The Price of Not Buying Oil Sure Is Going Up Lately
In case you were wondering where all the balls in the entire world went, look no further. They're in Saudi Arabia, being used to make mind-blowing demands like this…
Saudi Arabia is trying to enlist other oil-producing countries to support a provocative idea: if wealthy countries reduce their oil consumption to combat global warming, they should pay compensation to oil producers…
"Assisting us as oil-exporting countries in achieving economic diversification is very crucial for us through foreign direct investments, technology transfer, insurance and funding," [chief Saudi negotiator, Mohammad al-Sabban] said in an e-mail message.
This Saudi position has emerged periodically as a source of dispute since the earliest global climate talks, in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It is surfacing again as Saudi Arabia tries to build a coalition of producers to extract concessions in Copenhagen.
Let's look at this in bullet points…
* Saudi Arabia has almost all the oil.
* Saudi Arabia uses its oil supply to get almost all the money.
* The world tries to keep some of its money by trying to not use as much oil.
* Saudi Arabia demands reparations for this backhanded maneuvering.
Wow. The logic is so simple and yet so crazy. I feel like I need a drink after trying to work that through my brain. But, ugh, I should really wait till I get back to my neighborhood tonight so I can buy a six-pack from the deli around the corner from my apartment.
It's kind of overpriced, but less expensive then the price for not buy a six-pack there. It costs $12 dollars to not buy a six-pack there. Am I crazy or is that unreasonable?
Of course, what I'd really like to do is quit drinking and dry out for a while. But I don't think i can afford it.
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Or, they could just funnel some of that money that they're making now into developing industry to attract FDI and diversify their economy, developing research, insuring things, and well funding things. But I guess they must be squirreling all those oil profits away for a rainy day, and as we all know it doesn't rain much in Saudi Arabia…
Sharia law?
It's sorta like how some states' settlement money from the tobacco lawsuit(s) went to compensate tobacco growers because they lost so much business. And by sorta I mean exactly the same.
It's a true story but old enough that teh Internet is making it hard to find. But here's a reference point.