Oil Revolution Will Shake Nation

Well Jeffrey Rubin chief economist and chief strategist at CIBC World Markets. How exactly wills this benefit Canaduh’s homeless, working poor and myriad social problems? <br />
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Canada, more than most countries, should be able to cope with $100 (U.S.) per barrel oil — a price consumers are likely to see by the end of the decade. <br />
Alberta's massive oil sands promise to make Canada one of the world's largest oil producers,<br />
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The ramifications of one hundred dollar a barrel for oil will place further economic stressors on an already overburdened populace and place enormous profit in the pockets of the oil companies.<br />
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An’ ya know what?<br />
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More of the same is on the way!<br />
Check this out! <a href="http://www.rense.com/general67/soaked.htm">http://www.rense.com/general67/soaked.htm</a> <br />
Because it is related to1a greed based system. A system that infects all living underthe thumb of democratic capitalism.<br />
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G8 and the war against poverty my ass!<br />
Dio<br />

Yes, there IS a war against poverty. Or should I say, there is a war against the poor, and, like the war against terrorism, no matter how many of the world's poor are bumped off, there seems to be more and more of them........

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RickW

All overstated.Come on,this web site is getting to sound like a doomsday camp.If everything is so bad,why are so many doing so well?Yes we have problems,but this continual doomsday talk is way out of purportion.If it is THAT bad,where are the riots?

The GDP is a fraudulent figure that means nothing in a real economy, which means "The management and distribution of scarce resources". Of course, if we continue with the idiocy of a "competitive market economy", there will be terrible results in destitution and environmental destruction. But if we can ever elect politicians who turn their backs on this crime wave and start designing a cooperative economy, with a totally redesigned and new monetary system under solid public control, things can be solved. One thing I would dearly like to see is the handing out of street sweeper brooms to economists like this nutcase who write such articles. Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

"If it is THAT bad,where are the riots?

Sheep don't riot!

Exactly right, as GDP is just a measure of the monetary value of all goods and services produced in a country for the year and does not give any indication about how that wealth is distributed. By other indicators, however, we know that this wealth is being concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. About the only real use for GDP is as an indicator that social spending and spending on public infrastructure is keeping pace with economic growth.

As for why people aren't rioting in the streets, it's because were all suckers and let other people take the lion's share for the work that we do. It's always amazed me that people put up with CEO's and such making millions per year (often in money-losing companies) when they themselves make barely enought to keep their heads above water.

With regards to the article, the Calgary Herald recently carried an article in which the companies with a stake in the oilsands or looking for one are seriously questioning the actual reserves available. It is well-known that the bulk of the oil is locked up in sand so deep in the earth that it cannot be mined out but has to be pumped out after heating it with steam (very expensive) and involves permanent loss of water reserves (despite the recent flooding Alberta does not have an abundance of water). Canadians are hardly going to benefit from this as this whole enterprise involves huge govenment subsidies to private corps, not to mention that a lot of SUV owners are soon going to be looking to trade their vehicle when they find they can't afford gas prices at $100 per barrel along with their two-income mortgages (if gas is $1/L at $60 it's going to be close to $2 at $100 per barrel).

for an example of overstatement one need go no farthere than this

by Anonymous on Thursday, July 14 2005 @ 10:27 PM MDT (Average, 0 votes)
Show comment...
So it's okay by you if terrorists murder innocent subway riders because you think they might have some sort of legitimate grievance?

It's highly unlikely you would think the same way if your family were riding one of those trains. But those 52 dead people are strangers to you and their human rights are now irrelevant to you because they're dead, so you'll concern yourself with those poor dear terrorists and their 'legitimizing' grievances.

We are Canadians. Rioting is not the way we do things. First we will move in until we can't ever be outvoted. Then we will spend that ill-gotten wealth you made on whatever we think is a good idea that promotes our pet causes at the time. As the money disappears we will complain that our chickens have finally come home to roost. We always warned you. Whining gets you more than riots anyway. If's as much a political truth as unilingual services are inside Quebec. Look at the line-ups of Canada's accidentally disadvantaged and the lenghts we go to accodomate anyone with even the most farfetched hard luck story, even men who like women (lesbians?) born in a man's body. but wanting to change it no matter what it costs us. We got this policy without a riot anywhere in Canada. It's free to every prisoner in the system. Enough said.

It should be remembered that to produce three barrels of oil from the tar sands, two barrels of oil in equivalent energy is required. In Alberta's case this energy comes from natural gas. According to many researchers and a recent statement form Exxon, natural gas has peaked in North America. This means there are no new significant natural gas fields left to be discovered. That's why natural gas development and pipelines from the Northwest Territories are essential to the tar sands. We export 50% of our natural gas production to the US. Their demand for natural gas is expected to increase 50% by 2012. Natural gas is also used extensively as fertilizer in agriculture, not to mention heating my house here is Winnipeg. Any "bonanza" will certainly be short lived.

"It should be remembered that . . ."<br />
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Logical fallicy. Facts assumed without evidence.<br />
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Counterpoint: In Syncrude's financial statement, it cost an average of $18.61 a barrel to produce Syncrude Sweet Blend, and it sold for an average of $52.36 a barrel. By your figures, that figure for production of a barell should have cost ~$78.<br />
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Source: <a href="http://sustainability.syncrude.ca/sustainability2004/finance_economy/2004_results.shtml">http://sustainability.syncrude.ca/sustainability2004/finance_economy/2004_results.shtml</a><br />
<p>---<br>"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill<br />

Oil ain't forever boys and when the Chinese own a large part of the corporations that extract and process it, Canada won't be seeing the type of economic something for next to nothing benefit one might envision.

It's a testament to just how out of touch many posters are to what's really going on in canada. It seems to many their idea of radical politics is to come and post at this website. You don't think there are riots? Get real and get out on the streets! Of course it depends what you mean by riots, but if you mean protests there are plenty in virtually every city of the country. Of course you don't hear about them on mainstream media, or even here a lot of times, but boy they are there.

As for the gloom and doom, well, unfortunately a lot of time that is the only way to motivate people, however I do agree that sometimes some dwell on the negative. Keep in mind though that the latest news from Ottawa is that our economy is working at peak capacity, so it won't get any better than this. That's bad news if you look at health, homeless, poverty, working hours, etc., but probably fine news if your making over 80 grand.

The other reason people are not rebelling is quite simply fear. Face it, most people have zero job security, so rioting isn't exactly the way to get that next promotion or keep your job. Likewise, the availability of credit has meant a housing boom, which means that you can probably manage so long as you have a decently paying job. Most of our products come from chinese or mexican slaves, that includes food. Lose that job though or treat people equally, and you will literally lose everything. Likewise if your bank calls your loan, same thing. Not only that, most people are far too busy to be even considering the issues relating to why they are working so hard for less and less (or for the rich why they're working less and less for more).

<blockquote> "If everything is so bad,why are so many doing so well?"</blockquote>

Many are doing well because many more are not. Wealth is not an never will be, spontaneously generated. It can only be garnered by depriving others of it.

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RickW

That website is a typical demonstration of "externalizing costs"

Now Alberta is going into coal bed methane extraction, complete with all the problems extant to that technology in the US.

The Alberta government's "philosophy" is to sell off EVERYTHING, and those with enough money at the end can move out, leaving everyone else to suck the hind tit.

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RickW