janelane wrote:

ibenez wrote:

Three is nothing wrong with this. Let them control the oil, they will always need to sell it to us. If they don't sell it to us, we'll seize the company's assets (so sorry China).

Same goes for France's Airbus USAF contract bid. Not a problem.

The thing noone seems to mention here is - the power of the American consumer controls everything.

Even if oil prices did boil down entirely to buying power, China's energy requirements will outstrip the US' in a matter of years. Their rampant population growth coupled with a obsessive desire to "be like the West" pits their middle class on the verge of an explosive consuming force. AND, China doesn't give a shit about controlling governments in far off lands so long as their staggering energy needs are met. So, who has the greater power: China, at 1.44 billion people in 2025, or the US, at 350 million (or 24% of China's population)?*

The answer to the riddle of world energy powers isn't _consumption_ but _reduction_. Whosoever can beat the exponential growth of population with a low-sloping linear growth in energy consumption wins.

BTW: Everyone should read "Resource Wars". 1997 wasn't that long ago, and the book will open your eyes with facts and figures, not baseless conjecture. It will make you think twice about everything, even whether to buy that incandescent bulb (which puts out 9 times more heat than light) or a 5-year compact fluourescent with an energy efficiency 5 times that of the century-old incandescent technology.

-janelane, realistically

*http://esa.un.org/unpp/p2k0data.asp

I agree with you but I still don't think China is ultimately going to be a problem. Once oil becomes to expensive for us in the states, we'll invent something new. If we don't invent something new, we'll take someone else's invention and "actualize" it.

For example, here are things that Americans either invented or "actualized".

Cars, Planes, Spaceshuttle, transistor, cell phone, regular phone, GPS, stealth technology, Taco Bell, and the list goes on and on.

The best thing that can happen to us is that we lose out oil supply - then we'll do what we always do - reinvent.

You know GM already has a hydrogen powered car - not very practical right now, but I'd bet the farm that if push came to shove, the USA would just invent. So I say bring it on.

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