OMG, guess who I ran into today at the Supermarket...it was none other than...

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by Ankesh

My point is: when people face constraints, thats the time when they innovate the most.

When pain from lack of oil approaches a dead point, we will find an alternative solution that works cheaper than oil. You can count on it.

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The biggest barrier to India's progress is not Pakistan or terrorism and warfare. It is corruption.

But if you're well to do already, you'll keep on improving your standard of living. And the richer you are, the faster your standard of living will keep on improving. Creating a huge imbalance.

(Thats why India is a country that has more billionaires than UK and Germany. But it also has the world's biggest slum. The problem with India has always been: even though we have more oil than we require - how do we distribute it to the lowest rungs of the society?)

Ankesh,

I somewhat agree with "reaching the dead point", however, when it comes to OIL, the race is going to be with the clock. Between the time we hit the dead point and the NEW technology may be enough time for some very strange things to occur.

And if the NEW technology is proprietary, will we be trading one source for another, and at what cost?

Corruption comes with power, always has, always will up to the point of the "storming of the gates", be they at the Bastille or the Russian Winter Palace or in the Boston Harbor.

Re: OIL's replacement, you may recall I've been working the last few years on a project, a M0BILE hydro generator, which, along with wind and other alternative power could put a big dent in our dependency of coal and other irreplaceable resources.

AND one of my biggest "concerns" is exactly what you say...the rich getting richer, the poor poorer and in the USA the getting stretched too thin middle class.

Part of OUR corruption is the ability of a BP Oil or any BIG company having their hands in our politicians pockets and their votes.

It won't change, money talks. But here we're seeing more and more; "out with the old, in with the new"...and a resurgance in Nationalism, which doesn't ever play well on the world stage with the exception of the Olympics and professional golf.

Gordon