Socialism At Core Of Progress

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The past couple of Sunday Janesville Messengers contained several articles written by right-ring think tankers that truly demonstrated the quality and depth of their wayward logic. In the same spirit, the November 18th edition continued with a rather confusing rant by Richard W. Rahn, an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute. He begins……

Oily OPEC Excerpt:
Socialism always plants the seeds of its own destruction, and state-owned oil is no exception. Most people do not realize that about 90 percent of the world's liquid oil reserves are controlled by governments or state-owned companies.

In his mind, any natural oil resources owned by anything other than private entities are possessed under the banner of socialism. His reasoning is ……

Oily OPEC Excerpt:
The high price of oil is a direct consequence of artificial supply constraints imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other countries, including the United States, and the incompetence and mismanagement found in most state-owned oil companies.

OPEC does manipulate supply, but that doesn’t make them socialistic, in fact, the freedom to manipulate supply to increase prices and profits is one of the sacred tenets of not socialism…..but capitalism. But he continues…….

Oily OPEC Excerpt:
A decade or two from now, the socialist states will have severe regrets for their current misbehavior, and this is why. When prices rise, people seek alternative sources and substitutes for the high-priced commodity. When oil prices are above $30 or $40 a barrel, suddenly the Canadian oil sands and Colorado oil-bearing shale become economic, and those reserves are larger than known liquid oil reserves.

Of course I’m under the impression that Rahn hates socialism and would like nothing less than to see it disappear from the planet, but throughout his rant, he completely ignores the fact that the price of oil is dictated none other than by free market future's speculators. There is no physical shortage of oil.....yet.

And forget $40 oil, we’re nearly at $100 already and because of the falling dollar, oil may now have to hold around $80 a barrel for any alternative fuel source to be cost effective/profitable. Not only that but since the price for a barrel of oil is set unrealistically high by socialists in his view, I have yet to see our government install pricing control restraints (socialism) to keep the cost of our natural oil resources for domestic use below the global price. In fact, U.S. oil usually sells for a few bucks more. But Rahn says there’s a silver lining…..

Oily OPEC Excerpt:
Now, for the really good news. The new car you purchase a decade from now is almost certainly to be totally electrically powered.

There you go. OPEC is keeping the price of oil artificially high to usher in energy independence and technological progress, those darn socialists will regret all this. To top it off they're willingness to rake in short-term profits will only lead to their own demise. At this point, I don't know what Rahn is hoping for.

Oily OPEC Excerpt:
As people move to electric cars, the need for gasoline and imported oil will quickly disappear. Nuclear and clean coal plants must expand to produce the additional electricity, but they produce energy at a fraction of the cost of petroleum.

Is Rahn bragging or complaining? Remember all of this progress resulted from actions caused by none other than greedy profit taking socialists.
This entire article makes no sense. But I will give it this consolation; it's either an abstract piece of propaganda encouraging people to embrace expen$ive oil (remember the goal - the end of socialism by suicide) OR it's just the mindless chatter of a thinker who's been in the tank too long.

Either way, twenty years from now when America is completely energy independent with abundant cheap fuel - according to Rahn's reasoning - we can thank a socialist.

Read related: OPEC To Abandon Dollar