When The Oil Ran Out
Not so many years from now, some say, the oil will stop flowing. When that happens, here are my predictions:
— Saudi Arabia - despite having a commanding role in the world economy for many years, the Saudis failed to leverage their huge financial advantage into an economy that would survive AFTER oil. While the royal family and their supplicants enjoy great wealth, as before, most of the people return to more traditional, basic lifestyles.
— Iran - after the nuclear incident, almost two-thirds of the population departed while those who stayed reverted to a way of religious and economic life quite similar to that practiced hundreds of years ago. It is a closed society with tightly controlled access.
— Iraq - free enterprise and individual independence helped mold the nation into a stable, central service provider to Middle East countries.
— Russia - while the country flirted with a free economic system, corruption remained embedded in the bureaucracy and “the apparatus” could not resist the overwhelming temptation to control things. The people fell once again for the lies of politicians, the government devolved into yet another variation of communism, and lifestyles have declined to barely subsistence levels.
— China - having taken advantage of their huge, low cost workforce, China became the “labor union” of the world, negotiating for contracts and delivering commodity manufactured products at the least expense. Factories are abundant throughout the country and the people are highly regimented. The government controls individual freedoms even more than before.
— Venezuela - the dictatorship fell and tourism has become the dominant industry.
— Mexico - during their depression and with the U.S. border stringently controlled, the people revolted against the widespread corruption and the drug cartels. After the purging, the new government partnered with the U.S. to implement a mutually-beneficial plan allowing the relatively free (but closely monitored) flow of people as well as goods and services across the border. Prosperity is now at all-time highs within the country and people are immigrating from other parts of the world to make Mexico their new home.
— United States - pushed to the limit, the U.S. initiated a comprehensive energy independence program that resulted in remarkable achievements. Having struggled through many tough economic years during the transition, fuel cell and battery technologies are now the nation’s energy foundation, the export of which is singularly responsible for the considerable trade surplus as it has been also deployed elsewhere in the world. Most inter-city domestic travel is via a network of high-speed, electric bullet trains that deliver low-cost, high-comfort service. Private and military air travel, while relatively expensive, is made possible by alternative fuels created at landfill-based bio-processing plants. The government is half its former size, is funded predominately by a consumption tax (sales tax), and has operated at a small surplus for the past few years. Citizens function with less government intrusion than at any time in the past 150 years, more people are doing better economically than ever before, and self-sufficiency is the predominant attitude of most Americans… the vast majority of whom have homes with an integrated fuel cell unit for power (which charges their vehicles, too), now pay for standard medical care out of their own pockets and rely on insurance only for major medical needs (at a considerable savings compared to previous programs), participate from a young age in personal retirement plans over which they have full control, send their children to any one of a wide variety of schools and educational facilities that have evolved to better serve all people, and are more actively involved in community organizations that were strengthened during the “tough times”.
(Thank you for allowing me to indulge in one of my very few articles that are hopeful works of fiction, as opposed to the vast majority of my articles, which are based on cold, hard facts.)
