Cybrpnk's Rantings

The classic conservative approach to most social ills is 'let the market sort it out.' This reckless invocation of the market is a severe abuse of a sometimes useful tool that obfuscates critical discussions of policy. An excellent example of improper use of the market is our current approach to energy policy. Sure it's true that as oil becomes scarcer the price will rise, and that there will be periodic spikes in the price. But by the time the market really starts signaling that it is time to start looking for other energy options it will be too late.

To seriously address the transformation of our entire economy and infrastructure from an oil-sucking monstrosity to a world leader in conservation, renewable energy production, and efficiency will take not just significant investment, but far-sighted planning and sponsorship of high-risk blue-sky research. Markets have not shown much of an ability to generate either of these types of activity. Markets also have a horrible track record of passing over high-quality science and engineering in favor of slickly-marketed inferior products.

If we leave the energy issue up to the market, people will delude themselves into thinking that it's someone else's problem until we are just a few years away from needing to make changes. At that point it will be twenty years too late to start our research programs, Sure there will be a few people who will end up making lots of money off of the ensuing panic, but far more people will be displaced in one way or another, if not killed in panic-induced riots. And the solutions we will end up with will likely be inferior to what could have been provided had a real research effort been pursued.

And when this big crunch hits who will people turn to for help? Multinationals? The Market? Hah! They will turn to the government. And if we could all stop listening to the conservative fantasies about the power of the market we would be turning to the government today. We would be demanding that someone in Washington show real leadership and really develop a plan that will bring America into a post-petroleum world. And that plan must not be about finding a way to preserve the economic power of existing companies, it should be about creating new opportunities, and allowing the corporations that have gotten us into our current mess to die if they cannot transform themselves.