Want to bring jobs back to America? Take the bus. Want to reduce the power of the financial sector? Work from home. Want to help the environment? Buy an electric car. Prefer we stop fighting endless wars? Stop burning oil. Pretty simple, all things considered, do your best to give up your gas car or quit complaining about the state of the world. From Hannes Lacher's Beyond globalization
Globalization itself has come in for reconsideration, as recent events have strengthened the case of those scholars who (even before 2001) stressed the close link between global economic integration and US efforts to reconstruct its hegemony since the 1970s. Peter Gowan (2003 and 1999), in particular, has argued that globalization is, in essence, Americanization. This involves three dimensions of restructuring. First, it includes measures to open up spaces of accumulation in which American firms are highly competitive, especially in financial services. Second, it entails the reconstruction of global financial institutions so as to underpin the management of America's trade and budget deficits in all their internal and external aspects. Third, it involves the partial reconstruction of domestic political economies along the lines of the American model (or at least according to American prescriptions).
Recent American history in a nutshell
America hits peak oil but continues using 1/5 world oil production =>
1970s oil shocks =>
America rejects Carter saying drive 55 (which really works I know from the Volt dashboard) and goes with Reagan instead =>
push for "free" trade to keep the oil coming in =>
loss of jobs to outsourcing =>
trade deficits and rise of the financial sector =>
endless war in the Middle East =>
youth reduced lung capacity from pollution, increased global warming and BP destroys an ocean =>
endless recession
In short the delicate balancing act of our economy was toppled by America's unwillingness to get off oil and the fact that as an increasingly dominant world power we didn't have to.
Americans and maybe humans in general reject the idea that our population or desire for physical resources has any effect on us or the world. Without this connection between cause and effect no governance is possible. We can only squabble over what is considered a limitless bounty. But how necessary is oil?
America uses nearly 70% of its oil consumption for transportation and the Leaf and Volt electric cars are now available and solid state batteries are coming. America's electric grid is strong, extensible and not dependent on oil. Electric trains and buses can be rolled out. We also have plenty of bandwidth for more office workers to work at home or close to home. But in general we simply can't be certain because America does not have an economic system where technology decisions can be made rationally.
However even if we can get off of foreign oil the economic devastation that it started may not be easily reversible. Both getting off of oil and and what follows will require dedication to a new American institution of sustainability. Or we can go the hard way
The International Energy Agency reported Feb. 10 that world oil demand in 2010 had risen more strongly than previously thought and would increase further to exceed 90 million barrels per day for the first time by the end of this year. The U.S. predicts that oil prices could average about $93 a barrel in 2011.
And in that case everyone following our path will go the hard way also
Unlike Japan, China has not been able to curb oil consumption through energy conservation and efficiency. As a result, it has gone from being a net oil exporter in the early 1990s to the much more precarious position of having to import 55 percent of its oil in 2010.
And maybe following our path on the military action side as well
On the negative side, China's quest for energy security is being extended offshore in Asia into actual or prospective oil and gas zones that are also claimed by Japan and other Asian states. If backed by China's increasingly strong armed forces, this push will heighten the potential for conflict.