Opinion: April 2008 Archives

Why we have to stay in Iraq

The people of Iraq are depending on us. The population of Iraq is estimated at well over twenty-seven million; twenty-seven million of our fellow human beings that have had their country and their lives turned upside down by this war; twenty-seven million; twenty-seven million people that are only going to be affected negatively by our withdrawal from their country in its current state.

You don't have to believe that us going into Iraq was a good idea in the first place, I certainly don't believe that it was. But that does not change the fact that we are now in Iraq and that those twenty-seven million Iraqi children, women, and men, both young and old and every age in between, are in a much worse situation than we are.

We are certainly going to be affected as well: There is a huge cost to us staying in Iraq for the long haul, a cost of many American lives and a large amount of Americans tax dollars. But it is the Iraqi people that are going to end up paying the greatest price, a far greater price than we could possibly imagine, if we choose to abandon them and their country, leaving them with the mess that we have started.

It doesn't matter why we are in Iraq now, or why we went there in the beginning. Yes, we all know that Barack Obama voted against going to war with Iraq; we all know that Hillary Clinton voted to go to war with Iraq; and we all know that it was the idea of the Republicans, George Bush, and Dick Chaney in the first place, but none of the matters any longer. The reality of the situation is that there are millions and millions of innocent Iraqi civilians, people just like you and I, that are going to end up paying the real cost of this war. Think of those people the next time you are discussing, listening to, or reading something about the war in Iraq. Think of those people the next time you hear a person or a politician say that we need to abandon Iraq.

The Housing Bubble

The drop in housing prices in many parts of the country is not necessarily a bad thing. The value of homes in many areas of the country was increasing at an unsustainable rate that had absolutely no basis in reality. It wasn't demand, it wasn't the cost to build those homes, the price of wood and labor did not rise with the price of the homes; it is because the prices were being artificially inflated by everyone involved in the sale of homes; from the builders, to the bankers giving the loans and in turn packaging them up and selling them to investors, to the buyers of those securities, to the buyers of the actual homes, likely some of you people reading this, we consumers that wanted our investment to continue to increase at such an astronomical rate.

It wasn't real, and the reality is that if the bubble continued it would have made things much more difficult for future generations to buy homes in many areas of our country. It would be like a couple fresh out of school trying to buy real estate in Manhattan, except without any of the actual value that is derived from the huge demand for real estate in Manhattan. The truth is that everyone involved was at fault, including the consumer. It's understandable though, of course the businesses and workers involved wanted to make as much money as they possibly could, and the consumer simply wanted a solid investment that they hopefully wouldn't have to worry about in the future, something that they could rely on, something that would always be there for them.

Sadly most people didn't see the bubble bursting, as is the case with all bubbles, so we now have to deal with all of the issues that are being piled on to the deflating price of housing in the United States; such as the credit crunch, the rapid devaluation of our currency, and a general lack of confidence in a majority of our fellow Americans with the economy and our country as a whole. Adding all of this to the numerous other political issues that the country is currently dealing with has made things much worse than they should have been. And then all of the problems are amplified once again due to it being a general election year.

We have to understand that all of us are at fault for the current economic issues; we can then come to the conclusion that the securitization of debt is a good and powerful tool for our economy, and as such it should not be overly regulated into something much less useful.

Why Oil Prices are So High

1. The first reason that I will mention is that Oil is priced in US Dollars. That's why when you see the value of the dollar fall; you see the price of oil rise. The people that produce the oil are generally getting US dollars in return for their product. As such, when the dollar falls, they are making less money on their product, even if the amount of dollars that they receive for their oil is equal, and so the price goes up. This applies to the people buying and selling the oil beyond the producers as well, who are also simply trying to profit. There are of course several other reasons why oil continues to rise, and why the dollar continues to fall. I was just pointing out why the dollar and oil currently move together.    
   
2. The second reason is that many people are and have been investing in Oil as it has had quite a run up as the US Dollar has dropped like a rock. Investors, having a good feeling that the Federal Reserve would continue to cut interest rates, have continually bought into Oil to make some profit off of the amazing bull-run that it has had. 
3. The third is an ever increasing growth in the demand for Oil. This isn't the 1970's where we can simply stop using as much Oil here in America, and prices will fall in relation to our drop in demand. No, these days the entire world is using more and more Oil. As countries continue to develop and expand into modern times, there is an ever increasing demand for Oil. This is the key reason that Oil will never again be as it once was.

2. 

Those are the three main reasons as I see them. There are of course other factors behind the rising price of Oil, such as turmoil and lack of security in many Oil producing lands, to things such as the weather, which can cause rather large jumps in the price of Oil in its own right. But those three issues that I listed above are the key factors behind the current of Oil; they should be known and understood by everyone.

We all realize that Oil usage is a problem for us here in the US, and that we need to find a viable alternative, regardless of the current price of Oil. The heart of the issue is how we move from our high use of oil, to something better. Clearly the way that the US as a whole operates has to change, the whole car culture that we have built and glamourized to the rest of the world has to change. People need to realize how ridiculous it is in the first place, they have to realize that it is not sustainable in the long term, and that something has to be done about it, and the sooner something is done, the better off all humans will be.

I don't have all of the answers myself. But it is clear to me that more public funds need to go to public transportation, and other, better forms of transportation. A huge amount of money is spent rebuilding roads in the US every year so more and more cars can drive on them. This is an utter waste of public funding and in reality should not be done. That money should be spent towards better forms of transportation for all people, not just those that own cars. Sadly a majority of people want better roads, so they can drive their SUV's and other vehicles down the street.

Driving is a part of our culture and it's what most people want to do, but that in no way makes it right or good for the future progress of our country, or humans as a whole. I realize that driving has given people much more freedom than they previously had, and that is not a bad thing in any way. But it is an undeniable fact that there are and were better options to allow all people the freedom that they want and deserve, that is completely sustainable for a very long length of time. I can't blame past generations for wanting to drive and to exercise their freedom to travel around on their own will, as they didn't have the insight that we do in our current time. But now that we do have such information and understand that driving huge vehicles all over the country on expensive roads is a waste of resources and is not sustainable in the long term, then something must be done about it.

Every day that passes wherein people continue to go with the flow and majority feeling is setting back humanity as a whole. It's setting back our future generations by hurting our stability and our environment. We have to step up as a people and bring it to an end. We have to sit down and put our minds towards progress, rather than selfish deeds, for the good of our country and the world. We have to realize that suburban sprawl is not necessary and has only led to us having to rely more and more on our vehicles to get us away from and back to our homes.

There are better, more modern forms of transportation available to us right now. They are more efficient and are more sustainable in the long term, which will lead to a better life for our future generations. Anything at all will help; simply moving away from overly large vehicles that are completely unnecessary would be a huge improvement. And I do realize that we are beginning to move in the right direction, but there is undoubtedly resistance in many areas that we need to overcome. It has been too long already and it is time to help our fellow citizens along.