Date: Thu, 12 Feb 98 1:25:14 EST From: boddhisatva <kbevans-AT-panix.com> Subject: Re:M-I: marxian-defined energy finiteness Mark, Just read what I post and think about it before you go off. I specifically indicated that I know there is *not* a free market in oil. I think there is a relatively free market in oil-drilling supplies. If you had been on a list with me before you would know that I don't think there is such a thing a a free market under capitalism. That is one of its problems. Read a paper once in a while. The house of Saud has refused to give Americans use of the air bases in Saudi Arabia for an Iraqi strike. I'm not indicating that non-OPEC exploration would destabilize OPEC, I'm saying that any boom in exploration destabilizes OPEC. Obviously the Saudis would try to discourage an exploration boom, just as they try and discourage excessive production increases in the present. Exploration costs money and it has to be paid for with production. They have, as you indicate, much to gain from a stable OPEC. After all, being second to Venezuela in exports to the US is only okay if Venezuela doesn't screw up the "special relationship" between the US and the house of Saud by getting too independent. Finally, as I've said before, I don't think that the vast poverty of the third world is a consequence of natural resources redistribution. Their problem is that they haven't even gotten into the capitalist game - for a variety of reasons. The dialectical trend is away from scarcity dictating economics. Look at Japan. peace --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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