize that they might help them to prevent further economic repercussions. However I would only help auto manufacturers under one condition:

They have to agree that by 2016 every car they produce needs to be a hybrid .

...at the least.

We need to get off petro for a variety of reasons (i.e. global warming, unreasonable demand internationally for oil, etc...) and the sooner we make this inescapable transition the better. If we want Detroit to remain strong internationally it needs to become cutting edge and that means petro powered rides gotta go. I can understand if trucks remain gas powered and diesel but that's it. People don't need to drive around in escalades or suburbans and automakers should cater to such excess waste on their own dime. Other than actual truck trucks like full size pick-ups and big rigs, everything needs to become hybrids or better. Otherwise we will be investing in a failing system that is already outdated and going obsolete.

I don't know how battery powered and natural gas powered cars would do, but the bus and many county vehicles are natural gas or ethanol powered and they pull their weight just fine. I've read some impressive stats for battery powered cars as well. The only problem is refueling. There is no grid of gas stations nationwide or even city wide for people to utilize to refuel. Until this changes, alternative powered cars will never make it. Other than local governments with set routes, no one will want them due to their worthless state of existence without places to refuel.

I remember learning in high school how Roosevelt rebuilt the entire national infrastructure to boost the economy after the great depression. He helped revive the economy and modernized the nation at the same time. He poured heavy amounts of Federal Dollars into paving and building roads, bridges, walkways, and other much needed infrastructure nationwide. We take having paved roads to drive almost anywhere for granted but many of these paved roads cutting through unfavorable locations we owe to his presidency.

The economy is falling apart layer by layer on itself right now and President Obama is going to enter a Capitol that is in serious need. I am wondering if building a nationwide infrastructure to make travel by natural gas, ethanol and battery power is feasible to both boost the economy and begin weaning the population off of petro powered automobiles.

I realize alot of people might pout and kick and scream but our nation needs to grow out of petro already. Not just for automobile use but for everything. I learned other places such as the E.U. are using wind, wave and solar power to power cities. Domestic infrastructure over there is actually powered by cleaner more efficient energy sources while we remain in the steam powered era polluting the earth excessively and wasting much needed funding on it. We really need to power our homes, schools and transportation with cutting edge clean energy sources like many other emerging nations are doing.

I don't mean to be on a soap box but our nation has become stuck in the rut of this way of life and we need to get rolling again or we are going to fall further behind these emerging superpowers in the world surrounding us as well as suffer from the dilapidated system we currently are under.

Science is amazing, but as long as it is ignored or hidden to keep business running as usual... the people, earth and economy will suffer so that a small handful of tycoons will profit from the infrastructure we are locked into.

The video Zeitgeist: Addendum explains this concept beautifully. Just as long as we are not using science as an excuse to live recklessly, it could provide alot of solutions.

I feel bad for this new president. He is inheriting some serious crisis problems that we are going to look to him for solutions to. Hopefully he encourages many suffering industries such as automobiles and housing to lower their prices. Homes where I live are becoming too over priced. This neighborhood is not that deserving of the prices I'm seeing, but since it is Southern California they want to raise prices due to location to greedy amounts. I see cheap apartments for ridiculous prices, simple houses for appalling prices, houses for sale everywhere while they are building houses on every field left in my community that they set insane values on! It is obvious greed is behind this and not a humble practical policy to serve the people looking to attain homes.