Hobbit said:
The only rainforest in the U.S. is in Hawaii, and it isn't shrinking. We've done our part and we keep telling other countries to do theirs, but they don't listen. What are we supposed to do? Invade their country? Oh, I'm sure the U.S. taxpayers would just LOVE that, especially the guys fighting the war, almost none of which would be tree huggers.
Anyone that lives in Upstate New York (like I do) can tell you that the wilderness is reclaiming a lot of old farm land up here.
With the exodus of jobs and people from Upstate New York, the wilderness is making a comeback.And I don't live out in the middle of no where. I live in a small city with about 100,000 people (if you count the suburbs).
Many of the things I was taught about nature and its fragility as a child are certainly not true. My experience is showing that Nature can be amazingly resilient.
With the exodus of manufacturing from the US, the biggest polluters are now in Asia. But you won't hear that from people like RFK Jr, because it doesn't serve their anti-America, anti-corporation agenda. Ironically, it is RFK Jr that has benefitted the most from the greedy corporations, the foul free market economy and American hegemony. Strangely, the ultra-rich are the ones that push this stuff, because they will be the last to see the consequences of their misguided policies (if they ever do). The ones that will get to feel the consequences first are the poor and middle class schmucks like us. I guess if things get too rustic for RFK, he can just jet his family over to some other country where the economy is better (much like Peter Sallinger, his uncle's former press secretary, did when he objected to the presidency of GWB). It must be nice to make rules for everyone else, then run away from the consequences, while the rest of us poor souls are stuck holding the bag.
It is amazing to me that the same people who have been complaining about American largesse for the past generation are the same ones complaining about the exportation of jobs to other countries. Remember the old chestnut that America has 5% of the world's population but consumes 33% of its resources? Of course, many environmentalists don't consider the consequences of the policies that they favor. Whenever you regulate business to protect the environment, you have economic consequences. One reason that manufacturing jobs have moved overseas is that third world countries don't have the strict environmental laws that we have. When it comes to environmental policy, you also have "to think past Phase I" as Thomas Sowell puts it.
Umm... it is the Fed that is dictating artificially low interest rates. I'd think you'd be opposed to this. The market should dictate the interest rates, not the Government!
"Artificially low interest rates"???? As opposed to "naturally occuring interest rates"? The market does dictate interest rates, indirectly. When the economy "heats up" the money supply increases and so does inflation. When the economy slows down, the money supply shrinks and the danger of deflation increase. The Federal Reserve Board (or "the Fed") responds to this by controlling the money supply through raising or lowering the prime interest rate. The Fed was created on December 23, 1913, with the signing of the Federal Reserve Act by President Woodrow Wilson (a Democrat). It was created by Congress to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. By the way, part of the reason for the bad economy of the late 1970s is Carter's meddling with Fed policy. He wouldn't let the Fed chairman do his job (i.e. raise and lower interest rates as needed)....as a result inflation went up to 18% (and I remember it well!). Once Reagan got in the White House, he let the Fed do its thing and inflation was down to less than 5% in a couple of years. Furthermore, the Great Depression of the 1930s was exacerbated by FDR's and Hoover's insistence that prime interest rates be kept high in spite of the fact that the money supply was dangerously low. This helped to start and extend a deflationary cycle and lengthened the Great Depression.
