Re: Fischer-Tropsch News Item

Quadibloc <jsavard@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

:On Feb 1, 3:31 pm, Fred J. McCall <fjmcc...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
:
:> Why do you think the government should build such a thing when it
:> isn't, by your own demonstration, currently economically viable?
:
:It isn't economically viable *for private enterprise*.
:

Then it's not economically viable for government, either. No magic
here.

:
:If I spend two billion dollars, and build a plant that can produce
:gasoline for cars at a price equivalent to $8.00 per barrel of crude
:oil... then, the Arabs can start selling crude oil for $7.80 a barrel
:the next day, and I don't make a cent.
:

In fact, you lose two billion dollars, which is a preposterously small
estimate. You can't just pull numbers out of your ass, you know.

:
:On the other hand, lowering the price of crude oil to $8.00 a barrel
:would benefit the American people in general, and thus two billion
:dollars would be a very modest investment, with a great return, on the
:part of the U.S. government. Because, basically, it can recover its
:costs by collecting a *tax* on gasoline, or blocking Middle East oil
:imports, or just by the fact that a benefit to the U.S. economy is a
:common good which has been *paid for* in common.
:

If it's not economically viable, it cannot "recover its costs". If it
could recover its costs, it would be economically viable for private
industry to do.

:
:The problem isn't that such a plant would not produce real value. The
:problem is that a private individual, unlike the government, has no
:way to *charge* others for the value that it would produce.
:

Absolute rubbish!


--
"Ordinarily he is insane. But he has lucid moments when he is
only stupid."
-- Heinrich Heine
.

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