Unemployment is the answer!

 

I have to laugh at this early (2006) cartoon from Stephan Pastis and his “Pearls Before Swine” comic strip.  It’s doing the rounds on social media at present.  It may be sixteen years old, but it fits our modern economy to a ‘T’.  Click the image for a larger view.

The way gas prices are going, a lot of local small businesses, farmers and the like are struggling to make ends meet.  Their gas bill has tripled in a year, but in an already tight business environment it’s hard to raise their prices to cover the increased cost, because their equally financially hard-pressed customers will simply stop buying from them.

Just remember – high fuel prices aren’t a bug, as far as the Biden administration is concerned:  they’re a feature.  They’re “helping” to “encourage” Americans to switch from fossil fuels to “green” energy (they think).  Given the increasingly parlous state of the US power grid, that can’t cope with current electricity demand (let alone the vast increase in demand that’ll be caused by a mass migration to electric vehicles, all of which will require charging at least once every day), I can’t help but think that’s a very, very foolish proposition . . .

Peter

9 comments

  1. Peter maybe depopulation and serfdom of the rest is a feature not a bug.

    Limiting movement was a feudal serf thing.

    As Michael Yon is known to say PanFamWar Pandemic, Famine and War.

    Lack of fuel for the tractors and trucking, lack of oil (Natural gas) for mining potash and making fertilizer AND this "Little Controllable PROXY War" (What an Oxymoron) means a lot of the worlds calories and fertilizer is offline.

    I'm pretty sure Karl of the World Economic folks has plenty of stored foods in his secure safe places as do the other Powers that Be.

    Round 1 of the Famine Wars. Got food? Got trusted friends and so on?

  2. The American Farmer… the only industry that buys their supplies retail and sells their goods wholesale…

  3. The answer is of course to convert en mass to EV away from those old nasty smelly expensive hydrocarbon fueled cars and trucks.
    We would have to massively upgrade our energy grid, give up the whole concept of road trips without multiple planned layovers to recharge every 200-300 miles. And draw repeatedly off that magic place where things like money and food and the rare elements required to create millions of the batteries that EV run on. But all the right people know that this place exists and will never run out of everything our glorious new society needs to let everyone live in comfort and security off a benevolent limitless series of government subsidies.
    Pardon while I vomit and spit.

  4. I continue to read and wonder why "they" push the "serfs" harder and harder;
    are they prepared for the response?

  5. The Brandon administration actually says you can save 80 bucks per week on gasoline if you just buy an EV…

    And this farmer joke is for Rick in NY :
    A farmer won the lottery, and when asked what he was going to do with the money (new car, vacation, etc.)
    his reply was "No, I'll just keep farming until it is all gone.".

  6. It is clear who ever is running the country, and it is not Brain Dead Joe or Air Head Harris, has no clue to what is needed by a country to convert completely to Green Energy from Fossil Fuels, also how long it would take, the costs, and the national security risks.

    I am an Electrical Engineer. The Electrical grid is not good in all areas and cannot support added electrical load. Further most of the electrical production comes from fossil fuels and that will not change. Unfortunately Biden has stopped much of the US oil and natural gas production and exploration so we are paying more for energy and getting less taxes and more debt.

    EV require chargers at homes to allow for changing when not used as they take long periods to charge, but many people do not have garages that can have chargers added. EVs also use smart phones tied into networks and credit/debit cards to charge off charging stations. The question is what happens if the system starts to use a "social" score or the person has no ties to a bank or only wants to use cash. Also more and more people are getting away from smart phones.

    I believe this is all a plan to destroy the country. This is added to the open border, the lies of the Media, China infiltrating many areas of our country from our government to academic to industry to owning land, and the finally election validation that is being shown was wrong in 2020.

  7. So how did we let government decide what forms of energy we should be allowed to use? Why is it their decision that the country be weaned off fossil fuels at all, let alone by any particular date? Why shouldn't true market forces be the deciding factor?

    For argument's sake, let's say we really are running out of fossil fuels. Why not just let the price rise as the supply dwindles, and then people will make their own decisions about when to switch to something else? And what that something else should be.

    What business is it of government to try to force this one way or another?

    What else does government stick its nose into that it shouldn't? Almost everything.

  8. Back after that epic traffic mess on I-95 in January, I did a look at what data I could find on what we'd have to do to the power grid if everyone converted to EVs. There's very little hard data that makes it easy to estimate, I just knew that both Elon Musk of Tesla and Akio Toyoda of Toyota Motors have said the power grid wouldn't support an all electric car fleet without serious upgrades.

    I found everything from battery size to range to amount of miles used is so variable that I just went with statistical values. The median EV battery is 69 kWh (kilowatts*hours) and median range is 259 miles. Most people don't drive 259 miles every day, so they won't need to charge every day, either.

    I won't bore you with details (those are at the source) but to accommodate every vehicle being electric, we would need to double the grid's capacity. I could easily be convinced that we'd really need to triple it.

    (like JG, I'm also an Electrical Engineer but in a field completely unrelated to engineering the power grid – designing radio receivers)

  9. Boron good question:

    "I continue to read and wonder why "they" push the "serfs" harder and harder; are they prepared for the response?"

    Maybe because of this from Cold Fury

    https://coldfury.com/2022/03/31/police-state-empire/

    Simply put the Socialists SEE that they can DO whatever they want in an area with more pig and deer hunters than anything else and GET AWAY WITH IT.

    A mere two dozen police, politicians and DA's (but I repeat myself) can literally Road Rob and fund their activities from supposedly free and well-armed Americans.

    They THINK our response will be NOTHING. Guess what, SO FAR, they are correct.

    Jan 6th folks wonder what they HAVE to Plead Guilty to in order to become a "Free Man" again.

    President Trump continues to be assaulted with Lawfare even after dozens of lawyers have Resigned because they couldn't make a case to stand up in court.

    Folks who simply donated (free speech anyone) to Canadian Truckers got their electronic Banking SHUT OFF.

    And OUR Trucker Protest in DC is a Media Blackout puff of wind.

    As MANY of the Jan 6th folks were Arrested well AFTER the event at home, ONE by ONE I wonder how many of those Truckers will be so punished OFFLINE of the Media.

    Our founding fathers pledged their "Lives, Freedom and Wealth" to create this country. Some of them REALLY PAID those prices of being killed, imprisoned and impoverished in the service of the American Revolution.

    Our Founding fathers were mostly Wealthy British Citizens and had a LOT to lose in their decisions to fight against the Crown.

    Good times does indeed create soft men.

    Me, I'm planting more potatoes and beans. Food is the cheapest weapon of a population controlling and reducing tyrant.

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