You Didn't Build That

When the President said "You didn't build that" a few days ago, it struck a nerve in our business community. The President, in an attempt to justify his "fair share" argument has exposed his leftest agenda for all to see. His idea of wealth redistribution based on fairness and equality of outcomes instead of equality of opportunity smacks of the Socialism he so vehemently denies.
The United States of America was built on the idea of free market Capitalism, rule of law and all men are created equal. Have we strayed so far from those ideals that we see government as the savior of everything? When a businessman is told that his hard work and sacrifice means nothing without the state I worry for this country. We live in the most prosperous, most successful democratic society on the planet and most other countries want to emulate our success. Let us not devolve into a society of bureauocrats who don't appreciate what we have.
   

Energy and the Economy

I have commented on several recent occasions that we are NOT running out of oil and never will. I have gotten some significant push back from the climate change people whose agenda is getting us off fossil fuels and using renewable energy. While I can sympathize with a point of view that says we are destroying the earth I see no evidence to substantiate the premise. Is CO2 increasing? Evidence says yes but the correlation between increasing CO2 and global warming has not been proved to my satisfaction. Are glaciers melting? Some are, some aren't, but since there are 160,000 glaciers and scientists have only measured a small percentage of them I doubt that they can conclusively say that all glaciers are melting. Are sea levels rising? Yes. When I was at the beach the sea level rose every 12 hours and then it fell back. With all the variables in the ocean between wind and weather and tides how can anyone say a particular sea level is rising? Besides, aren't they all connected? But I digress.
Fossil fuels as a group are coal, oil and natural gas. Used for power, transportation fuels and heating, these are the least expensive fuels to support our industrial society and our lifestyle. Do we want to give up that lifestyle? I doubt it. At least I don't. Do we want to pay more for that lifestyle? No, at least I don't. So as long as we don't or won't give up that lifestyle then the cheapest available fuels will drive that. As fuels become scarcer Economics 101 says the price will adjust accordingly and rise. As that price rises the alternatives will look better be they solar, geothermal, biomass, wind, tide, hydro or cold fusion. The market will decide. Government will not make it so.