Reducing our living expenses by changing away from fossil fuels and corporate control of communications infrastructure.

Date:   8/9/2008 1:21:02 PM ( 16 y ago)

Is this really a "free" society when we don't even get to see the questions, much less make the decisions?

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Electric cars, powered by batteries, means never buying gasoline again, and it is entirely possible, techologically.

Producing electricity ourselves, in any number of ways, wouild mean no more monthly electric bills. Plus, you can charge up your car at night from your own electrical power.

Heating bills can likewise be scrapped - you heat your home with in other ways.

That would really help most people out, to get rid of those bills. And it is all very much ready to go, it is more than possible, it is a system waiting to be used.

Furthermore, on a slightly different slant, our phone bills, and the cable TV bill, could be done away with!! - by organising a "citizen owned" network that set up communications infrastructure. Once it is set up, there is little expense in running these things; we could be paying just $5 a month for phone service instead of $150 a month, and $1 a month for cable TV. Governments originally set up the first phone and electric grids [in about the 1920s], and people just used them, because that is what governments are for... but then governments gave it away to corporations - we simply need to get that back. Governments regulate how much phone companies can charge us - and it has little to do with the cost of running the system. If governments regulated phone companies to charge us "cost plus 5%", we would be paying about $5 /month.

I suppose this could be called "socialism", and then some right-wingers will foam at the mouth and utter the words "communism", but in reality it is just using governmental organisation to do good things for people, in areas of life where we all use those things.

In Venezuela, gasoline costs just pennies per gallon, because they are using their own oil to make gasoline, and since natural resources are owned "by the people" it makes sense to let the people use it at cost. And the actual cost to make gasoline from crude oil is just pennies per gallon... thats right, it is the same in the USA and Canada, just pennies per gallon to refine the stuff if you don't have to pay for the crude oil first, like in Venezuela where they produce more than they need for theselves [as in Canada]. But Canadians pay more than Americans do for gasoline - it is all just choices made by governments to benefit corporations.

So, it is possible to get rid of big phone bills and to stop buying gasoline, it is just a matter of choice about how things are run. We are supposedly living in a free society, but that is not true ; corruption would be the proper word for this situation. We do not get to make the decisions, and things have been going this way for so long that we don't even know that there is another way to do things.

We don't even get to see the questions, much less make the decisions!!

---------------------------Details:
First, exploding some myths:
Electric cars can go 300 miles on a single charge, and another 100 miles on a 10 minute quick charge.
They do not blow up and spray acid on everybody in the area, that has never happened, it is just a stupid rumour.

Okay, so now what is the excuse?

There really is not technological hurdles for running cars on batteries now - the lithium ion battery in your cell phone allows for such small cell phone because lots of energy can be put into a small package that does not weigh very much. The Tesla company is producing a car that runs on lithium ion batteries, and even GM's Volt car will use these batteries if they ever decide to actually produce the Volt.

Government is getting in the way - they refuse to allow battery powered cars on the roads, and anyone who produces a battery powered car is risking a lot of money if the cars cannot be driven - who would buy one in that case?

Governments cite safety as the reason for not permitting electric vehciles on the roads - they say that these cars are too slow, they might blow up, and they are too heavy. WRONG!!! In London and Westminster [England], they have about 10,000 battery powered vehicles on the roads, and in the past 5 years since they started using them NOT ONE INJURY has occured for any of the above reasons. The real reason for not permitting electric vehicles is closer to "corruption", or "conspiracy" [that word again!!].

Canada's government is saying the exact things about electric vehicles as the USA government is - which shows they are in it together, and being directed by another, higher, power.

The movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?" should have put an end to any of these questions about the viability of electric cars, and it explains WHY electric cars are not being sold to the public. It CAN be done. In fact, several regular little local garages are offering to retrofit your small vehicles to battery power. If a regular machanic can do it, imagine how much easier it would be for a car maker to build electric vehicles? [lots].


----------------------------------conclusion:
How would your life be different if you didn't have any utility bills and if you didn't have to buy gasoline for your vehicles anymore?

It is merely a CHOICE that we continue to pay these expenses, but we don't get to make those choices. We have been deceived into thinking we live in a free society where the majority gets to make the choices about how we live our lives.

We gave that choice away when we "allowed" government to become so entangled with corporations. Now, the oil companies have enough political power to tell government to not allow electric vehicles to be manufactured. If electric cars were sold to all who wants one, oil prices would go down and gasoline sales would "tank" [pun intended!!]. Oil Executives would not get their $10 to $50 million a year paycheques. They would not be earning the record breaking profits in times when the public is paying the highest prices EVER for gasoline. Crude oil prices go UP, and we pay MORE, while the big oil companies make MORE money - they cry about having to pay the high price to make gasoline, but they have another arm of their corporation that SELLS that high priced oil, so they make money anyhow.


Untilites and phone and cable are so obviously a gift to corporations. Nuff said.

But what would happen to the economy if all these things changed in the public's favour? Would the dollar crash and everyone be out of a job and starve? No, just look at Venezuela, or other socialist nations - they still have an economy, it is just aimed at benefitting the public instead of the corporations. Sure, some TYPES of jobs would be lost, but other jobs would open up, such as making renewable energy products such as wind turbines [there is a three year waiting list for the big ones now, and we will never get caught up as they catch on around the world]. Solar panels, underground heating and cooling installations, and all sorts of tidal and wave powered generators will be needed. Manufacturing jobs would skyrocket if the oil companies got out of the way... our economy is stagnating.

Finally, a last word: we are choking on the emissions from fossil fuels and we are finding out just how many diseases are caused by, or worsened, by the pollution in the air. The natural world is in upheaval due to global warming. Once the perma frost starts melting and the polar ice is gone in summer, the global heating will really start to skyrocket too. That will take place before 2025, as my grandaughter is graduating from high school... there won't be much left for them unless we change our ways now... but she COULD have blue skies and stable climate, and she could get a good job making wind turbines if we DO make these changes.

So, if not for climate change, then for pollution, and if not for either of those two good reasons, then for the fact that ordinary people, the great majority of citizens, would see their standard of living go up because they will not be burdened by the high costs of gasoline and utility bills - that is why we must abandon fossil fuels and use renewable energy and kick the corporations out of government.

 

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