Discussion
Things I have heard all my life, since at least 40 years:
- We will run out of oil in 20 years
- Fusion reactors will give us cheap energy in 20 years
- We just need to build more roads instead of public transport to solve traffic jams
- You will have to give up your relative luxury for a better future for all
- We cannot tax the rich
After all those years, I think these are all lies ;)
@jwildeboer (pedantic mode on)
Until the fracking 'revolution' in the US, we were destined to run out of 'cheap' oil. Iraq fields coming online, and USA doing fracking at a massive scale reduced the prices but not significantly. The only reason fracking was a hit because the cost was already high enough for such an expensive method to be viable.
Now the cost of gas and petrol is so high, reopening the North Sea fields is once more affordable.
@jwildeboer DO NOT WORRY MINION! I SHALL FREE THIS WORLD BY RULING WITH AN IRON FIST! IT SHOULD ONLY TAKE ABOUT 20 YEARS! COWER BEFORE MY MIGHT!
@jwildeboer You mean it has been like this even before?
What could they talk about climate and food security?
@jwildeboer The fun part about the we cannot tax the rich lie is that we used to. Between the 1930's and 1980's the effective tax rate for highest income earners was 63% to 91%.
The rich used to be taxed proportionally to their income. Then they figured out how to undo that shifting the burden to the middle-to-lower income brackets.
Here's what I think is absolutely possible:
- We won't need oil in 20 years
- We can have solar, batteries, wind energy in decentralised ways and will never need fusion reactors
- Trains are better to move us around, individual traffic solutions only for the last 10 miles
- We are continuously progressing on the quality of life and it will only get better
- We can tax the rich.
- We can move towards a cooperative and social capitalism that helps the many
It's not revolution, it's evolution :)
@jwildeboer Half of those will happen slowly, then suddenly. The other half will happen slowly and then not at all.
The first half will look like a revolution in retrospect, but everyone will instead grumble over the second half.
@jwildeboer I think we'll be using some oil still because its a valuable chemical feedstock, just not setting it all on fire
Fusion reactors .. got one, it's parked 1AU away and everyone has free use of it on a time share basis. Otherwise I'd actually bet on geothermal first.
I'm all for taxing the rich, Inequality causes big government and regulation so the best way to get those cut back to size is actually removing a lot of power inequality.
@jwildeboer I'm not as convinced as you are on all points but I like your vision.
@jwildeboer Agree 100%. The only thing needed is to get rid of the parasites steering politicians to benefit nobody but them.
And, as Hungary, Brazil, and Serbia showed recently, that's not totally a fantasy.
@jwildeboer I like what you express and would like to add to „Trains are better to move us around, individual traffic solutions only for the last 10 miles“ … outside of cities, where buses and tramways are great to move us around.
@jwildeboer
THIS is a Vision to be lived in!
@jwildeboer fusion reactors would still be nice tho
@jwildeboer we *did and still do* tax the rich 🤓
(As always, I will ignore the "yes, but" and "what about" replies that show how they only care about problems. I will however celebrate all replies that add to better solutions :)
@jwildeboer ever were lies from the beginning,
but i feel you
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@jwildeboer https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/117520456658728069
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