Hillary Clinton wants to destroy OPEC...
By dragon54u
@dragon54u (31633)
United States
May 8, 2008 2:10pm CST
You can see the story here:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Clinton_OPEC_can_no_longer_be_a_cartel.html
She seems to think that she can break up a foreign business that we have let control us for decades. I'm not sure that would do much good, are you? Someone has to produce the oil. Even if we didn't use it for gasoline, oil is used for a lot of other things. So we need some, although not as much as we think! (especially if they get the railways going!)
Do you think she could succeed or do you think she's saying this just to get people to elect her?
1 person likes this
2 responses
@dodoguy (1292)
• Australia
17 May 08
Hi dragon54u,
Although I'd expect that Americans should know best what's best for their country, it seems to me that things are looking mighty rotten in the Home of the Free and the Land of the Brave.
Rather than making sweeping token gestures like "kill OPEC", which I assume means breaking the cartel which controls a bug slice of global oil production, one would hope that steps would be taken to reduce or eliminate dependence on the petrochemical industries.
One easy step in that direction would be (as suggested by another respondent) to increase the viability and efficiency of public transport and rail freight.
Another would be to produce oil from hemp seed, given that hemp has virtually no pests & so needs no pesticides, will grow in poor soils with little rain, and also produces excellent fabric fiber (far superior to cotton) as well as stock feed.
Henry Ford's original T-Model Ford was composed largely from Hemp derivatives, and he even proposed to run it on hemp oil (until the cotton and petrochemical lobbies in the USA successfully destroyed the Hemp industry early last century).
So yes, Hillary is being an opportunist with all this 11th hour guff about OPEC.
And no, she won't save the USA from a Depression. But the longer it's held off, the worse it will be.
@dragon54u (31633)
• United States
17 May 08
You're correct in saying we need to work on alternative methods and public transportation. But we Americans are a selfish bunch and everyone wants their own little private car. Public transportation is a joke, for the most part, it takes a couple hours to get anywhere because in the 50's we built our infrastructure to support millions of cars that fed the oil industry and all the other industries that made their living from people who bought cars.
Now it's all crashing down and we're totally unprepared to change our lifestyles. Furthermore, most of the people don't want to. Maybe this crisis is going to turn out for the best, because public transportation has gone from scant to overcrowded! That's good news for everyone, especially regarding pollution! So there is a good side to this.
We've just lost our backbones the past few decades, we've had it too easy and gotten soft and complacent. Maybe this is what we need to get some steel back into us. But it sure does hurt the wallet!
@mehale (2200)
• United States
9 May 08
While interesting in theory, if she really planned to destroy OPEC, wouldn't she have mentioned this sooner in her campaign? It sounds to me like this, and her sudden support for the quick-fix gas tax holiday are just new ways to tell the voters what they want to hear and try to gain more votes and momentum in a lagging campaign.
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31633)
• United States
9 May 08
Yes, and they'll fall for it, too! American voters put the one in office that tells the best lies. They never learn.
