Quote:
Originally Posted by Tommy
In spite of its title, the OP spent most of his words lamenting "outsourcing" and the loss of USA based production and manufacturing. So I'll address this topic by asking all to remember the oil/gasoline price spike that occurred in 2012. That spurred fresh efforts by oil companies to find and develop new oil sources to take advantage of the high prices. They were successful. Oil supplies increased and prices dropped. That's the way things are supposed to work in a relatively free market economy. . . . Like it or not, we live in a world economy where a manufacturer in Pennsylvania must compete with one in Viet Nam. Customers vote with their dollars and most are far more concerned with saving a few bucks than the welfare of workers in another state or another country, or the potential impact the loss of control of local production will have in the future. The sad news is that the vast majority of people are far more concerned about what might happen today than what might happen a year from now. The good news is that in a relatively free market economy, if outsourcing does create economic problems someone will come forward to fill that need as they did when oil prices spiked.
Specialty car makers will continue to come and go as supply, demand and technology continue to change. I doubt anything I or anyone else has written here will change that even a little bit. |
This planet will never run out of oil. The increase in price makes sources that weren't cost effective into cost effective - shale oil in Colorado, North Dakota and Canada being the last round. Methods such as fracking return depleted wells to producing. If we need it there are off-shore sources that can be activated.
But it won't matter. And the reason isn't that we discover new sources and methods but that it will become illegal to use it. The tree huggers will shut down the oil industry within 20 years. It will remain as a source of power for the fringe - mostly heavy equipment [I can't fathom the battery source for a D9 Cat]. But the volume produced will cause the price to be astronomical and most people won't use it for "sports" cars.
The same is already true of natural gas. There are cities that have already outlawed natural gas for use in heating and cooking. Use electricity. [Of course, they forget that most electricity is generated using natural gas now, but they cover their eyes.]
In 10 years the electric infrastructure will collapse because when everyone in a subdivision plugs in their electric car to charge the fuse will blow at the substation. But who ever thought of planning.