This is interesting to see a very conservative congressman present what you only hear bicycle riding hippies talk about. http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=27855 If only supply and demand were a factor, this would definitely play out like they're expecting, with prices determined on the margin. But, effects of the government are what is unpredictable. With the recent Iraq intervention, you'd think that other conservatives are speaking of the same thing in private to justify trying to raise oil supply with military intervention. Yet, if the gov't had power to artificially raise supply, they wouldn't have let regular gas get to $2.50 in California. The oil companies are making a lot right now and have no incentive to increase supply: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/03/MNGK1C2I191.DTLThere are a few squeaks in the paper about what this will do to the economy this year, but essentially no attention http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/03/BUG1JC1MSC1.DTL There was a model called Honda Civic VX which supposedly got 45mpg+ sold from '92 to '95, and now the regular civic EX makes 33mpg.
Did you see Thomas Friedman's NY Times Magazine story about international work. That is an obvious factor which will really change the world, but what is he talking about at the end saying that the only solution is to get u.s. kids to outskill them at engineering. Is it that only the 1/100 people who get the coveted engineering position deserves a job that pays well? Plus, what are all these out of work programmers doing. My friend's boyfriend was one of the only people to actually get a 4 year degree after the air force, and he spend years trying to secure his first real programming job with a CS degree. He could only get phone answering temp jobs at Microsoft. Most of that outsourced work is real drudge work either in manufacturing or paperwork or answering phones, and doesn't involve engineering. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/magazine/03DOMINANCE.html?
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/03/1730602_comment.php#1730976
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