OT: Completely OT: Inflation

[John Esak]

> Also, I think you are wrong about the big oil companies...it
> behooves *them* to be the ones working on developing newsources
> of energy... and from what I've read, they areinvesting billions
> into this already. They are not big oil
> > because they are stupid...
>
> 	I stand by my statement that the government will not be
> handing out energy research grants. It makes perfect sense
> for Big Oil to develop the next major energy source
> themselves so that they can continue to be in the position
> to be the provider of the new energy and therefor continue
> to profit long after oil drilling is a distant memory. They
> KNOW that oil will not be around forever. Some predict that
> it will run out in 50 years or less. A few say as little
> as 20 years. No one knows for sure since there is an
> unknow quantity (and quality) still in the ground. To
> maximize their profits, they would not take a competing
> energy source to market until oil availability was
> nearing the end.

I believe government grants for valid research on new energy sources would
be EASY to get... one call to a Senator saying you're having trouble and I'm
willing to bet wheels would be greased everywhere. It is a big buzz word...


>
> 	Just to be clear, I am a capitalist and I like making
> money. I just think that you shouldn't make screwing people
> over a part of doing business.
>
> --
> Laura Brody, Publisher of the filePro Developer's Journal

Oh, I don't know... it all depends on what you mean by "screwing people over
as a part of doing business".  People complain about oil prices (like me)
and postal rates (like me) but, I would hesitate to want to be involved in
bringing up oil out of the Earth in the North Sea during January.... how
much money is "too much" to charge for something like this. The technology
and industry support is staggering to even imagine it being possible.  As
for getting a little piece of paper from my house in Pennsylvania to my
sister's house in Arizona and only charging 37 cents for the job of doing
this reliably... well, it's a damn miracle every time it happens as far as
I'm concerned. It could cost 10 times this amount and still be more than
worth it. For that matter, why should a dish washer cost $695.00 and a CD
with a desktop publisher software cost $795.00? Go ahead, talk to me about
research and development, etc.  It's all hogwash... the hard material,
engineering, design and virtually life long functioning of a dish washer is
worth 100's of times what the program on that CD is worth. Just my HO.  And
it is this falacious argument that has gotten us where we are... no one
*knows* the true value of a dollar any more... or what one object vs.
another should be worth *relatively*.

As for your real estate woes, Icouldn't agree with you more... rent control
is plain stupid these days. As for real estate in general... my niece bought
a very nice (LITTLE, I mean teeny-tiny) old house in my home town. When we
moved into that town in 1959, that very house cost roughly $10,000, maybe
even $8,000... al lthe houses on that street were in this range.  She paid
$320,000 for it. Do I need to put any !!!!'s here....??  I hope not. It is
just ludicrous and some day, some way, some time soon... the bubble *is*
going to burst and we are all going to come to our senses about the true
valuation of EVERYTHING.

John