Essential Economics for Politicians
- Thread starter Bruddah IZ
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- finance too
Bruddah IZ
DA
Bruddah IZ
DA
Wez
DA
Listen to Scientists, form policy based on educated evaluations and reasonable assumptions going forward. Not deny that AGW is a possibility and that it could be harmful.
Wez
DA
Why do we eat bad foods and drink alcohol? It's part of the world we live in.
Bruddah IZ
DA
Bruddah IZ
DA
Wez
DA
Discontinue all fossil fuel subsidies and cut the DoD budget by $125B and put that money to work in Fusion research and Space Exploration.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/inve...b0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.65704a7c013d
Bruddah IZ
DA
Iʻve seen, first hand, government waste in action for nearly 30 years. Iʻd say that billions more could be cut from all government agencies. We are an administrative state and I am not surprised by the cost. Cutting all subsidies to fossil fuels cuts all subsidies, indirectly, to ALL industries as well. But please go beyond your proposal to address short and long term outcomes.
Wez
DA
Not my field of expertise
Bruddah IZ
DA
Before the widespread use of fossil fuels, all of them.
Steam powered by wood couldn't compete with cheap coal. Oil became even cheaper (and more convenient) in most applications, especially mobile ones. Nuclear had great promise, but is currently suffering from engineering and political fumbles that negate many of its technical advantages over fossil fuels.
The Germans have a stellarator fusion reactor (Wendelstein 7-x) that is designed to run at better than break-even energy. They are taking baby steps with it to assure that it will hold a hydrogen/helium plasma long enough to extract usable energy. The leading design for years was toroidal, such as tokomaks, in which the magnetic field confining the hot plasma was bent around in a circle to complete the confinement structure. It was difficult to keep the plasma from impacting the inner walls of the torus because plasma currents traveled a shorter distance closer to the center than on the outside. The stellarator evens out the paths with a figure-eight twist, kind of in the shape of a toy train layout with a flyover.
A totally different tack is the use of small devises called Farnsworth fusors, originally developed in the research labs of a company making TV tubes. Many home hobbyists have made them out of old B&W TV tubes and simple high-voltage power supplies. As with all fusion reactors developed so far, the problem is getting more usable energy out than is used to run them. So far their only practical use seems to be as neutron sources.
Wez
DA
Short term:
Conservative outrage, reduced fossil fuel profits and an increase in alternative energy jobs as they become more competitive, loss of DoD jobs offset by gains in Fusion research and space exploration sectors.
Long term:
Fossil fuels usage would be a smaller percentage of our energy needs. The long term benefits of actually creating useable Fusion would change humankind in dramatic ways. Jobs lost in the energy sector would be more than made up for by new industries and technologies that would allow us to finally reach for the stars. Ideally we would do that worldwide instead of fighting over religions and natural resources.
According to Cal ISO's charts, yesterday the combination of renewables, nuclear and hydro power sources powered almost 50% of the system load late in the afternoon. Over the whole day, those sources provided about 15%.
http://content.caiso.com/green/renewrpt/DailyRenewablesWatch.pdf
Where I grew up in Northern New England, hydro power was so well established that the region exported electric power. Two of the towns I lived in had municipal hydro-power departments that produced all the electricity needed; another got its power from a private company whose closest dam was just outside the town line.
Bruddah IZ
DA
Top 3?
That would be eat bad food...I gotta stop drinkin'.
Wez
DA
You only eating healthy food and not drinking alcohol would explain so much....