The Economy

A lot of those "unused" leases — I think I've seen the number mentioned as high as 2/3 of the 9,000 the Biden administration keeps referencing — are also unused because they're tied up in one legal process or another. The energy companies have gotten the lease, but they can't actually drill because of some bureaucratic hoop, federal regulation, an environmental study, a lawsuit by some environmental group, whatever.

 

Or, as I believe Ragu is arguing, the combination of regulations and tremendous cost of accessing the oil or natural gas isn’t worth it.

Same principle holds true in mining. There’s still a lot of silver and lead in the ground in North Idaho and western Montana. If the price of those metals goes high enough, eventually it will be mined.

 

It's definitely a mix of both. But the Biden administration is trying to paint it solely as greedy energy companies sitting on leases they could be using and don't want to, which is a total distortion if not a malicious lie. Biden's stated goal is to eliminate the use of fossil fuels as quickly as possible — which, while noble, is insanely short-sighted since there are no suitable replacements for fossil fuels in the timeframe they want to do it in — and a lot of its policies are geared toward that agenda. This latest statement is another bullet fired in that war.

 

Here’s something else that will rile up our economic betters.

Amazon workers at New York warehouse vote to form company's first US union - CNN

 

A friend worked two years in an Amazon warehouse to keep health insurance.

Based on what they told me (small sample size, grain of salt, etc.) it's not a walk in the park gig.

 

Working in any warehouse is not a walk-in-the-park gig. I admire the folks who do it. I couldn’t.

 

The difference between retail store and warehouse is that at the warehouse, each individual worker is held accountable to numbers (picks per shift, etc). At the store level, only the managers get held to numbers. Turnover in stores is so high (100 percent per year is actually a goal) that employees/associates/team members get a pass.

 

Won’t someone write the ballad of the downtrodden oil company? I’d ask a certain someone to do it, but it’d be 37 minutes long and wouldn’t get radio play.

 

There are trade-offs. I did it for a couple summers in college. While demanding, there is a sense of freedom of movement and lack of dependence on other workers I enjoyed at tines compared to other factory jobs. I could pick as much as I wanted as fast as I could and then do nothing for the last hour of the shift. On a line I’m dependent on the person in front of me and after me getting their shit done. Which at times is infuriating when people aren’t exactly busting it.

My problem was I’m not crazy about heights. Once you get to the sixth or seventh level on a picker….it’s a long way down there. That harness will save your life, but it won’t stop you from pissing blood for two weeks if it has to catch you.

 

I hope the Amazon union gets plenty of support because there is going to be a campaign with very deep pockets, indeed, drawing on a global pool of shitheels prepared to do anything to discredit them.

 

My middle son is one of the hardest-working dudes I know. He lasted five weeks in an Amazon warehouse.

 

I don’t understand how they keep anyone right now given there are lots of jobs that pay better that don’t kill you like they do.

I understood it when there were few jobs out there. But now? I have no idea.