June 2011 to March 2015, so far….
We purchased our Nissan LEAF in June of 2011 for $23,500 after rebates and tax credits. There is virtually no maintenance, no oil and no gas for this car. Of the estimated 60,000 miles we have driven in the last 3 years and 8 months, 54,500 of those miles have been in the LEAF, 5,500 in our hybrid.
Most people do not realize how practical electrics are but usually, once they think through how they drive, over 90% of Americans would have no problem driving an EV or a PHEV.
Most days I drive our LEAF close to or over 100 miles a day, many times closer to 150 miles. There is usually always a charge during the day as we have a charger at home and the Phoenix area has hundreds of chargers that show up on my navigation system.
Electric vehicles, along with their obvious zero emissions advantage have another amazing attribute. They pay for themselves over time. EV’s are literally the only cars on earth that have an ROI, as opposed to the ever increasing cost of owning and operating a gas car.
A gas car that cost what our LEAF cost us, will need at least double the purchase price over the first 8 years of operation. So you’re not buying a 23,000.00 car at all. You’re buying a 50,000.00 car, much of which goes to the oil companies. Kind of leaves people broke when they need their next car, and the cycle goes on and on for life, until you decide to break that cycle by choosing to drive electric.
The average cost of driving a gas car is now 60.8 cents per mile, (source, AAA).
The average cost of driving an electric vehicle is 3.3 cents per mile, (source, Idaho National Labs), and that does not take into account charging with solar like we do much of the time. Our real cost with solar charging is about 1.8 cents per mile.
Even assuming we paid the 3.3 cents per mile, we are saving 57.5 cents a mile when we drive our LEAF, which is most of the time. That is a theoretical savings of 31,337.50 in less than four years.
Gas, oil and maintenance out of pocket cost for an equivalent gas car would run around 12,000.00 for the same four-year period that we have owned our LEAF. Add back the cost of electricity and miles to operate cost of 3.3 cents and that’s about 1,800.00 putting our overall savings at 10,200.00, almost half the cost of the car. In five years the car will have paid for itself.
When we got our LEAF, Nissan was taking a loss on every car because the batteries cost 16,500.00. We just had a warranty replacement of our original battery, with a new battery chemistry built to hold up better in the heat. The cost of that battery? 6,500.00. That 10,000.00 drop in price in less than 4 years is a result of mass manufacturing economies of scale. They are predicted to drop another 3,000.00 by the time we need a new even longer range battery in 10 years or so.
When we were looking into purchasing our LEAF we had the opportunity to question Nissan engineers at an Electric Car Conference in San Jose. They confirmed the projected battery cost drop and the new improved batteries as battery chemistries improved. Once they did that, I knew we were going to buy our “forever car” as I already knew electric motors tend to last a million miles or more.
When this new electric car revolution restarted in 2011, there were at most a few thousand electrics on the road. That has mushroomed to an amazing 300,000 in the U.S. and over 700,000 worldwide! There were over 120,000 sold in the U.S. in 2014. The growth rate is exponential and destined to take off even more, as more and more of us come to realize how great it is to drive without polluting and without supporting the fossil fuel industries any longer.
The growth of the charging infrastructure is surprising even me, (the ultimate optimist in these areas) with 23,000 EV charging stations installed now, (up from next to nothing 4 years ago). There are thousands more coming from utilities like PG&E in California ($654 million for 25,000 charging stations), Volkswagen ($10 million), Nissan (no charge to charge program), Tesla (free charging for life) and multiple Charging network administrators nationwide. Japan just announced they now have more charge points than gas stations! 40,000 charge points, 34,000 gas stations! The U.S. will have more charge points than gas stations by 2016 if this growth rate continues. That’s hundreds of thousands of charge points. The more charge points, especially rapid chargers where an EV can be charged in 30 minutes, the more electric vehicles.
The great thing about this is the big players like Tesla and BMW are demanding 100% renewables sources for their stations, forcing utilities to comply if they want the business.
Now back to our current reality. Imagine only buying gas a few times a year. That is our reality now. We hope to move to the next dream by replacing our hybrid with a long-range electric as soon as we can so we can be totally gas free for life.
Are we unusual? Not really. We are middle class people who are keenly aware of the political and climate crisis we are in right now. We know that not everyone can afford what we have done and what we plan to do, but things are getting closer to everyone being able to join us. In the meantime, we are compelled to act with everything we have and beyond if need be.
Regarding availability, the used LEAF fleet is starting to build. There is an independent dealership in Phoenix that sells used LEAF’s for 12,000.00 – 16,000.00
For those who can’t get an EV because they only have one car, they can get a PHEV like a Ford Fusion, Chevy Volt, Via Motors Truck, BMW extended range i3. These cars are all electric for 40 miles or so, then the small gas engine kicks in when they need to go on a longer trip. I have a friend with a Volt who has had his car 3 ½ years and he is still averaging over 200 mpg.
We move closer every day to freedom from fossil fuels for personal transportation.
One by one, that’s how this is working.
It’s all about awareness. As my grandson was unplugging our LEAF some time ago he looked up at me and said, “grandpa, why to people put gas in their cars?” I said, “I don’t know buddy but by the time you’re driving, you never will”.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
Why Clean Energy Technologies Will Win Over Dirty Fossil Fuels
Distributed generation is the perfect disruptive technology solution. It facilities the completion of displacing fossil fuels as an energy source. Whether the utilities embrace this or not, disruptive technologies always win in the long run.
For now, Arizona utilities have chosen the unfortunate path of resistance. Instead of continuing to embrace DG to allow them to clean their grid, abandon fossil fuels and clean our environment, they have decided to portray their proactive clean DG customers as the problem rather than the solution. They do this at their own economic peril.
Clean DG providers like myself will take the next steps to force emissions free power creation.
Step One is to get as efficient as possible. As a result, our solar powered homes will push ever more, cheap, clean power onto the grid. Hopefully after step one, the utilities will wake up and realize that the growing DG grid is becoming more and more of a force in their overall production.
If the utilities choose to continue to fight technology, in the interest of keeping their fossil fuel sector going, Step Two will kick in.
Step Two is, existing solar adopters will initiate solar plus storage with energy management load balancers. Solar plus storage plus on-site load balancers will protect us from unfair Demand Charges imposed on us by rigid backwards thinking utilities. This is simple, inevitable technology growth
Solar installers will benefit as they can help integrate these systems.
Once Step Two begins to take hold in mass, the utility has another decision point. They will have to ask themselves two questions. Do I keep these highly efficient, near invisible energy users of my grid and clean energy providers on my grid? Or do I double down against them in my inaccurate and unfair demonizing of them, as some kind of made up problem?
If the utilities choose to accept our presence on the grid as a clean part of their portfolio, allowing them to begin to ratchet back their dependence on fossil fuel sources, specifically coal, than all Arizonan's win, including the utilities.
If the utilities decide to continue their old school model and insistence on burning coal for power at the expense of all of us, then we will have no choice. We will be forced to drop off their grid, taking with us our clean power, the revenue we still do provide to the utility and all we contribute to the overall clean DG power delivery system.
This will not hurt us and in the long run, it will not hurt the utilities, as their demand will begin to decrease sharply and their portfolio will shift again.
The people who will feel hurt are the people inside the utilities, whose model insist on ever increasing demand, for ever increasing profits at the expense of the consumer. These people will suffer significantly as their model has changed. The ground has shifted under them. Their consumer has spoken. Should they continue to decide to turn deaf ears during every step of this technological transition, they will force themselves and their parent companies into an early and messy demise. If that happens, We the People will be more than happy to take over, transition them to true municipalities that are responsive to the customer and quick on their feet when technology advances.
For now, Arizona utilities have chosen the unfortunate path of resistance. Instead of continuing to embrace DG to allow them to clean their grid, abandon fossil fuels and clean our environment, they have decided to portray their proactive clean DG customers as the problem rather than the solution. They do this at their own economic peril.
Clean DG providers like myself will take the next steps to force emissions free power creation.
Step One is to get as efficient as possible. As a result, our solar powered homes will push ever more, cheap, clean power onto the grid. Hopefully after step one, the utilities will wake up and realize that the growing DG grid is becoming more and more of a force in their overall production.
If the utilities choose to continue to fight technology, in the interest of keeping their fossil fuel sector going, Step Two will kick in.
Step Two is, existing solar adopters will initiate solar plus storage with energy management load balancers. Solar plus storage plus on-site load balancers will protect us from unfair Demand Charges imposed on us by rigid backwards thinking utilities. This is simple, inevitable technology growth
Solar installers will benefit as they can help integrate these systems.
Once Step Two begins to take hold in mass, the utility has another decision point. They will have to ask themselves two questions. Do I keep these highly efficient, near invisible energy users of my grid and clean energy providers on my grid? Or do I double down against them in my inaccurate and unfair demonizing of them, as some kind of made up problem?
If the utilities choose to accept our presence on the grid as a clean part of their portfolio, allowing them to begin to ratchet back their dependence on fossil fuel sources, specifically coal, than all Arizonan's win, including the utilities.
If the utilities decide to continue their old school model and insistence on burning coal for power at the expense of all of us, then we will have no choice. We will be forced to drop off their grid, taking with us our clean power, the revenue we still do provide to the utility and all we contribute to the overall clean DG power delivery system.
This will not hurt us and in the long run, it will not hurt the utilities, as their demand will begin to decrease sharply and their portfolio will shift again.
The people who will feel hurt are the people inside the utilities, whose model insist on ever increasing demand, for ever increasing profits at the expense of the consumer. These people will suffer significantly as their model has changed. The ground has shifted under them. Their consumer has spoken. Should they continue to decide to turn deaf ears during every step of this technological transition, they will force themselves and their parent companies into an early and messy demise. If that happens, We the People will be more than happy to take over, transition them to true municipalities that are responsive to the customer and quick on their feet when technology advances.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Neanderthals in a Truck
Posted under the category of, Tailgated Again by Neanderthals in a Truck
I'm driving from Phoenix to Gilbert, Arizona this morning in our Nissan LEAF. I'm headed south on 101 going with the flow of traffic at about 70 or so in the commute lane.
I look into my rear view mirror and what do I see? The grill of an older pick up truck filling my mirror indicating a special closeness to the rear of my car.
I speed up to 75 and the truck catches up and gets closer. Up to 80, same thing only closer. Now we’re at 85 and we’re closer yet. Now he’s flashing his headlights and high beams, like I'm going to pull over, because you know, 85 is just too slow.
That's when I decide I'm foolishly facilitating stupidity because of my own stubbornness and ego.
I slow down to 65. Now this idiot is practically on top of my rear bumper at 65 mph. Right around the transition to 202 San Tan, he finally breaks off and crosses all lanes of traffic to exit the freeway.
He nicely gives me the single finger salute before almost driving right into the freeway exit sign because he's looking at me.
Genius.
I reflect.
What is it that sets these mindless morons off that they would put me, themselves and everyone around us, in significant physical danger? How do they go from presumably just driving to work at 7:00AM, to literally picking a fight with other random vehicles at high speed on the freeway?
How does a mind work, or not work that causes them to flip off a total stranger for simply driving down the freeway?
A car that looks different, that has a YGETGAS license plate driving in the commute lane... legally?
How is it that this has happened to me so many times?
How are so many people so stuck on stupid? Are they so brainwashed by the fossil fuel industry that any option other than gas is an affront to them?
Do they ever consider their undying support of gas as a propulsion system for their ancient technology vehicles is providing direct support to oil rich nations that seek the destruction of America?
Clearly not.
Do they ever consider that by purchasing gas over their entire lifetimes that they are directly funding both sides of the war on terror?
Clearly not.
I'm starting to think the Model X may not be the option for us I was hoping it would be, (just kidding, that’s the electric vehicle that’s perfect for us if we can afford it someday).
But if I had the money, I'm starting to think a giant all electric pickup truck with ELECTRIC POWERED plastered all over the side would be the way to go to help people understand electrics are not threatening to their tender sensibilities.
Maybe I could add signage that says, DRIVING ELECTRIC USES DOMESTICALLY PRODUCED, NON-POLLUTING FUEL.
Perhaps, DRIVING ELECTRIC STARVES OIL NATIONS WHO HATE US would work.
Maybe, DRIVING ELECTRIC IS THE MOST PATRIOTIC THING YOU CAN DO would break through.
Do you think any of those statements would get the point across?
If I had that spare money, I'd build a big electric truck starting today, maybe with ALL those messages on it.
Of course our Neanderthal friends would find even those statements somehow offensive, as it doesn't fit into the "gas guzzling ditto's Rush" crowds broken ideologies.
It’s all gas all the time or something is wrong in their minds.
How sad.
The upside? In 50 years, we’ll all be gone and our kids and grandkids will be wondering what we were thinking when we used highly toxic, dangerously flammable, ridiculously polluting liquid fuels to get ourselves around.
I'm driving from Phoenix to Gilbert, Arizona this morning in our Nissan LEAF. I'm headed south on 101 going with the flow of traffic at about 70 or so in the commute lane.
I look into my rear view mirror and what do I see? The grill of an older pick up truck filling my mirror indicating a special closeness to the rear of my car.
I speed up to 75 and the truck catches up and gets closer. Up to 80, same thing only closer. Now we’re at 85 and we’re closer yet. Now he’s flashing his headlights and high beams, like I'm going to pull over, because you know, 85 is just too slow.
That's when I decide I'm foolishly facilitating stupidity because of my own stubbornness and ego.
I slow down to 65. Now this idiot is practically on top of my rear bumper at 65 mph. Right around the transition to 202 San Tan, he finally breaks off and crosses all lanes of traffic to exit the freeway.
He nicely gives me the single finger salute before almost driving right into the freeway exit sign because he's looking at me.
Genius.
I reflect.
What is it that sets these mindless morons off that they would put me, themselves and everyone around us, in significant physical danger? How do they go from presumably just driving to work at 7:00AM, to literally picking a fight with other random vehicles at high speed on the freeway?
How does a mind work, or not work that causes them to flip off a total stranger for simply driving down the freeway?
A car that looks different, that has a YGETGAS license plate driving in the commute lane... legally?
How is it that this has happened to me so many times?
How are so many people so stuck on stupid? Are they so brainwashed by the fossil fuel industry that any option other than gas is an affront to them?
Do they ever consider their undying support of gas as a propulsion system for their ancient technology vehicles is providing direct support to oil rich nations that seek the destruction of America?
Clearly not.
Do they ever consider that by purchasing gas over their entire lifetimes that they are directly funding both sides of the war on terror?
Clearly not.
I'm starting to think the Model X may not be the option for us I was hoping it would be, (just kidding, that’s the electric vehicle that’s perfect for us if we can afford it someday).
But if I had the money, I'm starting to think a giant all electric pickup truck with ELECTRIC POWERED plastered all over the side would be the way to go to help people understand electrics are not threatening to their tender sensibilities.
Maybe I could add signage that says, DRIVING ELECTRIC USES DOMESTICALLY PRODUCED, NON-POLLUTING FUEL.
Perhaps, DRIVING ELECTRIC STARVES OIL NATIONS WHO HATE US would work.
Maybe, DRIVING ELECTRIC IS THE MOST PATRIOTIC THING YOU CAN DO would break through.
Do you think any of those statements would get the point across?
If I had that spare money, I'd build a big electric truck starting today, maybe with ALL those messages on it.
Of course our Neanderthal friends would find even those statements somehow offensive, as it doesn't fit into the "gas guzzling ditto's Rush" crowds broken ideologies.
It’s all gas all the time or something is wrong in their minds.
How sad.
The upside? In 50 years, we’ll all be gone and our kids and grandkids will be wondering what we were thinking when we used highly toxic, dangerously flammable, ridiculously polluting liquid fuels to get ourselves around.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
The Earthquake Under the Feet of the Fossil Fuel Industry
The ground continues to shift under the feet of the fossil fuel industry with the U.S. / China deal having a massive impact.
What the fossil fuel people have refused to consider for over a century is, people have used their products in the past for percieved convenience, in spite of the cost and the obvious pollution.
Now that the Chinese people are experiancing some of the highest rates of cancer of all types in the world, and are virtually not able to breathe thanks to over reliance on coal power, they are past starting to wake up to the dangers of fossil fuels as an energy source.
Combine that with their ability to process scientific data in regards to climate change, and their openess to act when presented with the opportunity to do so, by a phenomincal leader like President Obama, results in initiating a drastic change in energy policy. This becomes a sudden reality the fossil fuel industry finds they are unable to control.
The fossil fuel business is so used to being the only game in town that they don’t know how to compete. Worse yet for them, clearly they are loosing their ability to fool people through advertizing, that their technology is anything but old, dirty, dangerours and unmarketable to the truly informed consumer.
This is the second leg of the stool the fossil fuel monster has counted on that is collapsing under them, the consumer leg, the government leg being the first.
When the informed consumer unites with the worlds largest governments to leave the fossil fuel paridigm by adopting solar, energy efficiency and electric vehicles, the monster goes into high gear to buttress the first leg.
Attempting to strengthen the ever present, historically powerful first leg involves the outright purchasing of politicians to suppress competition. These overt actions are a futile attempt to prop up fossil fuels declining market share.
That will only work, with limited results, for a little while longer, as more and more people suffer at the hands of mass polluters.
Consider Nebraska’s rejection of the KXL pipeline and West Virginia’s recent victory against Peabody's (MTR) Mountain Top Removal coal mining.
These are both extremely conservative red states, who are waking up to the environmental havoc and destruction the fossil fuel beast has imposed on them for so long.
It turns out West Virginian's, who are desperately poor in many cases, and have lived off the land for hundreds of years, don't like seeing their entire ecosystems, that they have literally relied on to support their families, blown off the face of the earth by big coal.
Nor do Nebraskan's have any desire to see one of the nations largest and most pristine water tables subjected to oil spills from a pipeline that will surely leak. A spill from KXL would permanently destroy drinking water for a massive section of the United States mid-west and western states.
Now we are seeing the degredation of the third leg the fossil fuel industry that has been used to wield it’s dominance world wide, the finnancial leg.
When finannce figures out the fossil fuel industry represents the physical destruction of the earth, and they have as detailed in the link below, it’s just a matter of time before the monster falls.
Along with all of the fossil fuel industries challenges, they now find themselves in a battle against former allies.
With Saudi Arabia's recent decision to continue production at current rates, in spite of the price per barrel impact, shale and tar sands oil producers in the U.S. are now in the fight of their lives.
With current prices at 68.00 a barrel and dropping and 80.00 a barrel being the minimum price required for profitability in the mining of shale and tar sands, the Saudi's have initiated what they obviously feel is a production / price war shale and tar sands cannot win.
I'm sure oil commodity brokers see what's going on and are looking very seriously at Citi's Global Commodities reports.
Last year it was Barkley's warning investors about over exposure in the fossil fuels business.
This article is too good to just provide a snippet. I highly recommend reading the entire post.
http://bit.ly/1rXx8nX
What the fossil fuel people have refused to consider for over a century is, people have used their products in the past for percieved convenience, in spite of the cost and the obvious pollution.
Now that the Chinese people are experiancing some of the highest rates of cancer of all types in the world, and are virtually not able to breathe thanks to over reliance on coal power, they are past starting to wake up to the dangers of fossil fuels as an energy source.
Combine that with their ability to process scientific data in regards to climate change, and their openess to act when presented with the opportunity to do so, by a phenomincal leader like President Obama, results in initiating a drastic change in energy policy. This becomes a sudden reality the fossil fuel industry finds they are unable to control.
The fossil fuel business is so used to being the only game in town that they don’t know how to compete. Worse yet for them, clearly they are loosing their ability to fool people through advertizing, that their technology is anything but old, dirty, dangerours and unmarketable to the truly informed consumer.
This is the second leg of the stool the fossil fuel monster has counted on that is collapsing under them, the consumer leg, the government leg being the first.
When the informed consumer unites with the worlds largest governments to leave the fossil fuel paridigm by adopting solar, energy efficiency and electric vehicles, the monster goes into high gear to buttress the first leg.
Attempting to strengthen the ever present, historically powerful first leg involves the outright purchasing of politicians to suppress competition. These overt actions are a futile attempt to prop up fossil fuels declining market share.
That will only work, with limited results, for a little while longer, as more and more people suffer at the hands of mass polluters.
Consider Nebraska’s rejection of the KXL pipeline and West Virginia’s recent victory against Peabody's (MTR) Mountain Top Removal coal mining.
These are both extremely conservative red states, who are waking up to the environmental havoc and destruction the fossil fuel beast has imposed on them for so long.
It turns out West Virginian's, who are desperately poor in many cases, and have lived off the land for hundreds of years, don't like seeing their entire ecosystems, that they have literally relied on to support their families, blown off the face of the earth by big coal.
Nor do Nebraskan's have any desire to see one of the nations largest and most pristine water tables subjected to oil spills from a pipeline that will surely leak. A spill from KXL would permanently destroy drinking water for a massive section of the United States mid-west and western states.
Now we are seeing the degredation of the third leg the fossil fuel industry that has been used to wield it’s dominance world wide, the finnancial leg.
When finannce figures out the fossil fuel industry represents the physical destruction of the earth, and they have as detailed in the link below, it’s just a matter of time before the monster falls.
Along with all of the fossil fuel industries challenges, they now find themselves in a battle against former allies.
With Saudi Arabia's recent decision to continue production at current rates, in spite of the price per barrel impact, shale and tar sands oil producers in the U.S. are now in the fight of their lives.
With current prices at 68.00 a barrel and dropping and 80.00 a barrel being the minimum price required for profitability in the mining of shale and tar sands, the Saudi's have initiated what they obviously feel is a production / price war shale and tar sands cannot win.
I'm sure oil commodity brokers see what's going on and are looking very seriously at Citi's Global Commodities reports.
Last year it was Barkley's warning investors about over exposure in the fossil fuels business.
This article is too good to just provide a snippet. I highly recommend reading the entire post.
http://bit.ly/1rXx8nX
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
The Never Ending Battle Against Enemies of the Social Safety Net
Social Security is NOT going broke!
Social Security has a surplus of 2.76 trillion dollars and can pay out benefits to all eligible Americans until 2033.
Passing legislation that I wrote, which would lift the cap on taxable income above 250,000.00, would extend Social Security solvency for 47 years. And that is exactly what we MUST do!
- Senator Bernie Sanders ( I-VT)
I have several observations to share on this but before I start I have to say this.
My Father was a wonderful, loving man, but like all of us, he was complicated and in retrospect, not right about a number of things. I suspect my kids will say the same of me when I'm gone and that is fine as I'm human, far more human than my Dad ever was.
That said, being raised by a republican man who had a very low opinion of FDR, it was drilled into me at an early age that Social Security was a pyrimid scheme that would never be there for him when he retired. It would especially not be there for me as the pyramid would collapse around itself due to it's wishful thinking design.
So that’s the meme conservatives started since the inception of Social Security in 1935, 79 years ago!
To repeat, that simple but now proven false meme, has carried the day in conservative republican circles for nearly 80 years in spite of literally millions of lives being saved and millions more kept out of abject poverty in their retirement years.
Let that fact sink in for a minute.
Now consider what it takes to debunk that simple, devastating falsehood, to try to get people to understand the importance of this program and the non-stop threat it has been under by republicans across generations since 1935.
This false meme, forwarded as "enlightened thought" came in spite of my Dad actually witnessing old people dying, literally from poverty, during the 3rd great depression starting in 1929. The first being in the 1780’s, and the second in the 1850’s.
In my development as a man, many times I heard this meme repeated over and over again, “Social Security will never be there when I retire”.
I heard it as a child, then watched while my Dad received his social security checks on a regular basis with no problems.
We all heard from Ronald Reagan how Social Security was going broke, then watched as payroll withholding was increased to cover the future of the program. These increases were projected at the establishment of social security but great fanfare was made by the republicans when they actually just did what was projected as the responsible thing to do in the ongoing management of the program.
How long did Social Security last for my Dad?
21 years and he never a missed check! He retired at 58 and passed away just short of his 86th birthday. He collected his first Social Security check at age 65.
So my Dad worked for 40 years and collected Social Security for 21 years. That’s wonderful and great for him. He was blessed with a long healthy life. The system he predicted would never be there for him, was there, consistantly and solidly as it was designed to.
My Mom just turned 90. She's still collecting a percentage of my Dad's Social Security 9 years later. So make that 30 years of payouts to my parents without a glitch.
Here's the really sad thing. Every time she votes, she votes republican all the way down the ticket. If they have an (R) behind their name, that's all she needs to know. And yet, she literally has FDR (D) to thank for the check she gets automatically deposited into her checking account every month. My mind can hardly process this as I write it.
So in the 1980's republicans carried the torch for FDR's enemies but ultimately gave in and administered the program the way they were supposed to. In the 1990's, I still had it embedded in my consciousness that I would never see a dime of social security. All the way into the early 2000's I bought into this made up myth, propogated by descendants of FDR's enemies.
Then I started to realize I had not seen the predicted collapse of the system in the '70's, '80's, 90's or 2000's.
I started to wonder, with forty years of evidence in front of me to the contrary, the enemies of social security were still spewing their venom about its demise... and yet social security was starting to look like a real possibility, even for me! Imagine that.
That's when I finally looked into the details. I may be a bit slow but even I’m able to see when something is working decades beyond when it’s critics predicted it’s downfall.
I ran across Thom Hartmann's brilliant analysis of the 80 year war on everything FDR worked and fought for, simply because FDR thought of it and they didn’t.
Sound familiar?
Yes, this nonsensical partisanship has tormented us for a lot longer than most people imagine.
I started to listen to Bernie Sanders, a Congressman at the time, that the program was fully funded but was being undermined by an inexplicable cap on income.
I learned that those with incomes above 100,000.00 of yearly income actually didn't pay a dime into social security beyond this crazy cap!
Really?
A cap?
Why?
The people who can most afford it, are somehow given a pass beyond a certain income level while the rest of us pay on our entire incomes?
So the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, Bill Gates and many others pay their “fair share” into social security in the first few minutes of their earning year, then pay nothing for the next 364 days because, what? They can’t afford it? Are you kidding me?
Who came up with this and why? Well it was actually built into the system from the start to limit the introduction of volatility. The risk of that volatility disapeared decades ago, hence the ever increasing cap to cover the cost of managing payouts.
Since I learned all this, I go way beyond where even Senator Sanders is.
I say eliminate the cap! Completely!
If you make a billion dollars or even millions, you can handle the 7%, or 14% if you’re self employed. I say, if you make that much, it's your patriotic duty to build and grow this program for everyone in the pool. So what if you won't get out of it what you put into it. You'll get to sleep better at night knowing you still have your billions, while your tens of millions goes to help older Americans live comfortably in their retirement years. And if you’re so greedy that the thougt of that bothers you, I actually find myself feeling sorry for you and your inexplicable levels of greed.
Let's talk about why is Social Security not a pyramid scheme. I thought this through and the answer came to me clear as day.
When my Dad retired he was considered solidly middle class. What was that in the early '70's? 20,000.00 That's right, 20 grand. Now go back and figure out what his contribution to the system was over his working life with his income being somewhere around a dollar an hour in 1938 and 10.00 an hour in 1978. . Did he put into the system what he got out of it over his 21 year retirement? No way and the creators of the system knew he would never be able to.
Now let's look at one more very important fact. One generation later when I retired what was I making? Nearly 5 times what my Dad made. Was I rich? Not by a long shot. I did well but I lived in the Silicon Valley in a 1,240 sq. ft. home. Middle class like my parents but my contributions, along with all in my economic strata, were contributing at a far higher rate than my parents did. That is just great in my view as I feel quite privileged to have done so.
So that's the dirty little secret the FDR haters never want you do know. The program is not funded exclusively by the recipients. They put some money in and it earns interest exponentially beyond what a personal retirement plan would due to the sheer size of the pot.
The real secret is the new workforce contibuting to the pool plays a much more significant role that continually builds and grows the system.
In a healthy democracy, every generation does a little better, simply due to the way western economies with progressive tax codes grow.
Ironically, where the whole thing can come under tremendous stress is when the super wealthy suppress wages, especially the way they have in the last 20 – 30 years.
Even with wage suppression, removal of the cap, or increasing it significantly like Senator Sanders proposes, fixes things for a long time.
Remove the cap altogether and it's fixed permanently in my opinion.
What's it going to take for everyone to wake up the way I did?
I don't know.
Are they going to have to see another great depression with elder Americans dying in the cold and in the streets like they were in the 1930's, to bring people back to reality and revolt against the oligarchs that have taken over our democracy?
I sure hope not….
Social Security has a surplus of 2.76 trillion dollars and can pay out benefits to all eligible Americans until 2033.
Passing legislation that I wrote, which would lift the cap on taxable income above 250,000.00, would extend Social Security solvency for 47 years. And that is exactly what we MUST do!
- Senator Bernie Sanders ( I-VT)
I have several observations to share on this but before I start I have to say this.
My Father was a wonderful, loving man, but like all of us, he was complicated and in retrospect, not right about a number of things. I suspect my kids will say the same of me when I'm gone and that is fine as I'm human, far more human than my Dad ever was.
That said, being raised by a republican man who had a very low opinion of FDR, it was drilled into me at an early age that Social Security was a pyrimid scheme that would never be there for him when he retired. It would especially not be there for me as the pyramid would collapse around itself due to it's wishful thinking design.
So that’s the meme conservatives started since the inception of Social Security in 1935, 79 years ago!
To repeat, that simple but now proven false meme, has carried the day in conservative republican circles for nearly 80 years in spite of literally millions of lives being saved and millions more kept out of abject poverty in their retirement years.
Let that fact sink in for a minute.
Now consider what it takes to debunk that simple, devastating falsehood, to try to get people to understand the importance of this program and the non-stop threat it has been under by republicans across generations since 1935.
This false meme, forwarded as "enlightened thought" came in spite of my Dad actually witnessing old people dying, literally from poverty, during the 3rd great depression starting in 1929. The first being in the 1780’s, and the second in the 1850’s.
In my development as a man, many times I heard this meme repeated over and over again, “Social Security will never be there when I retire”.
I heard it as a child, then watched while my Dad received his social security checks on a regular basis with no problems.
We all heard from Ronald Reagan how Social Security was going broke, then watched as payroll withholding was increased to cover the future of the program. These increases were projected at the establishment of social security but great fanfare was made by the republicans when they actually just did what was projected as the responsible thing to do in the ongoing management of the program.
How long did Social Security last for my Dad?
21 years and he never a missed check! He retired at 58 and passed away just short of his 86th birthday. He collected his first Social Security check at age 65.
So my Dad worked for 40 years and collected Social Security for 21 years. That’s wonderful and great for him. He was blessed with a long healthy life. The system he predicted would never be there for him, was there, consistantly and solidly as it was designed to.
My Mom just turned 90. She's still collecting a percentage of my Dad's Social Security 9 years later. So make that 30 years of payouts to my parents without a glitch.
Here's the really sad thing. Every time she votes, she votes republican all the way down the ticket. If they have an (R) behind their name, that's all she needs to know. And yet, she literally has FDR (D) to thank for the check she gets automatically deposited into her checking account every month. My mind can hardly process this as I write it.
So in the 1980's republicans carried the torch for FDR's enemies but ultimately gave in and administered the program the way they were supposed to. In the 1990's, I still had it embedded in my consciousness that I would never see a dime of social security. All the way into the early 2000's I bought into this made up myth, propogated by descendants of FDR's enemies.
Then I started to realize I had not seen the predicted collapse of the system in the '70's, '80's, 90's or 2000's.
I started to wonder, with forty years of evidence in front of me to the contrary, the enemies of social security were still spewing their venom about its demise... and yet social security was starting to look like a real possibility, even for me! Imagine that.
That's when I finally looked into the details. I may be a bit slow but even I’m able to see when something is working decades beyond when it’s critics predicted it’s downfall.
I ran across Thom Hartmann's brilliant analysis of the 80 year war on everything FDR worked and fought for, simply because FDR thought of it and they didn’t.
Sound familiar?
Yes, this nonsensical partisanship has tormented us for a lot longer than most people imagine.
I started to listen to Bernie Sanders, a Congressman at the time, that the program was fully funded but was being undermined by an inexplicable cap on income.
I learned that those with incomes above 100,000.00 of yearly income actually didn't pay a dime into social security beyond this crazy cap!
Really?
A cap?
Why?
The people who can most afford it, are somehow given a pass beyond a certain income level while the rest of us pay on our entire incomes?
So the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, Bill Gates and many others pay their “fair share” into social security in the first few minutes of their earning year, then pay nothing for the next 364 days because, what? They can’t afford it? Are you kidding me?
Who came up with this and why? Well it was actually built into the system from the start to limit the introduction of volatility. The risk of that volatility disapeared decades ago, hence the ever increasing cap to cover the cost of managing payouts.
Since I learned all this, I go way beyond where even Senator Sanders is.
I say eliminate the cap! Completely!
If you make a billion dollars or even millions, you can handle the 7%, or 14% if you’re self employed. I say, if you make that much, it's your patriotic duty to build and grow this program for everyone in the pool. So what if you won't get out of it what you put into it. You'll get to sleep better at night knowing you still have your billions, while your tens of millions goes to help older Americans live comfortably in their retirement years. And if you’re so greedy that the thougt of that bothers you, I actually find myself feeling sorry for you and your inexplicable levels of greed.
Let's talk about why is Social Security not a pyramid scheme. I thought this through and the answer came to me clear as day.
When my Dad retired he was considered solidly middle class. What was that in the early '70's? 20,000.00 That's right, 20 grand. Now go back and figure out what his contribution to the system was over his working life with his income being somewhere around a dollar an hour in 1938 and 10.00 an hour in 1978. . Did he put into the system what he got out of it over his 21 year retirement? No way and the creators of the system knew he would never be able to.
Now let's look at one more very important fact. One generation later when I retired what was I making? Nearly 5 times what my Dad made. Was I rich? Not by a long shot. I did well but I lived in the Silicon Valley in a 1,240 sq. ft. home. Middle class like my parents but my contributions, along with all in my economic strata, were contributing at a far higher rate than my parents did. That is just great in my view as I feel quite privileged to have done so.
So that's the dirty little secret the FDR haters never want you do know. The program is not funded exclusively by the recipients. They put some money in and it earns interest exponentially beyond what a personal retirement plan would due to the sheer size of the pot.
The real secret is the new workforce contibuting to the pool plays a much more significant role that continually builds and grows the system.
In a healthy democracy, every generation does a little better, simply due to the way western economies with progressive tax codes grow.
Ironically, where the whole thing can come under tremendous stress is when the super wealthy suppress wages, especially the way they have in the last 20 – 30 years.
Even with wage suppression, removal of the cap, or increasing it significantly like Senator Sanders proposes, fixes things for a long time.
Remove the cap altogether and it's fixed permanently in my opinion.
What's it going to take for everyone to wake up the way I did?
I don't know.
Are they going to have to see another great depression with elder Americans dying in the cold and in the streets like they were in the 1930's, to bring people back to reality and revolt against the oligarchs that have taken over our democracy?
I sure hope not….
Thursday, March 13, 2014
How to Manipulate Corrupt Governments to Restrict Competition
To preface this post, many if not most things that happen around us, happen in the realm of politics. I have heard from several people recently of their weariness regarding politics and I completely understand that. The petty, corrupt nature of what goes on in the world of politics wears on peoples souls and causes many to just conclude, it’s not worth it, and walk away from involvement at any level or reduced levels at a best. The problem with that is, that is exactly the intent of the petty and the corrupt.
When good people decide they have had enough and they turn away in disgust, the people perpetrating the wrongs on society through their bad actions are left that much more free to do so. Hence, it is important to acknowledge one’s weariness, then put that weariness aside and engage the bad actors. It is critical in that engagement to send a loud message that we as citizens have had enough!
With that premise set, New Jersey just joined Arizona and Texas to ban non-dealership car sales in their states. The laws in all three states were written by the car dealership associations and given to state legislators in these states to dutifully sign. Arizona was first, Texas next and now New Jersey with other states considering these restrictive laws in their states. While these laws may not have been specifically aimed at an American car company, Tesla Motors, (in most recent cases, they are), the net effect impacts Tesla’s ability to compete fairly in these markets.
Tesla manufactures their award winning, highly recognized, technologically advanced Model S sedans in Fremont, California. They employ American workers and are committed to continuing to do so with a new 5 billion dollar battery factory in one of four western states currently under consideration.
Keep in mind, this will not stop sales of Tesla’s in these states. It will only make it more difficult for Tesla to compete in what is supposed to be an open, free market environment. The car dealership associations have no interest in an open free market and have demonstrated their ability to influence corrupt politicians in stacking the deck against Tesla and anyone else who would dare to sell their personal transportation products on-line.
Following this logic, one could imagine computer and electronics manufacturers who sell on line having laws written against them, effectively banning sales through anyone other than a local store. The same could just as easily apply for books and music. I would think Apple, Amazon, Yahoo and others might have something to say about that. Perhaps Tesla should approach Apple to consider a partnership. I’d love to see the car dealership groups take on Apple.
My question is, how can these blatantly non competitive, seemingly illegal practices be allowed in 2014?
This is the uncomfortable politics part. Republicans and Libertarians, stay with me while I review a bit of history. I would submit this all started when President Ronald Reagan in the early 1980's announced he was no longer going to enforce the Sherman Anti-trust Act. The result of ignoring this legislation resulted in the wholesale destruction of the family farm by the rapid development of what has become a massive infrastructure of modern Agri-business monopolies.
The destruction of Sherman, introduced in 1890 to combat Standard Oil and the Robber Barons of the 19th century also resulted in the devastation of small business all across America over the last three decades. Just look at any small town main street to see what I’m talking about. Your can get your building supplies, as long as you want to shop at Lowes or Home Depot. The same is true with groceries. Most stores are owned by giant distribution businesses that come under the umbrella of one or two companies. Look at what Wal-Mart has done to local businesses in every community they have entered. The same applies regarding where you buy your gas, there are basically five oil companies on earth controlling all oil and gas distribution. The examples go on and on. If you don’t agree with this summation, that is fine, it’s just my opinion demonstrating how this trend toward monopolies controlling willing politicians is comfortably dangerous to free markets. That’s my only point here.
Regulations implemented in years past as a result of terrible abuses by super wealthy “businessmen” had a purpose. Part of the purpose of these controls was to de-couple the influence monopolist felt, and clearly still feel, they have a right to exercise in concert with elected officials to accomplish their unfair business practices. Instead of operating legitimately in the free market system, they simply get legislators to write laws making it difficult or impossible for their competition to operate. By demonizing regulations, those who want to act on behalf of those powerful forces who have influence over them feel free to remove the regulations. The net affect is, the monopolists come right back to more than willing legislators to do their bidding, at the expense of the consumer.
My hope is to coordinate with people of all political stripes to combat this illegal behavior and reinstitute rules of business that are both constitutional and fair to all who would legitimately participate in a truly free market.
This is a formal call to my Republican, Libertarian and Democratic affiliated friends to join me is raising our voices in opposition to these clearly corrupt actions, committed by dealership associations across the county, who have lined up against free markets as they should exist. I look forward to hearing from you.
When good people decide they have had enough and they turn away in disgust, the people perpetrating the wrongs on society through their bad actions are left that much more free to do so. Hence, it is important to acknowledge one’s weariness, then put that weariness aside and engage the bad actors. It is critical in that engagement to send a loud message that we as citizens have had enough!
With that premise set, New Jersey just joined Arizona and Texas to ban non-dealership car sales in their states. The laws in all three states were written by the car dealership associations and given to state legislators in these states to dutifully sign. Arizona was first, Texas next and now New Jersey with other states considering these restrictive laws in their states. While these laws may not have been specifically aimed at an American car company, Tesla Motors, (in most recent cases, they are), the net effect impacts Tesla’s ability to compete fairly in these markets.
Tesla manufactures their award winning, highly recognized, technologically advanced Model S sedans in Fremont, California. They employ American workers and are committed to continuing to do so with a new 5 billion dollar battery factory in one of four western states currently under consideration.
Keep in mind, this will not stop sales of Tesla’s in these states. It will only make it more difficult for Tesla to compete in what is supposed to be an open, free market environment. The car dealership associations have no interest in an open free market and have demonstrated their ability to influence corrupt politicians in stacking the deck against Tesla and anyone else who would dare to sell their personal transportation products on-line.
Following this logic, one could imagine computer and electronics manufacturers who sell on line having laws written against them, effectively banning sales through anyone other than a local store. The same could just as easily apply for books and music. I would think Apple, Amazon, Yahoo and others might have something to say about that. Perhaps Tesla should approach Apple to consider a partnership. I’d love to see the car dealership groups take on Apple.
My question is, how can these blatantly non competitive, seemingly illegal practices be allowed in 2014?
This is the uncomfortable politics part. Republicans and Libertarians, stay with me while I review a bit of history. I would submit this all started when President Ronald Reagan in the early 1980's announced he was no longer going to enforce the Sherman Anti-trust Act. The result of ignoring this legislation resulted in the wholesale destruction of the family farm by the rapid development of what has become a massive infrastructure of modern Agri-business monopolies.
The destruction of Sherman, introduced in 1890 to combat Standard Oil and the Robber Barons of the 19th century also resulted in the devastation of small business all across America over the last three decades. Just look at any small town main street to see what I’m talking about. Your can get your building supplies, as long as you want to shop at Lowes or Home Depot. The same is true with groceries. Most stores are owned by giant distribution businesses that come under the umbrella of one or two companies. Look at what Wal-Mart has done to local businesses in every community they have entered. The same applies regarding where you buy your gas, there are basically five oil companies on earth controlling all oil and gas distribution. The examples go on and on. If you don’t agree with this summation, that is fine, it’s just my opinion demonstrating how this trend toward monopolies controlling willing politicians is comfortably dangerous to free markets. That’s my only point here.
Regulations implemented in years past as a result of terrible abuses by super wealthy “businessmen” had a purpose. Part of the purpose of these controls was to de-couple the influence monopolist felt, and clearly still feel, they have a right to exercise in concert with elected officials to accomplish their unfair business practices. Instead of operating legitimately in the free market system, they simply get legislators to write laws making it difficult or impossible for their competition to operate. By demonizing regulations, those who want to act on behalf of those powerful forces who have influence over them feel free to remove the regulations. The net affect is, the monopolists come right back to more than willing legislators to do their bidding, at the expense of the consumer.
My hope is to coordinate with people of all political stripes to combat this illegal behavior and reinstitute rules of business that are both constitutional and fair to all who would legitimately participate in a truly free market.
This is a formal call to my Republican, Libertarian and Democratic affiliated friends to join me is raising our voices in opposition to these clearly corrupt actions, committed by dealership associations across the county, who have lined up against free markets as they should exist. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Big Oil's Feet of Clay
I had a vision last night after learning of yet another burst tar sands pipeline, this time in Texas. That’s five major pipeline failures this week alone.
I was also reminded of the obscene profits and seemingly unchecked power multinational oil companies currently enjoy; Exxon/Mobil, 122 million dollars a day in profit. Imagine the corruption that is available when companies exceed the GDP of a majority of countries on earth.
Before going to bed I saw another photo of what the Canadian’s are doing to their pristine forest in Alberta just to mine tar sands. I have seen these visuals before and you can too. Just Google, Alberta Tar Sands. Let me prepare you, if it doesn’t make you physically sick, it will most likely give you nightmares. That’s what happened to me last night.
My vision goes something like this. There is a giant standing in the middle of a vast wasteland that was once pristine forest.
As I approached the giant, I noticed the feet and lower legs of the beast were a different, grayish color. Getting closer, I saw in this grey area what looked like millions of tiny moving creatures. When I was finally close enough to view what these creatures were, I was aghast when I recognized them as us! A billion little humans holding up this giant as it wreaked destruction to land, air and sea.
At the mid-point of this grey mass I saw people dying and falling off with new young people near the bottom being integrated into believing their new role as part of the massive grey foundation was critical to everyone's existence. Their participation was critical because of the "freedom" oil provided to everyone and all the wonderful jobs that were bestowed by this "benevolent giant".
These new additions to the massive grey feet drove huge SUV's and giant pickup trucks. They seemed to ignore the tiny voices crying out from the ground around the feet of the giant about the destruction they were a part of. They drove huge vehicles like Hummers, many times a single occupant per vehicle because somehow they were convinced that, to be able to do so was an exercise of their “freedoms”, instead of what it was, slavery to the oil giant and pollution to the earth and sky.
These new people were so blinded they refused to even acknowledge the poisonous air they were breathing, the dirty water all around them, and the diseases they were dying from.
So the destruction continued to all things living at the hands of the giant.
Then I saw something amazing. People who were once part of this giant were leaving the grey mass because they had suddenly become aware that, what they were a part of was evil. They came to understand there was a way to be free from their enslavement to the giant.
Parts of the feet of clay were starting to disappear.
The giant knew what was going on but was so convinced of its mass global, near universal influence that it just kept stomping on.
My vision flashed forward to a time that must have been a hundred years later with a view of a massive mountain range. I was flying above it, my body suspended just below the outer atmosphere of a stunning green planet. The shape of the mountain range seemed strange in its size and shape. As I flew along, it struck me how the mountain range did not have a natural shape like the normal spine like configuration of all the mountain ranges around it.
Suddenly, when I was far enough away, the shape became clear. The mountain range I was looking at with such curiosity was the beast! It had fallen face down with no legs below the knees with no grey mass where the legs and feet had once been. The shape was covered with trees and snow, with beautiful large lakes in its hollow's and rolling mist in its meadows.
The beast had fallen when its feet and lower legs disappeared and the earth had reclaimed it. The people lived in it, and around it, with clean air and water in its upper regions and vast low lying adjacent lands.
My vision was changing. I wanted to know more. Almost as if I could move by my will, I began to descend. After feeling my feet touch the earth, I approached the people and asked them what happened. They told me the story of how their ancestors had suddenly become aware of what they had been a part of and how they decided they would abandon their roles as pieces of the monster.
Along with committing to cease their involvement as the foundation and feet of this destructive force they discovered two distressing but ultimately enlightening things.
First, not only were they the feet and legs as they first thought but they also made up the entirety of the beast. Millions who did not just buy and use the products produced but also worked for and depended on the giant for their livings and sustenance. In the upper levels were complicit governments who worked at the direction of the beast and its vast wealth and power. Even at the top, the head, were the leaders who managed and directed feeding this all consuming force.
The monster was us, through and through, bottom to top.
Second, the monster could be toppled, one soul at a time. But the souls who mattered most were the masses in the feet. These were the hardest to convince as they just wanted to live their lives in as “normal” a fashion as possible. Life, after all was hard and oil, so it seemed, made everything so much more convenient as long as they could ignore all the devastation it wreaked on them and everyone around them.
We were all warned back in the late 1990’s they told me. We were warned about peak oil. We were told when the oil companies started claiming tar sands and oil shale was the answer to the claims of peak oil, that they had come very near to the end of cheap easily recoverable oil.
The monster had to dispel the reality of peak oil, or die. The people at the head of the beast knew that the reality of non-renewable resource recovery was upon them and they had to convince us all it was not really true.
They hid the destruction as long as they could before the word got out about what they were doing. The traditional reserves had hit their breaking point and the destruction of the earth to recover these unimaginable dirty forms of oil had now been transformed to the new normal. They didn’t even bother to contend that tar sands were far dirtier to process, took far more water and energy to produce and left exponentially more waste than any other form of oil recovery in history. They thought they could dangle the temptation of money and economic security to the world and continue to tell the world that we just could never do without oil, no matter how dirty it was to make, or how risky it was to transport.
It worked at first. Having been hit by the Great Recession, states and countries who had these substances within their borders, were eager to attract and encourage these companies to come to their districts and dig up their lands in the interest of economic security.
But the truth could not be hidden forever. Pipelines burst on a regular basis, unable to handle the extreme pressures needed to push the highly corrosive, asphalt like tar sands through without rupturing time and time again. Picture after picture of vast areas of unspoiled land poisoned by the toxic sludge kept flooding into the public consciousness and literally flooding into many people’s streams, rivers, lakes, streets and even their yards.
First a few, then hundreds, then thousands began to see there were technologies that did not require oil for transportation at all. Electric vehicles, many literally charged with solar panels, began to surface all around us. By early 2013, 75,000 plug-in vehicles had been sold in just two years since their re-introduction. It had taken Toyota nearly 5 years to reach the 50,000 unit level with hybrids when they had been introduced a decade earlier. Now nearly all the major car companies were producing or working on electric vehicle technologies.
The auto industry had changed. Before the great recession they were complicit with the oil companies in every way. But then came the crash. When the auto companies needed help from the beast the beast ignored them and left them to die. The tie that kept the beast alive was broken in the minds of the new car industry and it would never be the same again.
The more people talked to those who converted to electric over gas the more they were amazed to hear how many were not going to the gas station at all anymore. It started to hit people. Why am I going to the gas station once or twice a week spending thousands and thousands of dollars every year on gas, oil and maintenance when my electric vehicle counterparts are not shouldering those cost at all anymore? Plus, electric vehicle drivers don’t pollute at all. They couldn’t if they wanted to, they didn’t even have tailpipes! They actually owned cars that had a return on investment, a first in the auto industry.
The imaginations of the gas drivers started to look at the smog filled sky’s over their cities, with a hope that this possibly wasn’t a permanent condition after all. Their imaginations started to challenge them as the evidence began to present itself right in front of them every time they were passed on the freeway by a car that did not use gas. They started to question whether we just needed to live with poisons in the air from a billion cars and trucks producing emissions from burning gas. They started to wonder if so many needed to die in the cases of those who suffered from lung and heart diseases brought on and exacerbated by the poisonous air.
The final blows came as millions and millions turned to the disruptive clean technologies that would ultimately bring down the beast. Natural gas in large trucks, then eventually hydrogen, taking commercial transport completely off gas and oil for good. Solar powered High Speed Rail cutting short hop air travel to near zero levels. Air travel became what it was intended to be, long range flights of 1,500 to 12,000 miles and even that would be done with hydrogen powered aircraft. Hypersonic flight was now possible due to new fuels and technologies that did not pollute while super fast, clean aircraft cruised through the upper atmosphere.
But the beginning of a new era was birthed through the feet. The average person coming to understand that polluting transportation technologies were not only against their best environmental interest but also not in their best economic interest.
They saw that they had been fooled into thinking they were chained to the ever increasing cost of fuel, creating a constant stress on their personal finances. The sacrifice was so great and yet the super wealthy corporations who always demanded more from them had a never-ending lust for more of their hard earned dollars.
Worst of all, they came to realize this giant monster was directing the most powerful military on earth, through oil men in powerful political positions, to send their daughters and sons off to be maimed for life, or killed in wars waged on behalf of the oil monster. Massive escalating wars that served one purpose and one purpose alone, to keep the flow of the lifeblood of an industrialized society flowing unabated, oil.
It wasn’t until the wars paused long enough for people of every political stripe to realize that, had the countries their children were fighting in not had oil, the monster would not have cared on whit about, “threats to the region”.
The trillions of dollars spent on behalf of the monster, the lives changed and lost forever was all to feed the monsters veracious appetite. The monster could never tolerate talk of “the end of oil”. That was the monsters lifeblood that kept the cash flowing that it had to have in ever increasing quantities.
After the last Great War in the desert sands in the early 2000’s the monster had turned it’s attention to tearing up the earth in places where it knew it would only have to wage war on the earth itself, without use of a military. The monster had become somewhat self-aware that the injured and wounded knew why they had been in the desert and it had nothing to do with “protecting anyone’s freedoms”.
Veterans began to drive cars that used very little gas or no gas at all. They told their children to never again fight for any corporation and to always adamantly demand their government never commit its people to war on behalf of a business.
The children’s eyes were opened when they saw the destruction in their families and in the families of those far away in the desert. They saw that the people who were installed in place of a dictator had turned out just as bad or worse than the man their parents were sent to oust.
They saw the determination on their parent’s faces to be free from the blood and structure of the monster…… and the feet accelerated in their disintegration.
Before all the High Speed Rail, the hydrogen planes, the natural gas trucks, it was the millions and millions of people, who like tiny specs of sand, fell from the feet of the monster. It was the individuals who put solar on their homes, demanded and purchased electric cars and trucks by the millions, that brought the monster down.
The monster tried to fight back by cutting the price of oil to all time lows, but the people had seen this trick before and knew the inevitable rise would come once the monster became assured as many people were convinced of it’s inevitability as it took to keep it standing and stomping through the earth.
My vision was coming to a close now. As I reflected I came to understand the strength and determination of the people to never let this happen again.
They committed together that any future technology that came along would be closely scrutinized and evaluated. Careful analysis would be conducted to make sure that new technologies would never be adopted if they were determined to be destructive to the earth or to its occupants, no matter how great the creature comforts they would claim to afford.
Innovation and creativity was encouraged and supported, as long as new endeavors met the simple parameters of not being destructive to life and the lessons of the past were never forgotten.
I was also reminded of the obscene profits and seemingly unchecked power multinational oil companies currently enjoy; Exxon/Mobil, 122 million dollars a day in profit. Imagine the corruption that is available when companies exceed the GDP of a majority of countries on earth.
Before going to bed I saw another photo of what the Canadian’s are doing to their pristine forest in Alberta just to mine tar sands. I have seen these visuals before and you can too. Just Google, Alberta Tar Sands. Let me prepare you, if it doesn’t make you physically sick, it will most likely give you nightmares. That’s what happened to me last night.
My vision goes something like this. There is a giant standing in the middle of a vast wasteland that was once pristine forest.
As I approached the giant, I noticed the feet and lower legs of the beast were a different, grayish color. Getting closer, I saw in this grey area what looked like millions of tiny moving creatures. When I was finally close enough to view what these creatures were, I was aghast when I recognized them as us! A billion little humans holding up this giant as it wreaked destruction to land, air and sea.
At the mid-point of this grey mass I saw people dying and falling off with new young people near the bottom being integrated into believing their new role as part of the massive grey foundation was critical to everyone's existence. Their participation was critical because of the "freedom" oil provided to everyone and all the wonderful jobs that were bestowed by this "benevolent giant".
These new additions to the massive grey feet drove huge SUV's and giant pickup trucks. They seemed to ignore the tiny voices crying out from the ground around the feet of the giant about the destruction they were a part of. They drove huge vehicles like Hummers, many times a single occupant per vehicle because somehow they were convinced that, to be able to do so was an exercise of their “freedoms”, instead of what it was, slavery to the oil giant and pollution to the earth and sky.
These new people were so blinded they refused to even acknowledge the poisonous air they were breathing, the dirty water all around them, and the diseases they were dying from.
So the destruction continued to all things living at the hands of the giant.
Then I saw something amazing. People who were once part of this giant were leaving the grey mass because they had suddenly become aware that, what they were a part of was evil. They came to understand there was a way to be free from their enslavement to the giant.
Parts of the feet of clay were starting to disappear.
The giant knew what was going on but was so convinced of its mass global, near universal influence that it just kept stomping on.
My vision flashed forward to a time that must have been a hundred years later with a view of a massive mountain range. I was flying above it, my body suspended just below the outer atmosphere of a stunning green planet. The shape of the mountain range seemed strange in its size and shape. As I flew along, it struck me how the mountain range did not have a natural shape like the normal spine like configuration of all the mountain ranges around it.
Suddenly, when I was far enough away, the shape became clear. The mountain range I was looking at with such curiosity was the beast! It had fallen face down with no legs below the knees with no grey mass where the legs and feet had once been. The shape was covered with trees and snow, with beautiful large lakes in its hollow's and rolling mist in its meadows.
The beast had fallen when its feet and lower legs disappeared and the earth had reclaimed it. The people lived in it, and around it, with clean air and water in its upper regions and vast low lying adjacent lands.
My vision was changing. I wanted to know more. Almost as if I could move by my will, I began to descend. After feeling my feet touch the earth, I approached the people and asked them what happened. They told me the story of how their ancestors had suddenly become aware of what they had been a part of and how they decided they would abandon their roles as pieces of the monster.
Along with committing to cease their involvement as the foundation and feet of this destructive force they discovered two distressing but ultimately enlightening things.
First, not only were they the feet and legs as they first thought but they also made up the entirety of the beast. Millions who did not just buy and use the products produced but also worked for and depended on the giant for their livings and sustenance. In the upper levels were complicit governments who worked at the direction of the beast and its vast wealth and power. Even at the top, the head, were the leaders who managed and directed feeding this all consuming force.
The monster was us, through and through, bottom to top.
Second, the monster could be toppled, one soul at a time. But the souls who mattered most were the masses in the feet. These were the hardest to convince as they just wanted to live their lives in as “normal” a fashion as possible. Life, after all was hard and oil, so it seemed, made everything so much more convenient as long as they could ignore all the devastation it wreaked on them and everyone around them.
We were all warned back in the late 1990’s they told me. We were warned about peak oil. We were told when the oil companies started claiming tar sands and oil shale was the answer to the claims of peak oil, that they had come very near to the end of cheap easily recoverable oil.
The monster had to dispel the reality of peak oil, or die. The people at the head of the beast knew that the reality of non-renewable resource recovery was upon them and they had to convince us all it was not really true.
They hid the destruction as long as they could before the word got out about what they were doing. The traditional reserves had hit their breaking point and the destruction of the earth to recover these unimaginable dirty forms of oil had now been transformed to the new normal. They didn’t even bother to contend that tar sands were far dirtier to process, took far more water and energy to produce and left exponentially more waste than any other form of oil recovery in history. They thought they could dangle the temptation of money and economic security to the world and continue to tell the world that we just could never do without oil, no matter how dirty it was to make, or how risky it was to transport.
It worked at first. Having been hit by the Great Recession, states and countries who had these substances within their borders, were eager to attract and encourage these companies to come to their districts and dig up their lands in the interest of economic security.
But the truth could not be hidden forever. Pipelines burst on a regular basis, unable to handle the extreme pressures needed to push the highly corrosive, asphalt like tar sands through without rupturing time and time again. Picture after picture of vast areas of unspoiled land poisoned by the toxic sludge kept flooding into the public consciousness and literally flooding into many people’s streams, rivers, lakes, streets and even their yards.
First a few, then hundreds, then thousands began to see there were technologies that did not require oil for transportation at all. Electric vehicles, many literally charged with solar panels, began to surface all around us. By early 2013, 75,000 plug-in vehicles had been sold in just two years since their re-introduction. It had taken Toyota nearly 5 years to reach the 50,000 unit level with hybrids when they had been introduced a decade earlier. Now nearly all the major car companies were producing or working on electric vehicle technologies.
The auto industry had changed. Before the great recession they were complicit with the oil companies in every way. But then came the crash. When the auto companies needed help from the beast the beast ignored them and left them to die. The tie that kept the beast alive was broken in the minds of the new car industry and it would never be the same again.
The more people talked to those who converted to electric over gas the more they were amazed to hear how many were not going to the gas station at all anymore. It started to hit people. Why am I going to the gas station once or twice a week spending thousands and thousands of dollars every year on gas, oil and maintenance when my electric vehicle counterparts are not shouldering those cost at all anymore? Plus, electric vehicle drivers don’t pollute at all. They couldn’t if they wanted to, they didn’t even have tailpipes! They actually owned cars that had a return on investment, a first in the auto industry.
The imaginations of the gas drivers started to look at the smog filled sky’s over their cities, with a hope that this possibly wasn’t a permanent condition after all. Their imaginations started to challenge them as the evidence began to present itself right in front of them every time they were passed on the freeway by a car that did not use gas. They started to question whether we just needed to live with poisons in the air from a billion cars and trucks producing emissions from burning gas. They started to wonder if so many needed to die in the cases of those who suffered from lung and heart diseases brought on and exacerbated by the poisonous air.
The final blows came as millions and millions turned to the disruptive clean technologies that would ultimately bring down the beast. Natural gas in large trucks, then eventually hydrogen, taking commercial transport completely off gas and oil for good. Solar powered High Speed Rail cutting short hop air travel to near zero levels. Air travel became what it was intended to be, long range flights of 1,500 to 12,000 miles and even that would be done with hydrogen powered aircraft. Hypersonic flight was now possible due to new fuels and technologies that did not pollute while super fast, clean aircraft cruised through the upper atmosphere.
But the beginning of a new era was birthed through the feet. The average person coming to understand that polluting transportation technologies were not only against their best environmental interest but also not in their best economic interest.
They saw that they had been fooled into thinking they were chained to the ever increasing cost of fuel, creating a constant stress on their personal finances. The sacrifice was so great and yet the super wealthy corporations who always demanded more from them had a never-ending lust for more of their hard earned dollars.
Worst of all, they came to realize this giant monster was directing the most powerful military on earth, through oil men in powerful political positions, to send their daughters and sons off to be maimed for life, or killed in wars waged on behalf of the oil monster. Massive escalating wars that served one purpose and one purpose alone, to keep the flow of the lifeblood of an industrialized society flowing unabated, oil.
It wasn’t until the wars paused long enough for people of every political stripe to realize that, had the countries their children were fighting in not had oil, the monster would not have cared on whit about, “threats to the region”.
The trillions of dollars spent on behalf of the monster, the lives changed and lost forever was all to feed the monsters veracious appetite. The monster could never tolerate talk of “the end of oil”. That was the monsters lifeblood that kept the cash flowing that it had to have in ever increasing quantities.
After the last Great War in the desert sands in the early 2000’s the monster had turned it’s attention to tearing up the earth in places where it knew it would only have to wage war on the earth itself, without use of a military. The monster had become somewhat self-aware that the injured and wounded knew why they had been in the desert and it had nothing to do with “protecting anyone’s freedoms”.
Veterans began to drive cars that used very little gas or no gas at all. They told their children to never again fight for any corporation and to always adamantly demand their government never commit its people to war on behalf of a business.
The children’s eyes were opened when they saw the destruction in their families and in the families of those far away in the desert. They saw that the people who were installed in place of a dictator had turned out just as bad or worse than the man their parents were sent to oust.
They saw the determination on their parent’s faces to be free from the blood and structure of the monster…… and the feet accelerated in their disintegration.
Before all the High Speed Rail, the hydrogen planes, the natural gas trucks, it was the millions and millions of people, who like tiny specs of sand, fell from the feet of the monster. It was the individuals who put solar on their homes, demanded and purchased electric cars and trucks by the millions, that brought the monster down.
The monster tried to fight back by cutting the price of oil to all time lows, but the people had seen this trick before and knew the inevitable rise would come once the monster became assured as many people were convinced of it’s inevitability as it took to keep it standing and stomping through the earth.
My vision was coming to a close now. As I reflected I came to understand the strength and determination of the people to never let this happen again.
They committed together that any future technology that came along would be closely scrutinized and evaluated. Careful analysis would be conducted to make sure that new technologies would never be adopted if they were determined to be destructive to the earth or to its occupants, no matter how great the creature comforts they would claim to afford.
Innovation and creativity was encouraged and supported, as long as new endeavors met the simple parameters of not being destructive to life and the lessons of the past were never forgotten.
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