KilonBerlin wrote:vtsnowedin wrote:KaiserJeep wrote:
I don't know if anybody ever said that, but the Roman Empire survived through barbarian invasions, plagues, and wars, even several civil wars. The only time there was a food shortage was when Alaric blockaded the ports in the 4th Century. The Roman Empire arguably lasted 500 years, the American Empire is only half that old.
Yes the Romans had a long run but the city has been sacked six times. 387BC, 410 AD,455, 546, 1048 and 1527AD.
Our turn may well come in time.
500 years roman empire and American Empire is only half that old? 250 years? Before 1914 the US were much, but not an "Empire", even before 1945 many did not see the US as an "Empire", in January 1940 the US had such a small and bad equipped army (as the Marines in the early battles in 1942 against Japanese troops felt, they had mostly WW1 machine guns, modern aussault rifles and I think even mobile anti-tank and anti-air guns with more than 50 mm caliber were not available for the troops, it took a while until the US extreme potential was used and reached the far away pacific theatre islands and the US Navy there, since many of recent produced weapons went to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union), they were Rank 40 in 1940 by the Number of soldiers!
But I did read above at the post with the picture of the planet (I can not identify which part this is, no point like Italy, Korea, Australia, Middle East or so... what are the "lights seen from space"? I always thought much lights concentrated, I also wonder about Expressway lights?! In the US with a West to East driving route of like 4,000 kilometers the expressways have light?! "Autobahn" in Germany has no light except small weak ones to make shields visible in the dark, also no advertisement, in recent time they are not building always usual shields but complete electric signs to show what is the allowed speed etc... I think they use modern LED-technology for this.
Problem are the people, since someone said he reduced his fuel demand by 90% and would even buy a 125cc if he would not be 65 and would live in an area with real winter... "other" people, especially in the US, think different. I mean almost all SUV's in the US are completely useless. California, L.A. Area... how many of these rich people there will drive in an area where you need an SUV or the top-seller F-150 Series Pickup...
Europe consumes a bit less than ~50% of the private consumed fuel per capita in the US, and I have not been in the US and I will never be I think, but I would not say we have a worse life... look at Scandinavia, they are always on the top of the country rankings, best places to live... and even Norway as major oil producer has a low fuel consumption.
I mean 2008 we had a gasoline price of ~8 US-$ per gallon, even now with a very very weak €uro and a low oil price we have over 5 US-$ per gallon. US gasoline is just too cheap, New Jersey made a good step with its increase and other follow:
At the start of 2017 five states will collect more tax at the fuel pump. Elected officials in at least nine more states are discussing whether to adopt their own rate increases.
In Alabama, the Association of County Commissions is advocating for a $1.2 billion bond issue for roads in the upcoming regular session.
The plan would use a 3-cent increase in the fuel tax to pay off the bonds. The rate increase would sunset when the bonds are paid off.
The US have to increase the federal tax for gasoline and the states too. The actual taxes are not enough to maintain infrastructure. Same with electricity, the use is high because of a dream price of 0.12$/kWh in 2012 (last info I did read months ago), we payed in 2015 in Germany over 0,30$ (or 0,285€/kWh) for example.
I think this low price is only possible through extreme high own natural gas and coal production, the extreme much nuclear reactors and an increasing renewable energy part... Increase the price from 0.12$ to 0.35$ per kWh and people would care more about their energy use...
Back to oil, we will see which are the other states, the article is quite long:
http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=32484#.WF5nJVPhCM8But more important would be a federal tax increase which would affect all of the current ~325.5 million people living in the US.