queues? eff 'em

Waiting in lines is detestable. I spend a lot of time waiting in lines, especially virtual lines. Movie queues, holds at the library, what have you. In the past week I have bypassed two such lines for the sake of satisfying a manufactured need as soon as possible.

Line one: We like the idea of going to a tangible place to see what the film world has to offer. Net Flix is not compatible with Mac (bad move on their part) unless you are a pirate/hacker who can get around that sort of thing. All in all, Blockbuster works best for us...except when it comes to The Wire. We finished the first season about a week after my appendix took my bank account for a ride. I have said things about that show that I am pretty sure I have only said about my closest loved ones. Sometimes I feel dirty that I love that show so much. We wanted to take maybe a week off between seasons but Blockbuster doesn't carry it in store and the line to get a hold of the first disc of each season was backed up for two months. Finally, we caved and got the free trial for Net Flix. Season two arrived two days later and now the successive discs are easy to score. Free trial, then cancel, line circumvented.

Line two: Thomas L. Friedman writes some of my favorite Op-Eds for the New York Times and has written some books that I will some day get around to reading. I'm not cool enough yet to get the NY Times, but the Denver Post gives us a tease every now and again. Last week Friedman plugged Fareed Zakaria's new book, "The Post-American World." I knew the name and I'd heard about the new book. In a globalization class at Mines I kind of forgot to read "The Future of Freedom" and either sold the book or put it in a box in the basement. Feeling slighted by myself, I was very ready to make up for this and put the new book on hold at Denver Public Library. Number 70 in line. Not going to happen. Hard cover books are a luxury I don't afford myself as I spent thousands of dollars in college on hard backs I never cracked open. Having spent a sizable portion of my income on books from the Tattered Cover that keep getting placed by the wayside for borrowed books I feel a bit entitled to get through a book in its entirety while in the store. The chairs aren't that uncomfortable and they are stocked up well enough to ensure I'll never have to wait in line to catch an in-store adventure.

Speaking of bypassing lines and Fareed Zakaria, we jumped in front of a line of about 12,000 people at DU to see this guy (who happened to be in town again today):

history in the lawmaking

What happens when a policy wonk gets an idea?

One thing I've learned about public policy in the short year that I have given any thought and time to it is that law makers are not coming up with many new ideas these days. Most politicians are very knowledgeable about history (as they should be; as we all should be; as I am not) and also have access to interns who can dig into history if they themselves are unaware of certain issues.

I have no idea if the following is a true representation of what happens on the inside and I don't really want to know but please indulge me:

A situation arises.

A politician is concerned.

Said politician sends an e-mail to his research gopher regarding the situation and requests that said gopher gathers as much information pertinent to said situation as time allows and then some more. If the politician is lucky, the gopher has skills and a penchant for reading seemingly unused texts at the library and can find obscure sources via the internet and pull together a rough history of how similar situations were handled in the past.

Once their is a large enough history to reveal that there are three or four logical, plausible ways to handle the situation at hand, the politician asks for more.

The gopher gets to it again but not as hard because there were very big, very important things that the gopher decided to withhold because this gopher's skills are self-assuredly top notch. After sitting on these resources long enough to read the paper and check the blogs, the new bomb-shell is dropped on said politician.

After all of the possible ways to handle the situation are in line, the politician starts a delicate process of elimination. Whichever ideas seem like they could possibly be effective but will certainly be embraced by politicians on the other side of the aisle are put into the "find miniscule flaws and blow them out of proportion" pile and whichever ingenious Acme schemes are left that haven't been used in a while are put into a hat.

Once a plot is picked from said hat the politician sets about writing legislation. If this politician is from Colorado the proposed legislation will receive little attention during session and said situation will be reviewed next year.

some economist

How embarrassing...my first economic post, I misrepresent the information. As it turns out, the tax in question is assessed at the pumps and is not directly placed on the oil companies. My bad. I still feel the same way about its merits or lack of. Reassuringly, the more I read about the situation the more unlikely it seems it will happen.

So what are some good ideas for dealing with the current situation of oil companies profiting from global disasters and high demand while adding to the larger-scale issues of global warming and pollution? Is it by reducing demand by improving efficiency of other fuels, improving public transportation or even raising the gas tax speeding up the implementation of the former two suggestions? If the demand is reduced, therefore reducing consumption, therefore reducing oil companies' profit do we win?

One of the main problems with all of this is that oil companies have such a big hand in it all, right? I really am not sure how I feel about that. The folks running these companies make money because other folks buy their product. It was not Exxon, Shell and all of their buddies who decided to make cars (that nearly everyone would need) run on dinosaur bone oil. The demand side of things needs to take some of the heat. If the public wanted to take it into their own hands they could build veggie-mobiles or start investing in alternative fuel exploring companies or if your situation limits your action, convince people with the power to do these things that they should or take the bus, ride your bike, don't have family in the Springs, stuff like that.

But right now, with gas at $3.40 it isn't worth it to most people to go through with any extra effort other than moaning about it and dipping into their wallet. I think it will still be some time before gas prices hit an impeding enough price to encourage a large enough base of consumers to have a real effect on the direction our energy policies take.

give me a break. not the oil companies

I haven't been able to get over the fact that 66.66% of the prospective leaders of our country are pushing to get rid of the gas tax this summer. There is an election going on and I am going to be a bit idealistic and have faith in our government that this wouldn't happen any other year.
Getting rid of any tax gets the masses nice and complacent in the voting booth.

The oil companies have no obligation to pass the savings on to the consumer. My best case scenario sees Shell not having to fork over 20% to pay for the roads that there product is waring down and prices staying at right about three and a quarter at the least for the duration of the summer. That means Exxon's profits are up 20%. I don't see how this could be a good thing: while the oil and gas biz is booming, the rest of us are in a recession (or at least a very slow growth period +.6% GDP last time I heard). Sure, let's throw these guys a party for the next three months while many people are barely paying rent with unemployment checks or worse, moving in with their cousin because their house has been repossessed.

Some may argue that there never should have been a tax or that the roads should have been privatized long ago. However, taxes are not going to go away completely any time soon and this is certainly not the place to start. Also, when would the market ever move away from a cash cow such as this precious fossil fuel of ours and towards alternate sources of energy(please don't get me started on ethanol: see next blog)? There is not a whole lot of incentive when you have fat cash in hand and the folks running the show don't let externalities into the equation. As that supply goes down the demand and price are going to blow up in every ones' faces regardless of whether or not the tax gets lifted.

poor batting average

I intend to no longer use this blog as a shit wall. You know...throw stuff and see what sticks. My web disclosure will no longer include speculation or intentions (I have yet to go into an art supply store). Of course, since I have now posted this intention, I am already violating my new policy and fully realize the self defeating prophecy I may be inducing.

What then, shall I write about? I am circumspect to reveal any further schemes and can only hope you will check back at a date later than this one.

Rilo Kiley - "It's a Hit" This is quite a few years old and it has also been censored (for shame), as there are two references to throwing shit I thought it relevant.