How has the Atlas changed your political views?

[Jake]

It's difficult to tell whether it was the Atlas or growing up, considering I joined the site when I was 15 and am now almost 19. For what it's worth I've gone from a pretty solid conservative in all facets to a strong economic liberal, socially mixed guy. I wouldn't have even considered the possibility that I would be supporting John Edwards second best among current candidates earlier this year, much less in 2004.

[Jake]

Smoking a joint doesn't hurt anybody (else).

Costs of healthcare?

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Healthcare?

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Costs of energy?  Time until we run out of fossil fuels?

Indeed. Society has deeper relationships than person-person.

[Jake]

I don't think an individuals healthcare is the responsibility of society. 

And we're never going to "run out of fossil fuels", it will eventually become to expensive to get out of the ground what it's worth on the open market, but we'll never "run out".  The market will take care of the rest (unless the govt farks it up with ethanol subsidies and other "hand of govt" manipulations of the market).

Uh, for that to be true somehow, oil has to be created as fast as we pump it out of the ground; and bear in mind that the oil we're currently using to near exhaustion was created over the past tens of millions of years or more. ie, we've used almost all the oil created over the past 50 million years in the past 200 years.

If we continue to remain fixated on oil as the main resource that drives our economy, we better be prepared for many more wars in the Middle East, Venezuela, the South China Sea, and elsewhere over what oil is left, because the simple fact is demand is outstripping production and sometime soon (10-50 years) demand will outstrip availible resources. That will be extremely bad. Unless resource wars and $500 barrels of oil are good things.

And an individual's health only becomes society's problem when they start demanding treatment they can't pay for. How many uninsured smokers are going to need emergency care down the road? Obese uninsured people? Diabetics? To end those people getting emergency care would require eliminating the Hippocratic Oath. Not going to happen.

[Jake]

Answer the fucking point instead of acting dumb.

How do you propose we cut obese, unhealthy people off from receiving emergency room care when their arteries explode or they get diabetes? That cost is not paid in taxes; it's paid by hospitals charging everyone else double to cover the people who aren't paying.

And how does the market take care of their not being any oil left?

And yeah, I do believe things will change. I'd just rather have things change so that America can come out in the lead instead of following other countries. Think about it. If say, Europe reduces their dependancy on oil, they don't have to fight the resource wars in the Middle East. ie, they won't have to sacrifice their blood and treasure across the world like we'll have to.

The quicker we replace oil as it's used in energy and automobiles, the quicker the Middle East becomes irrelevant in our foreign policy.

[Jake]

What do you think governments should be doing to save us from the future oil crunch?

In the long term, I like the idea I heard from someone recently. Give a billion dollar bonus to the first team that can come up with a feasible way to power automobiles that doesn't use oil and doesn't cost tons more energy to produce than what you get. Then subsidize the crap out of getting the technology into operation. We have to recognize that that may be 20 years or more from now. Until then, do this.

Immediately raise MPG standards from where they are now. There's no reason why every small car can't get 50 MPG.

Outlaw SUVs and pickups for those who don't have a business necessity for driving one.

Turn all urban highways into HOV only roads. Drivers who wish to drive solo can buy a permit to offset their fuel use. Encourage car pooling and ride shares.

Subsidize mass transit for cities that don't have it. Expand current lines and subsidize it so it's cheaper than driving (that's coming quickly with gas prices).

These four steps can be implemented tomorrow, will cost the government only in subsidizing mass transit construction and expansion (which I admit will be expensive), and will immediately start reducing the US consumption of oil.

[Jake]

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Then you make it so the choice is drive a small car that gets 50 MPG or better, prove that you need a larger car for business, or don't drive. Easy as that. I drive a Corolla. I f'ing hate how small it is, but it feels a lot better putting gas in it once every ten days instead of once every five like I did with the Altima. People will have to get over it because I simply don't believe the "market" will respond quick enough to this problem to make it so it doesn't absolutely ruin us. We're already going to get hurt someway, let's just try to make it hurt the least possible.