It has to be at least a decade ago that someone explained to me that we need foreign oil, in spite of the fact that we have so mucking fuch of the stuff, because we produce “sweet crude” oil, and all our refineries are set up to refine “sour crude “ oil.
And I heard that again just this AM on Fox business news. And that it would cost billions to alter all our refineries.
So, dear polymaths—why haven’t we refitted our refineries, like, one by one, over the past few decades? Or built new ones and then we could gradually switch over?
I reckon maybe because at least in the short term, it would raise prices too much?
Do you think this can be reversed? I’m sure Trump will try but as I recall, he tried last time too.
An agency itself can repeal a regulation, but only by going through the crawl,of the rule-making process. Or Congress can repeal regs by statute. So the Prez can’t do it alone. So……I don’t feel too hopeful.
Reasons for optimism: recent Scotus ruling overturning Chevron doctrine has changed the game. Trump can also fire and hire new regulators who agree with him.
“Can” – definitely! “Will” – sadly, unlikely. At least until after the Coming Great Collapse.
The Weakest Link in the chain is – as so often – Congress, and the CongressScum that we somehow elect to “represent” us. A competent patriotic Congress could easily take care of the problem of over-regulation:
A complete and absolute prohibition on bureaucrats issuing any regulations. Citizens can be compelled only by laws passed in regular fashion by Congress.
All laws (including what we now call “regulations”) have to be read aloud in their entirety on three consecutive weeks in Congress in the presence of quora of 95% of CongressCritters. Any CongressCritter who misses any of those three readings is automatically counted as a “No” vote.
To pass a law, the affirmative votes of 60% of CongressCritters are required. To repeal that law at any time requires the votes of only 40%. Any CongressCritter who misses a vote on repeal is automatically counted as a vote for Repeal.
All laws automatically expire after 6 years. Congress would have to go through the process of passing a new law.
The end result would be many, many fewer regulation-type laws – and those laws would be much better written.
I’ve never seen such stupidity and ignorance as I see in this post.
The high cost of American labor, relatively-poor work performance, anti-robotic labor unions, etc, are some of the correct answers to all of those questions. Those are problems that no amount of deregulation will ever fix.
Foreign chip makers were incentivized to invest in the US, but pulled out because they couldn’t find enough US workers that are able to match their foreign counterparts.
Wage disparity is a simple fact of life that people like Trump and his imbecile cult following cannot seem to find a way to accept.
America will never be great again. America’s time has come and passed.
Instead of spewing forth massive amounts of BS, i would suggest you just get used to it.
@caddzooks :Hey sunshine!
Sheesh,and people call ME pessimistic…
But I hafta admit your answer to the questions I posed is one that has occurred to me, too: why havent we done these things? Because—we’re past it.
I saw an article on American Thinker a few days ago, calling Trump the “Sun President”. That was a reference to Louis XIV. But wasn’t he the king who said, “Après moi, le deluge!” ? And what the title brought to mind for me was Akhenaten, the Egyptian Pharaoh who initiated monotheism in the form of worship of the sun, the “Aten”, destroying temples and toppling the powerful priestly class in Egypt. He was kinda like Cromwell.
The point is it didn’t last, anymore than the English Commonwealth did. Tutankhamen succeeded Akhenaten and restored the priestly religion (which is why they gave him the lavish grave goods we all gawk at today) . Restoration England brought back all the trappings of monarchy and the frivolities the Puritans had banned.
I don’t want to think this, but I can’t stop me: I hope Trump’s glorious effervescence will not be similarly short-lived.
But then: big picture! Monotheism in the form of Islam did eventually prevail in Egypt, and the Brits reduced their “monarch” to a mere mascot.
You have obviously lived a rather sheltered life, Caddzooks!
Would it be OK with you if I use your quote as the headline in my CV?
To be more serious, the question is what are we to do when we find ourselves at the bottom of a deep hole we have allowed Our Betters to spend decades digging? There are some who say we should sit down, cry, and wait for the sides of the hole to collapse on top of us. There are others who say we should start the long painful process of climbing out of the hole. See you at the top!