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Herm, sure. Now since energy prices are directly linked to the price of almost every good and service, how does massive inflation and unemployment, basically another "great depression" grab you?
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Those are scare-mongering words. I say conserve. It's better for the planet, our health (air pollution has been linked to a higher number of asthmatic cases in children), better on our pocketbooks in the long run (oh wait, we have the CEO president - ceos are only concerned about today and forget that tomorrow might exist) and better on our political and foreign capital. Besides that, just because a system is broken, why not fix it? Politicians need to stop listening to the scared lobbyists from GM and start taking action. Otherwise, when the inevitable day comes when we have to break our ties to oil (say, when there's none left), it will cause a Great Depression.
To say that conservation will cause 95% inflation instead of 100% - that just doesn't make sense.
Prices will rise as new technologies come into use. However, they will not stay high for long. Economics dictates that the prices of these technologies will decrease over time. Take, for example, the cost of less than 100% gasoline powered vehicles. In the mid 90s, an electric vehicle was in the $40k range. Now you can get a Honda Civic Hybrid for less than $20k.
New means of acquiring energy are going to become a necessity. The question is whether we're going to let it become one, or 'pre-emptively' skirt it? (ie. develop the technologies now)
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Regardless, it's entirely possible that if Hussein isn't stopped, he could be the next Hitler. I haven't made up my mind about a war with Iraq, but I'm certainly not liking the idea that the US should only step up after it's been hit. We waited long enough in WWI & WWII; I see no reason to make the same mistake three times.
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This is more rhetoric. While Hussein has been horrible to his people, he has shown no signs of invading other nations since he was pushed out of Kuwait a decade ago. Don't get me wrong - he's a horrible man, the perpetrator of gross human rights violations - but he is no Hitler. His country is not in the economic situation that Germany was before World War II. Do you know that 4k-6k Iraqis die every month as a direct result of the economic sanctions? You wouldn't have seen any such statistics about 1930s Germany.
Besides that, it is in violation of the Un Charter (which we not only signed, we basically wrote) to attack another country without provocation. That's why Bush's only justifiable path towards war is through the UN.