Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: BTW on April 27, 2006, 09:22:49 PM
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A little over a year ago I posted I believed the biggest threat to the United States was not terrorism but the industrialization of China and competition for resources. I state it again and wonder how you feel about this as we can be pretty sure gas will be over 3 dollars a gallon forever - that is unless we somehow send China back to the stone age.
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I saw a documentary on China only a couple weeks ago. I was very surprised to learn about how much has changed and in such short time.
Almost all of their skyscrappers are brand new (and I mean alot of them); their need for resources HUGE; their lack of any pollution controls in their industry is another big thing. The air from China is so bad that it is being picked up by sensors along the west coast of the USA in big numbers.
It's pretty disturbing what I saw in the documentary.
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If you have time, watch 4,5 and 6.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/view/
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Yes, gas in the US will remain over $3. Those on this board who think that a change of administration, or some sort of windfall profits tax on the oil companies so that the money can somehow subsidise prices and pave the way for a return to the days of $2/gallon are living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.
As for China being the threat, I tend to think that America poses the greatest threat - to itself. In another thread, Rolex indicates that other countries like Sweden and Finland are making strides to become independent of oil, and that Japan has actually reduced oil consumption in the last 30 years. In Europe, energy costs are high and so we've always had to be energy efficient, so in countries like Austria and Italy, 60% of cars are powered by fuel efficient diesel engines and achieve 50/60mpg or more.
What is America doing to reduce its oil consumption?
Erm...
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Originally posted by beet1e
In another thread, Rolex indicates that other countries like Sweden and Finland are making strides to become independent of oil
You've been seriously misinformed - Finland is only taking steps backwards in the matter. Sweden on the other hand is ahead of the other european countries.
Our, finnish, government isn't doing crap to get rid of oil or to reduce pollution by traffic. Recently they forced gas producers to produce gas with 5% of ethanol or something equivelant, but they did NOT lower the gas tax in favor of it. Besides, they only did it because we're behind the schedule of some EU biogas recommendation or such. We also have high taxes on new cars, as if to make sure that there'll never be cleaner and more efficient cars around.
Sweden has done about everything in order to favor biogas and more efficient cars. IIRC they don't tax biogas.
However, USA has a long way to go - don't they use more resources than rest of the world put together?
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I believe Beet1e meant the construction of nuclear power.
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Soon, there will be a strong alliance of China, Russia and Iran.
Be worried, be VERY worried.
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Goooo World economy!!! now I see why there are so many protest at world trade comission ...once again our goverment has done it again...guess our politcians are getting rich from all this!!
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Originally posted by Kaw1000
Goooo World economy!!! now I see why there are so many protest at world trade comission ...once again our goverment has done it again...guess our politcians are getting rich from all this!!
China and russia are against stopping Iran from making nukes....I agree with ya on that statement china and russia are big threats
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we have no one to blame but ourselves ..
walk into any home and flip everything over and you'll see the root of the problem ..
(http://funeralpyrotechnics.com/Made%20in%20China.jpg)
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Asian culture has so many metaphors for this exact situation, it's tragically funny.
One example... The willow. Bend before the storm. Practical application? The storm is the approaching oil price driven economic crisis. Bend before the storm, find a center of strength (alternative energy, tech, whatever) and position yourself for the storm aftermath.
Anything else is pure victim mentality. Victims die, survivors prosper.
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This will be the first time I have ever typed the word "Finland" in my life.
Come to think of it, I can't remember ever saying the word "Finland" out loud. I've read it my whole life, but never had a reason to say it.
Now I've typed it twice.
No offense intended to anyone from Finland.
Wow, I'm up to 3 times now!
I hope this clears up any confusion. :D
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Originally posted by Eagler
we have no one to blame but ourselves ..
walk into any home and flip everything over and you'll see the root of the problem ..
(http://funeralpyrotechnics.com/Made%20in%20China.jpg)
Made In USA......USA CHINA......There is a town in china its called USA :mad:
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I saw on the news the other day that gas in china is a whopping $1.42
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Originally posted by beet1e
What is America doing to reduce its oil consumption?
We are spending less time on the road and more time reading posts by the Englishman who`s envy shines like a beacon. :D
Why reduce it. Use it or lose it. Let the good times roll.
Fired up Old Brownie yesterday and listened to the sweet music of a good ole U.S. of A. V8 purring and rumbling. Nearly as sweet of sound as a good V Twin......................... nearly. :)
Went for a little blast down Pump Station Rd. Man it was good to let er unwind again. :aok
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Originally posted by Kaw1000
I saw on the news the other day that gas in china is a whopping $1.42
That's really, really high for them. At minimum wage here, people make around $870 or so monthly, before taxes. In some provinces of China, the minimum wage comes out to about $85/month. In the US it'd come out to 0.3% of a monthly minimum wage salary per gallon. In China, it'd come out to almost 1.7%
That's a big jump.
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Fishu - mora was right. I was talking about nuclear development, and was referring to this news story (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/04/04/dl0402.xml).
Having taken fright after Chernobyl, Finland is set to increase the nuclear share of electricity supply from 26 per cent to 36 per cent.
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Originally posted by indy007
That's really, really high for them. At minimum wage here, people make around $870 or so monthly, before taxes. In some provinces of China, the minimum wage comes out to about $85/month. In the US it'd come out to 0.3% of a monthly minimum wage salary per gallon. In China, it'd come out to almost 1.7%
That's a big jump.
Actually minimum wage in china is $0.00. And they have to work for one year to find out if they will be paid for it or not.
There is more civil unrest in china than there ever has been. Worker demonstrations in china, which are are quelled by violent police and union busters, have been increasing in number by something like 25% each year. In 2005 they had something like 80,000 public demonstrations.
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Originally posted by Kaw1000
I saw on the news the other day that gas in china is a whopping $1.42
In Venezuela it's only .12 cents a gallon.
I agree that China is the biggest threat the west has faced since the cold war. It's economy is growing at an incredible rate but as always, fast growth comes with growing pains. Economic growth means money for the people. More money equals better education and higher standard of living. The more the people are educated, the more they will pick up on western ideas and start to shy away from communism.
I think it's only a matter of time before China has a big cultural revolution and moves away from it's current government. Whether they will own the west outright or wage war before that happens remains to be seen.
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Originally posted by ChickenHawk
In Venezuela it's only .12 cents a gallon.
I agree that China is the biggest threat the west has faced since the cold war. It's economy is growing at an incredible rate but as always, fast growth comes with growing pains. Economic growth means money for the people. More money equals better education and higher standard of living. The more the people are educated, the more they will pick up on western ideas and start to shy away from communism.
I think it's only a matter of time before China has a big cultural revolution and moves away from it's current government. Whether they will own the west outright or wage war before that happens remains to be seen.
Education has come to a complete halt in china. All education is now private and the only ones that can afford it are the party elite.
Education is now strictly censored and propogandized. A group of undergraduate students in biejing were shown the world famous photo of tankman from the 1989 biejing uprising. None of them knew what it was.
China is turning from a workers paradise to a capitalists paradise.
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Originally posted by Eagler
we have no one to blame but ourselves ..
walk into any home and flip everything over and you'll see the root of the problem ..
(http://funeralpyrotechnics.com/Made%20in%20China.jpg)
Well, you can bully people into buying USA or we could actually produce a product the people will want to purchase at a price they will want to purchase at.
Damn simple....
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Originally posted by ChickenHawk
In Venezuela it's only .12 cents a gallon.
Full list from CNN
http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/global_gasprices/
(http://www.zen33071.zen.co.uk/cnngaslist.jpg)
I think Lazs should move to Venezuela - cheap gas, guns allowed, Latina women - what more could he want!
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The economic war between China and the US has already been fought and won.
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Those crafty chinese.
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Global retailers do not fight against or for nations.
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Originally posted by Stringer
Well, you can bully people into buying USA or we could actually produce a product the people will want to purchase at a price they will want to purchase at.
Damn simple....
I am just stating a fact ...
Chinese products used to be crap, now they are just as good as anything else on the market in a similar price range & slightly more..
not sure if they went up or the rest went down, probably some of both
their cheap labor undercuts everyone else and now their demand for and willingness to pay top $$ for oil has driven up the value of it
like I said, we are all to blame
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Agreed!
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Good posts guys never knew china was the way u all have stated it to be!!:aok
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Originally posted by Suave
If you have time, watch 4,5 and 6.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/view/
Interesting, thanks for the links.
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Wow, the PBS show says Yahoo and Cisco hand over information on Chinese people who break laws and dissidents to the Chinese government.
I am disgusted by this.
We and the west have sold our souls to china. We will pay for this in the future.