However, he does deliver some bad news for those of us that think we are doing the right think in a green sense and helping the environment through widely accepted actions that may actually be just myths. His book is based on an economic principle called the "rebound effect:" advances in energy efficiency lower the cost of a given activity, which causes people to engage in that activity more, canceling out not only some of the assumed savings and positive effect but also the positive impact on the environment.
He lays out a number of examples to prove his point:
- In the 1940s, an aluminum beer can weighed five times as much as it does today. Innovation made the can lighter and better for the environment but also reduced the cost so that many more people could indulge in canned beer, wiping out the environmental savings due to increased production of lighter cans.
- He cites government studies that show as the government and society has moved to more highly efficient gas powered cars, the positive impacts on the environment of using less gas in lower mileage cars is substantially offset by driving more in more gas efficient cars. For example, if your old car only gets 15 miles a gallon, you may consolidate trips to the supermarket to shop. However, if your new car gets 30 miles a gallon, you have less trepidation about driving since your mileage is so good and you make twice as many trips than you did when you had a low mileage vehicle.
- As the cost of air conditioning equipment got less and less expensive, more efficient, and less harmful to the environment, more and more people opted to install air conditioning in their homes, wiping out some of the savings in power needs and benefit to the environment.
- As more and more people put in more efficient light bulbs they are more likely to keep the lights on longer since the bulbs are more efficient but get used more, wiping out at least some energy benefits.
- Going paperless saves trees but requires the burning of more carbon energy sources to provide the electricity to operate computers, scanners, and fax machines.
- Going organic for our milk results in less animal hormones and antibiotics ending up in our food supply and waterways, an environmental benefit, but provides less robust cattle and the meat they produce, requiring more cattle to be raised which requires more deliveries of cattle feed which burns more gas and which produce more environment harming methane gas from the increased number of cows.
Which is a perfect lead in to the inconvenient realities vs. the government and political class myths that we deal with but do not realize every day. Most Americans still have this quaint concept and belief in the myth that once a government program is approved, the hard work is done and somehow the Federal government bureaucracy and the political class that operate it will make everything work as planned, smoothly, effectively and efficiently.
However, just like the green myths above that explode under the weight of inconvenient realities, nothing could be further from the truth. The myth that government is effective and efficient is just a pipe dream that constantly disappoints us, as the following examples show. We may be told something is going to happen, we may believe that our politicians can make something happen that they say will happen but history shows that this is rarely the case:
- In 2008, Congress and the President approved legislation that would crackdown on the massive fraud that exists within the Federal food stamp program, the myth. The reality: four years later the Agriculture Department has still not written, never mind implement, the rules, regulations and procedures called for by the law, resulting in billions of more taxpayer dollars wasted since the legislation was passed.
- As a result of the corporate accounting scandals in the late 1990s, the Federal government passed the Sarbannes-Oxley law that was supposed to provide highly transparent corporate accounting rules and regulations so that everyone could see the true status of a company's financial situation, the myth. The reality: Sarbannes-Oxley was an abject failure, completely failing to see the demise of several large street financial firms in the lead up to the Great Recession and the dire financial situation of those that survived. The law was such a failure that the Treasury Department forced all banks to go through financial "stress tests" to determine how healthy they were, the exact objective Sarbannes-Oxley was supposed to provide.
- The Dodd-Frank financial reform law was supposed to foretell if a major financial service firm or bank was in financial trouble before the bottom fell out in order for the Federal government to step in and help keep the markets calm and protect the assets of ordinary citizens, the myth. The reality: Dodd-Frank failed miserably in its first test when MF Global, a major financial services firm, went bankrupt prior to anyone in Washington having a clue it was going to happen. This resulted in the 8th largest bankruptcy in the history of the country and the potential criminal loss of over a billion dollars in customers' assets.
- Staying with Dodd-Frank, the myriad of rules and regulations that are supposed to make this legislation effective were to be quickly written and implemented by the government bureacracy, the myth. The reality: the protection that Dodd-Frank was supposed be written into the law's required regulations and rules are years away from being written and implemented, the reality.
- Obama Care was written so well, that it will reduce the national debt by about $125 billion over the first ten years of its existence, the myth. The reality: according to the latest analysis from the head actuary of Medicare and Medicaid, the legislation will ADD an extra $300+ billion to the national debt in the next ten years, the reality.
- Our invasion of Iraq will cost about $60 billion to execute, the myth. I believe we are already well over a TRILLION dollars and counting, the reality.
- Social Security is a wonderful, government run retirement option for every American, the myth. Social Security is racing towards fiscal insolvency, loses upwards of $70 billion a year in waste and criminal fraud, and is probably the worst possible option for any American's retirement, the reality.
- ANY budget cuts, no matter how small, to our defense budget will immediately endanger our national security. We have covered numerous defense department cuts that can be made that will have absolutely no effect on our national security, including the most atrocious waste of money of all where the U.S. Navy spent $300 million to built two ships that were never used and were immediately junked when their construction was almost complete at a cost of $10 million, the reality. (http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/07/us-navy-ships-for-sale-cheap-never-used.html)
- We current live in a free country, the myth. You cannot be living in a free country when a central, Federal government and the political class that control it also control your high level of taxation, a large part of your retriement life style via Social Security, a large part of your elderly health care via Medicare, whether or not you get a home mortgage via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whether or not you get a student loan via the government's control of the student loan process, and where your voice as a voter is overwhelmed by the billions of dollars from PACS, unions, corporations, and lobbyists, the reality.
- President Obama's campaign pledges to close Guantanamo, not put lobbyists into high positions in his administration, eliminate earmarks, not raise the debt limit, and to provide hope and change to the country, the myth. Guantanamo is still open, lobbyists occupy high positions in his administration, earmarks are as rampant as ever, the debt limit has already been raised once and will need to be raised again, and hope has vanished for a large portion of Americans while change has been for the worse, the reality.
The failure to do so has had the unattended consequences of a losing forty year war on drugs, a losing thirty five year effort to implement a comprehensive energy policy for the country, a thirty year losing effort to fix our failing public education system, multi-decade losing efforts to fix our leaky borders, get our skyrocketing national debt under control, fix our escalating health care cost problem, etc.
An old saying goes as follows: "Our challenge is to not confuse slogans with solutions." Yes, "Going Green" is a wonderful slogan but as Mr. Owens points out, it is not a solution. It is a slogan whose reality may have as much bad consequences as good consequences.
"I'm from the government and I am here to help you" may have actually been a solution long ago but today it is not reality, it is a myth. Political class solutions rarely work as planned, with their unintended consequences often being worse than the problem they were intended to solve. Obama Care is just the most recent "solution" effort by our politicians that made one problem worse in so many ways.
So going forward, please do not confuse slogans for solutions. Real world problem solving is very complicated and often beyond the grasp of the current members of the political class who sometimes spend more on witty acronyms for their laws than understanding how the world works and reality.
If you drive a Prius, still try to consolidate your trips to the supermarket. If you have high efficiency light bulbs, try to turn them off whenever possible. If you hear about a government effort that will help you, either understand the unattended consequences and act accordingly or head for the hills before that government official shows up on your doorstep to "help you."
We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:
http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/
The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.
The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/
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