On Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:05:53 +0200, Martin Hotze
wrote in :

kontiki schrieb:
I just think its stupid to bankrupt a nation
for the sake of a religion... and observe nation that *are* producing
energy soak up money from hard working Americans.... when it doesn't
have to be that way.

1) What do you want to do? It's their oil. For sure it is not yours or ours.

While there is little doubt that OPEC is setting the price of their
product at the highest point they feel consumers can bear, that isn't
the real cause of the astronomical rise in prices. From what I've
heard, about 50% of the price of crude oil is the result of wall
street investors moving their wealth out of dollar denominated bonds
and other instruments (because of the threat of the dollar's continued
devaluation) and moving it into inflation-proof commodities (oil).
That creates an exaggerated demand, that raises oil prices, that
increases inflation, that further weakens the dollar, that .... So,
although OPEC naturally shares some of the blame for high fuel prices,
you can thank wall street brokers and wealthy investors for the lion
share of the price increase. And the Chevron/Exxon/Shell/BP/... are
raping, er.. reaping the benefit. So it would seem that we are the
victims of the wealthy and big business; what else is new?

2) What will you/we (in 1 or in 10 or in 50 generations?) do when all
the oil is gone?

Are you so naïve as to believe the public is capable of, or indeed
even interested in, thinking ahead and planning for the future? And
where is our governmental leadership in our time of need? They're
probably busy transferring their wealth into euros and inflation-proof
commodities. :-(