Buffalo, a Green Collar Town
Dave Bauer of Sustainable Earth Solutions has big ideas about how Buffalo, along with the entire Western New York region, can make a name and a future for itself by taking advantage of a national initiative toward becoming "green".
"Renewable energy is going to be the state of the future," Bauer said. "Europe got it years ago, and my Euro wind stock is holding up great." Bauer goes on to say that America is waking up. "For a significant amount of time, the Bush administration didn't look at the burgeoning need, but we're catching up rapidly. On December 19th of 2007, Bush signed the Green Jobs Act of 2007. It allows $125 million for green job training programs.
"Part of the energy bill addresses the climate, poverty and green collar job training. It allocates $25 million for Green Pathways Out of Poverty as modeled by the Oakland California Green Job Corps," Bauer said. The Ella Baker Center's Green For All initiative hopes to secure $1 billion to create Green Pathways out of Poverty and set green job standards.
"Rochester, Cleveland, Albany, Niagara Falls…are all cities that are posturing themselves to capture the renewable energy initiative. Buffalo needs to get its s—t together and get into a competitive posture," Bauer said. "Bill Nowak said he wants to turn New York State's eyes to Western New York." Nowak is executive director of Buffalo's Green Gold Development Corp. and Communication Committee chairman of the Wind Action Group, and the list of Seven Assets he outlined for Western New York (first printed as a special to The Buffalo News) are listed below.
"We have fractured efforts," Bauer said. We need a few skillful politicians, energy security, labor security and a training sector. We have to come to a consensus and become known as a hotbed of manufacturers of renewable energy components like solar panels and wind turbine parts." Bauer's hope is that he can help to put together a symposium of individuals in the public and private sector who will be instrumental in bringing about the change needed in order to take advantage of the green movement. In terms of education, economy and the earth, Bauer is convinced that Buffalo and WNY has what it takes now.
"Opportunities exist," Bauer contends. "We need to be positioned." Bauer believes we can become an international mecca of creativity in problem solving where the green initiative is concerned. He believes that with the Green Jobs Act is on our side, the seven assets as listed by Nowak and the help of the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College for the purpose of bringing all of the necessary people to the table, we have a green collar future in Buffalo.
These seven assets can be described through the acronym WET SOIL. When one wants to plant a seed, wet soil is the medium of choice:
WIND: Buffalo is perfectly situated at the windy end of Lake Erie. Cleveland and Rochester aspire to be centers for wind technology, and their determination may get them there, but neither has the natural wind resource that pounds the eastern shores of Lake Erie. Wind builds up as it moves across a smooth surface like a lake. As we’ve experienced time and time again in lake-effect storms, the prevailing winds come from the Southwest, moving away from Cleveland and Erie, and toward Buffalo.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Buffalo Airport measures the fifth strongest winds of U.S. cities with a population of more than 200,000. In 2005, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and Erie County joined to produce a shoreline wind study that rigorously documented the wind resource on the Western New York waterfront. This led to the second letter in our acronym.
EXAMPLE: Steel Winds is the largest urban wind farm in North America. The eight turbines on the old Bethlehem Steel site provide monumental advertising both for our wind resource and for the potential that exists for renewal on our urban waterfront brownfields. Any manufacturer looking to make a clear, progressive statement to markets far and wide recognizes the benefit of being associated with this project.
As a pre-eminent example of brownfield reuse, this project has been written up in publications from Reader’s Digest to the New York Times. For the time being, thanks to progressive political leadership from the City of Lackawanna, Steel Winds gives Western New York a huge leg up in the race to establish our regional identity as a hotbed of green activity.
TRANSPORTATION: We are a transportation hub in three different dimensions — rail, water and trucking. Shipping over water has been a major impetus to our growth spurts in the past, first with the Erie Canal, through which the Western United States was opened up, and then through Great Lakes shipping. In the first half of the 20th century, Buffalo had the nation’s largest capacity in the nation for the storage of grain in more than 30 concrete grain elevators located along the inner and outer harbors on the Buffalo River and Lake Erie.
Our strategic location on the Great Lakes may once again propel us forward. Currently most wind turbine manufacturing is centered in Europe, which has provided the most progressive incentives for renewable energy development. But anyone who has gotten close to commercial-scale wind technology recognizes how expensive it must be to transport these parts halfway around the world. European manufacturers are looking for prime locations to set up new plants in the United States. We need to aggressively invite them to plant one on our . . .
SOIL: Jaws drop when development officials from other areas see the wide-open expanses on our waterfront. Soil — open land — is abundant and perfectly located for clean energy development right in the windiest part of our region where rail, shipping and trucking all come together. Incredible, underutilized infrastructure in the form of power lines and supporting small manufacturing shops create a perfect neighborhood for clean energy operations.
In a larger sense, potential industrial sites in Buffalo offer a premier location for shipping. Buffalo sits within 500 miles of 60 percent of the Canadian population and 40 percent of the U.S. population. Of course the flip side of waterfront land is nearby land that sits under water, another significant asset.
OFFSHORE: No one has yet perfected cost-effective wind development in fresh water lakes that freeze, thaw and stress structures, but the day will come soon, and when it does, offshore wind promises to become a significant source of the electricity supply throughout the Great Lakes. As mentioned earlier, Cleveland is banking on this, partly as a result of not having windy, undeveloped on-shore sites.
Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, and the enormous near-shore windy resource at our doorstep on the eastern end of Lake Erie could soon become a major resource in America’s effort to fight climate change. In addition, New York government has developed a decent set of clean energy . . .
INCENTIVES: Brownfield tax credits, a Renewable Portfolio Standard, a state property-tax exemption for renewable projects, the Energy Research and Development Authority and several other state initiatives have created a strong slate of incentives for clean energy development.
Many people are puzzled to learn that Texas, a state dominated by oil interests, is currently leading the nation in wind development. Sure, there are strong winds that blow across the state’s flat plains, but the same is true of much of America’s Midwest. The difference is that Texas adopted an early Renewable Portfolio Standard, a measure that requires utilities to buy a certain percentage of their power from renewable sources in order to do business in the state.
New York has recently adopted a Renewable Portfolio Standard that will require about 25 percent of the power sold in the state to be from renewable sources by 2013. Although New York already starts at 17 percent because of the Niagara Falls and St. Lawrence hydro projects, 8 percent of the state’s electricity market is huge and the standard is fostering intense prospecting by wind developers. This market will create many jobs, and with some skillful work by local development officials, should be enough to attract a manufacturer to this area. And speaking of skill, the last but not least asset on our list is . . .
LABOR: Mark Mitskovski has been a leader in local clean energy efforts, formerly as an Erie County official, and currently as Steel Winds project manager for BQ Energy. According to Mitskovski, BQ internally debated long and hard about whether to use local union labor on the Steel Winds project, as opposed to bringing in folks with experience from out of town. As he tells it, “much blood was left on the floor” but eventually the decision was made to go local. The results were superlative and many of the local workers have been hired on to maintain the machines, while others are bidding on the many wind projects sprouting up throughout Western New York.
We know how to make things in Western New York. There are 8,000 parts in a modern wind turbine, from rolled steel to space-age composites. Most of them involve materials and processes that workers here know like the back of their hands. Is the axle of a truck much different from the drive shaft that runs from the blades of a wind turbine to the gearbox? There may be significant differences, but there is little doubt that the workers at the soon-to-close American Axle plant would be willing and able to bridge that gap.
The Wind Action Group has initiated a petition drive calling on local officials to put together a working group from Erie County, Buffalo, Empire State Development Corp., the New York Power Authority and Buffalo Niagara Enterprise to put on a full-court press to bring a wind turbine manufacturer to Western New York and to help local businesses enter the supply chain for renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable development.
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Comment Options
sbrof
great... lets do it! What's stopping us? Who do we need to push, email, write to get this moving? Every politician around here talks about job growth, and economic development. This is a chance to actually do that.
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LastCall
Entrepreneurial Spirit...This isn't a government job
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sbrof
Correct but it is a government's job to create the incentives that spur that spirit into full fledged businesses. the right balance of incentives & skills means you can actually draw talent from other areas also. I think that Germany manufactures the most photovoltaic cells in the world, not because they have a greater spirit there but because the government supported them, giving them the climate and market to do well. Business doesn't guide itself, they go where policies reinforce and allow them to grow.
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lulu
The first round of funding available to the public under this initiative affords $10M to support 5-10 projects nationwide. The due date for grants is March 25, 2008.
(for complete RFP, see CFDA #17.268 at grants.gov or check the Federal Register for Wed. January 23, 2008)
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Downtownjunkie
Thank you Elena for this piece. I love you.
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terrapintim
Great, inspiring article! Sbrof has the right idea...we need to help motivate our politicians to get this into gear. Anyone knowledgeable about who would be best to contact about this? This is just the type of 'break' Buffalo needs to start turning things around!
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sbrof
maybe instead of using our clean electricity to keep afloat dying companies that employ almost no one at this point, (not all but some) we could add some more supply of fresh cheap and clean power as an incentive to bring, grow, start or expand a green company in our region. How many companies that produce solar cells, wind mills, could say they get their power from probably the cleanest least environmentally damaging powerplant in North America or the world.
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thinker
If everyone truly and honestly believes in the concept of renewable energy, green collar jobs, sustainability and a green economy, what better place than WNY? Ample supply of freshwater (Sick that our water and electricyt costs are higher than the desert that is Vegas) and energy; very productive and ample agriculture land; top 10 windiest regions; etc.. all add up to the perfect location for a sustainable (as sustainable as one can be anyway) region.
The future of Buffalo can be very bright if people organize and the private sector stands up and pushes for this. We're positioned for the green economy as good or better than anywhere. Now we need to champion it nationally.
The hard part if the govt, of course. The IDAs, BNE, Partnership, and everyone else with their own agenda that they think are regional agendas really make thinks impossible. So really, it has to start from the private sector, and as noted above, with incentives from the govt.
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BetterThanDetroit
That's great. Can you do an article about Jamestown?
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brokeleg
Wind Energy is Denmark's number 2 export, it employs over 20,00 people and brings in $1billion annually. Theres money in the air up there.
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benfranklin
sbrof... not all of us buy the government playing a part in everything. What role did government play in creating Google? I realize it has no Buffalo affilliation, but did government pave the way for them to reach a market cap of 162 billion dollars? For a business to thrive long term, it needs to meet a market need, not just gobble money at the public's expense.
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nonono
you need to listen to benfranklin sbrof, he lives in a mansion, which of course, in republican america, makes everything he says that much more relavent than the opinions of the working poor.
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benfranklin
Maybe if we weren't always looking for a handout, we wouldn't be so poor. You don't really disagree with that nono.... do you?
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nonono
history lesson benfranklin:
since the internet is the product of the us governent, nasa, and the military, the government had EVERYTHING ultimately to do with googles success. "not everybody thinks" is about the only thing you got right this evening!
now go back to your mansion, the street on which, and the sewege, electricty, and water which is provided to you by one goverment regulated entity or another, and bemoan your stock market losses do to the excesses of the Deregulated banking industry!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet
The networks based around the ARPANET were government funded and therefore restricted to noncommercial uses such as research; unrelated commercial use was strictly forbidden. This initially restricted connections to military sites and universities. During the 1980s, the connections expanded to more educational institutions, and even to a growing number of companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation and Hewlett-Packard, which were participating in research projects or providing services to those who were.
Several other branches of the U.S. government, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Department of Energy (DOE) became heavily involved in internet research and started development of a successor to ARPANET. In the mid 1980s all three of these branches developed the first Wide Area Networks based on TCP/IP. NASA developed the NASA Science Network, NSF developed CSNET and DOE evolved the Energy Sciences Network or ESNet.
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nonono
handout? i'd settle for a small portion of the inheretence my father worked his entire life for in Bethlehem steel only to have them bankrupt on the security of his widows pension and health care.
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benfranklin
So you're the one person that agreed with Al Gore when he said he invented the internet....ok, I'll play along. Google is built upon the infrastructure that was put in place by the entities you mention. But extending your analogy, that's a bit like saying that every business is beholden to the paving contractor that put down the street outside their front door.
As to my bemoaning losses due to the deregulated banking industry... clearly I'd be a short seller of financials, up until a week ago. Would you agree they've reached bottom? (perhaps a poor choice of words given your comments in another thread...but I digress) But that would be close to flipping...and I know profit averse everyone here is. Wonder why you think I'm always complaining about one thing or another. Sorry to break it to you nono.... but lifes pretty good over here.
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benfranklin
nonono, I did not direct the handout comment to you personally. I meant in a larger sense, that we as a community seem too often to look towards Albany or Washington. I'm sure you disagree with me, that's fine, but agaiin, I meant nothing ill towards you by it.
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nonono
ben, ben, poor simple ben,
"that's a bit like saying that every business is beholden to the paving contractor that put down the street outside their front door"
no, what it is saying is that you are not going to be doing a lot of business without the government paved and maintained roadways that bring commerce and customers to your door.
i'm sure you have arrived in your own mind, god knows posting for hours anonymously on buffalo rising is anyones hallmark of having arrived at the gates of the good life!
your shallow reasoning and crass posturing are beginning to stink like your namesakes three day houseguests.
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nonono
benf,
you are such a condescending ass, i know exactly what your comments were intended to convey. i simply dont think i want your republican brand of free market mayhem for myself or any of my fellow human beings. i have more than a few dear friends and acquaintances who are in the fortunate top 1% of our worlds wealth holders, and not one of them would casually say, 'i live in a mansion', on a public chat room, in an economically downtrodden section of this country, with people from all walks of life.
you're an insensitive self concerned windbag who is out for the protection of your own pockets.
do not attempt to ape traits of dignity or compassion to which you are pathetically ill suited.
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benfranklin
Google's success is far more dependent upon Microsoft, Intel and the broadband that carries the signal to your home than some government benefit package. Actually, customers coming to my door is a bit outdated, isn't it? Don't tell me that someone as comfortable with the keyboard as you, is an old bricks-n-mortar guy? Hang a shingle on the interenet... let the world beat a path to your IP. I'm beginning to understand your pain..retail in Buffalo with no outlet on the internet... could there be a more painful existence?
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benfranklin
Free market mayhem won...didn't it? Please, do tell, oh brilliant one, which country is an example of the economic variety you would prefer we mimic? Leave the personal aside, you're a big boy, aren't you?.... really, show me what's worked better, maybe not for you.... but for a society, than the free market?
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gaustad
Boy things are really heating up tonight. Weather must really be getting to everyone.....It is Buffalo at its finest.
I just hope the knight on the white horse in Silicon Valley, thinking about moving his fortune 100 company here doesn't read all this negativity and decide otherwise!
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benfranklin
Sabres moving into eighth place (final playoff spot) affords us time and energy for a higher purpose, namely, getting under nono's skin.
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nonono
it is an equally accepted 'reality' that the new deal saved the free market from itself in the wake of the great depression. i prefer sentiments more along the lines of 'live simply so that others may simply live'.
at what cost to the planet and our own underclasses has this great american 'success story' been played out against? do you consider it 'winning' to be a piggish consumer of half the worlds natural resources? are you proud to live in the 'richest' nation on earth with the worst public schools and no universal health coverage?
you remind me of the guy who interrupted by dinner of sushi to sincerely inquire "whats with the chopsticks, everyone knows you can eat faster with a fork. whats wrong with the japanese anyway, why do they use chopsticks?"
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benfranklin
Your response shows little understanding of how poor the rest of the world truly is. It's a shame. The majority of India's citizens don't have electricity. Millions in Africa go with out food. Don't pretend to understand my politics, or my view of the world. 'Live simply....blah blah blah.... it's not an answer to those that truly need help. That 'mayhem' that you reject let's you enjoy your sushi. The poor in the world would do well to live with our mayhem, I realize the complexities with which foreign governments operate, and that capitalism is not a swith that is simply thrown. We've derived tremendous benefit from following the invisible hand of Adam Smith, it disgusts me a bit that people like you disparage it so easily.
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nonono
you have no idea what true disgust is you preening gas bag. would you lump france, germany, italy and great britain into the starving masses yearning for the freedom of our capricious market setting. paris hilton is wealthy and by some standards attractive, does that make her lifestyle or level of intelligence and comprehension of humanity something to emulate? is the measure of a civilization nothing more than adjusted GDP?
Adam Smith, please, what disease did he cure again? If India and China lived like us we would have to find another planet to conquer and colonialize for cheap labor and raw materials. It disgusts me that you share my citizenship and feel a god given write to oppress a planet for your own comforts. This system has had a good run, but the seams of your coat of many opulant colors is getting a little strained and frayed.
Who prey tell is going to turn down your four star hotel sheets when we run out all the illegal mexicans? Who's going to pick your abundant affordable produce? Try and find a nanny with us citizenship on the upper east side of manhattan or on the streets of LA. either put down the prescriptions or the cocktail, they dont work well together champ.
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benfranklin
Nonono, guess we've found a topic you're not capable of intelligently discussing. Better stick to the big issues like what's going on in Allentown. Sixty percent of India are farmers, mostly due to incompetent leadership. Those that are fortunate enough to work as part of the economy that exports something to the U.S. earn substantially more than those working in the field. Not sure why I'm discussing facts when you choose to just go on a personal attack. Does anyone discuss facts here anymore?
I'd say Adam Smith played apart in curing every disease.... just as you'd like to think government intervention plays a part in every business success. We share widely divergent views, that won't be cleared up here. Funny though that the ones you hold haven't been successful any where in the world.
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sbrof
wow, but ben how come we have the lowest life expectancy, education quality, health care coverage than almost all other industrialized nations. No one is trying to rock the cradle of capitalism and the market but those who think that this invisble hand is best for everyone and the planet is dead wrong.
African American males in the US have a life expectancy of around 50 years old. You would probably just blame them for their own misfortunes but at the same time how come everyone in Japan, Sweden, Finland, Germany, France etc are more educated and live longer than us?
The market needs regulations to serve societies needs. This isn't the hinder the market but to distribute its wealth in a moral manor. I am not calling for hand outs either. That is stupid and if you want to be lazy you don't deserve anything. But those people who work 40-50-60 hours a week and still can't afford to have proper health insurance or an education is problematic in my eyes.
The problem with the market and capitalism is that it will step on whoever and whatever in can for the profit of a few. It wants and has proven to defile the earth in pollution to the point where disease and cancer are commonplace.
Plastic bottles are proven to be bad for our health... the market says they are best for industry because they are cheap to make and transport. The market is also something that only goes as far as the government has and will allow it to go. Every aspect is regulated, less so in America than other places but because of our generally unregulated system we have more problems than most other countries.
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benfranklin
The stock markets open...so I'll go do some trading so that you 'left' of center guys can have some wealth to distribute in a more moral fashion. What does this mean? " The market is also something that only goes as far as the government has and will allow it to go. " I can decipher most of it as leftist gibberish, but this sentence has me stumped.
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nonono
yes ben, Italy France Germany the UK Sweden Holland Denmark are all third world backwaters that NO one wants to visit or emulate.
if i am not much mistaken, to get back to a relevant topic, the discussion is would government intercession at this point be beneficial and constructive to the citizens of new york state. we are about realize a boon in the form of relatively inexpensive renewable electric energy with little or no carbon foot print. we are likewise in a state which has made a political art of deterring industry and business from practicing within our boundaries. would we all not vastly benefit, welfare queen and titan of industries alike if this new found energy was made available at relatively cheap rates to stimulate some industrial development in NYS.
or do you prefer our presidents model of economic stimulus of robbing our future wealth and indebting us for a huge one time cash infusion, much of which will translate to exported earnings by the third world industries we are so slavishly dependent on for our disposable luxuries?
i think adam smith is doing quite alot of rolling in his historic grave right now on all accounts.
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nonono
and another thing about india, venture capitalists stand poised to widely introduce a miniature and affordable version of the western automobile to this teeming nation without a sanitary infrastructure. result being that the beleaguered struggling nation - home to the picturesque vacation mecca known as the black hole of Calcutta, will have no public potable water system, or safe public sanitation, but millions of cancer causing, resource depleting, ozone destroying automobiles.
three cheers for free market mayhem and the human progress of greed.
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RisingDamp666
Ben Bernanke and the rest of the Federal Reserve Board will be meeting shortly to determine the fate of your Adam Smith free-market utopia. I hope it helps your declining equities, Ben. Maybe the private sector could invent a fully privatised Federal Reserve. Oops, they already did. It was called Long Term capital Management.
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benfranklin
India's lack of a sanitary infrastructure is directly related to a 'government knows best' mentality. Are you just trying to be helpful in proving my point?
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RisingDamp666
Much of what transpires in India is the result of longstanding social and cultural customs and hangups. Now that they sense an opportunity to 'westernize', they are now mimicing our social and cultural idioms. Colonization under the British resulted in an extensive rail sytem that served them for many decades. The American model would have seen them in cars on many roads. That is now happening. Their rapacious capitalists are driving up the prices of global commodities and turning many large Indian cities into fortresses of the 'haves' surrounded by teeming slums for the 'have nots'. If you call endless power-sucking urban shopping malls filled with faux-upscale people buying gold trinkets "progress", then by all means, congratulate BenFranklin on his astute insight into the human condition.
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benfranklin
I agree with much of your post. India has serious issues. A very small percentage of their citizens are exporting certain services to the U.S., but any success story begins and ends there. Not sure what your last sentence is all about. I've only expressed an opinion that non-free market economies, around the world, are not performing very well. The leftists on this site (apparently the majority) certainly don't want to hear that, but I think your post only supports my position. Three people in five still farming by hand? What's to admire in that?
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AtwaterLouse
Wrong sbof. Not even close. 69.5, not 50. Your made up fact is wrong by 19.5 years.
http://www.aoa.gov/press/did_you_know/did_you_know.asp
Gap is reducing too - despite GWB, market forces, plastic bottles, etc: http://tinyurl.com/2p3jdt
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nonono
it is accepted that the new deal road way construction of the FDR administration was among the single largest assets to our ability to prepare quickly and to be victorious during world war two. indias example is one of poorly performing corrupt government, but in no way diminishes the need for a strong and proactive governing body.
the effects of the capitalist model on the fight against the global pandemic of HIV Aids is to funnel private and federal research monies into the development of perpetual pharmaceutical therapies and away from a preventative cure. i will give you the upper hand in as much as this conservative strong armed administration has laid waste to countless lives and millions in collective health costs in its failed abstinence only campaign. the government has screwed us all here, and with out protection.
this is not an either or paradigm. democrats are guilty of taxing us out of existence. republican legislation opens the door to catastrophic damage to our economy and environment as a by product of unregulated greed and short sighted ness.
i despise much of my democratic parties failings, but when they fail it is on the side of the greatest inclusion, the greatest rights of protection, and the largest safety net for the threatened and impoverished. the republicans on the other hand pander to a lot of superstitious 'ignorant' * conservative radical Christians to the end result of having a national discussion of fellow american citizens as depraved and traitorous for simply holding different views and different sexual identities.
government is not a solely autonomous entity, but the privilege of a democratic electorate. our lazy, greedy, glutinous fellow citizens are far more to blame for their utter abdication of responsibility to self govern than any misguided politician.
i think we can agree on that much.
*ig·no·rant (gnr-nt) adj. 1. Lacking education or knowledge. 2. Showing or arising from a lack of education or knowledge: an ignorant mistake. 3. Unaware or uninformed.
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nonono
wow ben, you simply cannot keep that silver foot out of your own mouth can you?
"Three people in five still farming by hand? What's to admire in that?"
the value of a human life is predicated on living and feeding off the efforts of others?
so who should be feeding these five subsistence farmers, some poor schmucks in Guatemala? where does this daisy chain of progress begin and end? who scratches the back of the guy at the end of the line?
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RisingDamp666
If you have an across the board rise in commodities, Ben, why wouldn't that spur participation in agricultural economies? I don't think that India's poor who toil in agriculture bear any burden of shame. That's just you mirroring your idealized version of reality. Would you prefer a situation where every indian leaves the fields for good and instead, goes to work for an outsourcing firm in Bangalore while here in the U.S., newly unemployed people are forced back into our fields? Where would you strike the balance on 'acceptable poverty'? The problem with free-mrketers on the right is that they won't take their arguments beyond empty platitudes and rhetoric and see them to their real conclusions. Us "leftists" are left to pay and pay for your 'ideals'. So don't blame us if, for once, we'd prefer to pay with your money.
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benfranklin
I think you find some value in a 'safety net'. I do as well. How much of a safety net do you think a subsistence farmer has? If I were half as evil as you make me out to be, my keyboard would melt as I type.
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benfranklin
I'll play along... an across the board rise in commodities, if it's significant, actually hurts the poor of a country. I believe it's called dutch disease (?)...not dutch elm... anyway.... the rise in the value of the commodity causes a rise in the value of that countries currency, making all of it's exports more expensive, in real terms, to the rest of the world. Those who control the commodity, make out. Everyone else suffers. On a small scale we see that locally, with the rise of the Canadian dollar tied to the oil exports of Western Canada.
I do not find hard work shameful. I agree with you that as Americans, we often make the mistake of applying our beliefs on another country, and thinking we could easily solve their problems. (See one IRAQ... 'we'll be treated as liberators... they'll love democracy....'). I realize it's easier to think I'm a conservative jerk with no clue... if it helps ease your pain, carry on.
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RisingDamp666
If I considered you to be a "conservative jerk", I wouldn't waste my time responding to your comments. Misdirected? I thinks that's more like it. All I ask of anyone, most of all, liberals, is to take their thinking to its conclusion: see three moves ahead. It's nice to believe that the free market 'lifts all boats' but that clearly hasn't been the case. European governments tax their citizens and tightly control their economies as a result of the abuses they encountered at home and abroad. If those abuses are allowed to continue here in the States, there will be a similar reaction. To stay the hand of "Big Government" you have to self-police. This means acknowleging the criticism and understanding where the abuses occur and stopping them. All too often, however, the promise of unlimited riches clouds this perspective. I guarantee that the chief legacy of the Bush Administration will be bigger government and policies that hew more closely to Europe. And all the while, Liberalism will be blamed. When will people in this country wake up to the fact that Horatio Alger was a myth? Most wealth in this country is inherited wealth, wealth whose roots can often be traced back to a time of incredible abuses.Balance and moderation in all things. Apparently we need more government to bring that message to the masses.
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RisingDamp666
If I considered you to be a "conservative jerk", I wouldn't waste my time responding to your comments. Misdirected? I thinks that's more like it. All I ask of anyone, most of all, liberals, is to take their thinking to its conclusion: see three moves ahead. It's nice to believe that the free market 'lifts all boats' but that clearly hasn't been the case. European governments tax their citizens and tightly control their economies as a result of the abuses they encountered at home and abroad. If those abuses are allowed to continue here in the States, there will be a similar reaction. To stay the hand of "Big Government" you have to self-police. This means acknowleging the criticism and understanding where the abuses occur and stopping them. All too often, however, the promise of unlimited riches clouds this perspective. I guarantee that the chief legacy of the Bush Administration will be bigger government and policies that hew more closely to Europe. And all the while, Liberalism will be blamed. When will people in this country wake up to the fact that Horatio Alger was a myth? Most wealth in this country is inherited wealth, wealth whose roots can often be traced back to a time of incredible abuses.Balance and moderation in all things. Apparently we need more government to bring that message to the masses.
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RisingDamp666
If I considered you to be a "conservative jerk", I wouldn't waste my time responding to your comments. Misdirected? I thinks that's more like it. All I ask of anyone, most of all, liberals, is to take their thinking to its conclusion: see three moves ahead. It's nice to believe that the free market 'lifts all boats' but that clearly hasn't been the case. European governments tax their citizens and tightly control their economies as a result of the abuses they encountered at home and abroad. If those abuses are allowed to continue here in the States, there will be a similar reaction. To stay the hand of "Big Government" you have to self-police. This means acknowleging the criticism and understanding where the abuses occur and stopping them. All too often, however, the promise of unlimited riches clouds this perspective. I guarantee that the chief legacy of the Bush Administration will be bigger government and policies that hew more closely to Europe. And all the while, Liberalism will be blamed. When will people in this country wake up to the fact that Horatio Alger was a myth? Most wealth in this country is inherited wealth, wealth whose roots can often be traced back to a time of incredible abuses.Balance and moderation in all things. Apparently we need more government to bring that message to the masses.
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RisingDamp666
...sorry about that, it was sticking.
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nonono
dont apologize, that was worth reiterating three times. the adam smith club seems to be a little hard of hearing anyway.
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sbrof
sorry for the wrong information you can Blame Henry Tailor as the University at Buffalo for saying such statistics.
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