Endless Oil

[Dana]

Then if we want oil as a country we should be pumping it for ourselves and refining it ourselves.

 

[Pabst]

Then if we want oil as a country we should be pumping it for ourselves and refining it ourselves.

i agree and we could. but for some reason someone got it in their head one day to buy foreign oil and NOT pump every drop of our own so as to preserve what we have. we'll pump so much and then import the rest. the theory, i suppose, is that by doing this it will pay off later in the future. i guess. sounds like good reasoning.

 

[Dana]

EVERYTHING seems to be buy foreign nowadays. It expends further than oil.

 

[Francis]

EVERYTHING seems to be buy foreign nowadays. It expends further than oil.

Little step lead to big steps. Taking the first ones will start a process..

Whether it be Oil or just a widget, ever think of looking up "Made in America" and willing to pay a little more for things ?

American Made Products and/or Services Made in USA

We have a similar site in Canada called "Made in Canada"..

Made in Canada - Home Page

Yes you can always get things passed by you, but if you do, don't accept or take it and send it back.. Return it if you bought it locally and find out it is no longer made as advertised..

Keep supporting local businesses..

Remember that the most powerful message is not a whining post on a message board, but rather a Consumer dollar spent wisely..

 

[ClicheGuevara]

I think the problem is that Americans want everything dirt cheap but we all want to make 25 bucks an hour..How is a American company suppose to turn a profit selling their wares as cheap as the chinese ones when they have to pay high wages? Like Francis said, if we were willing to pay more for stuff then maybe more of those things would be made in our own country instead of imported from china.

 

[Francis]

As far as Oil itself is concerned we can also look at it from the perspective that we are often given only one choice.

Car engines until recently only ran on Gas.. A bi-product of Oil and one that many companies were in no rush to mass produce alternative engines.. Why ?

Furnaces burn heating Gas / Oil and also had little alternatives.. My cousin developed a pellet type furnace but was being crushed by bigger companies so they could starve his business and sell more Gas and Oil furnaces in the market place. His was 97% efficient but who cares.. Although he would have gladly sold his business, nobody wanted a piece of the pie as part of the deal was to keep the technology alive. He is doing quite well although still at a small scale..

One of our local companies made alternative forklift vehicles and was bought out and closed.. Makes you wonder why the technology is no used any longer..

OK some of these might not all be viable, but without looking at more ways we are cutting our own throats..

China has surpassed all other countries and become the biggest alternative energy makers.. It's not because they invented the darn industry.. Only refined the cost of producing it and now selling it until we stop making it and then we will pay a lot more again..

Sound familiar..

China Is Leading the Race to Make Renewable Energy - NYTimes.com

 

[Francis]

I think the problem is that Americans want everything dirt cheap but we all want to make 25 bucks an hour..How is a American company suppose to turn a profit selling their wares as cheap as the chinese ones when they have to pay high wages? Like Francis said, if we were willing to pay more for stuff then maybe more of those things would be made in our own country instead of imported from china.

I think that's a misconception..

If I buy a made in Canada / US product it may cost me more, but darn it last a lot longer 99% of the time.. My overall cost is in the long run much lower depending on the product..

Don't let the seller take advantage of you because it is "Made in America" either..

Demand better..

 

[Azazel]

​

 

[ClicheGuevara]

I think that's a misconception..

If I buy a made in Canada / US product it may cost me more, but darn it last a lot longer 99% of the time.. My overall cost is in the long run much lower depending on the product..

Don't let the seller take advantage of you because it is "Made in America" either..

Demand better..

I think you misunderstood me, I'm not saying buy cheap shit. I agree that we should buy more local products, regardless of where we live. I'm just saying, People in my country always want stuff at the lowest price but bitch about how everything comes from a foreign country. Well, products made in this country are not going to be able to compete with products coming from other countries because we also demand a higher standard of living. It is the nature of business to lower the costs of production to maximize profit. There is no point owning a business if it's not going to make you money.

Therefore products made here, while like you said are 99% of the time of a higher quality are going to cost a whole lot more then those made elsewhere. Simply because the American worker demands to be paid more.( Now before anyone gets mad and assumes I'm saying we should pay our workers less or I'm supporting socialism or communism or whatever you want to call it. I'm not saying that at all, just stating how i see things.) So our products cost more, and the average American is not willing to pay that difference.

 

[nova]

1. Oil is a global market, so even if you produce more in your country, you have to do it more cheaply than the guy overseas or nobody is going to buy it. Thats what's hurting the Venezuelans right now. They have tons of oil, its just an extra sour variety that not many refineries will buy given the current price of sweeter crude grades.

2. You can fluff up green energy all you want, but with our current level of tech, we have absolutely no viable alternative for fossil fuels and probably won't for the next several decades. Wind, solar and all the other alternatives are mostly feel good solutions that really don't address the issue all that much.

I dare say the end game won't come until we produce self sustaining nuclear fusion on an industrial scale. Once we hit that point, we can move away from using fossil fuels.

If I buy a made in Canada / US product it may cost me more, but darn it last a lot longer 99% of the time.. My overall cost is in the long run much lower depending on the product..

Which is why the vast majority of the manufacturing that takes place in the US/Canada is capital goods. Big expensive things that the buyers are typically much more focused on complete lifecycle costs than up front investment.