Because investing in clean energy will eventually cut jobs do republicans think I’m unAmerican for doing so?
December 26, 2009
I bet some do.
It’s kind of the same when they think I’m unAmerican for supporting withdrawel from Iraq.
How on all the gods’ green earth did you come up with the idea that investing in clean energy will cut jobs? It won’t, it will simply change the job descriptions. I know several former oil-rig monkeys that now work for wind companies climbing and maintaining their equipment. Dismantling and cleaning up the old technology will keep thousands of folks employed for years, and building the new infrastructure and adapting the old infrastructure will literally take generations (remember, it took generations to build the cities we have — and remodeling and retrofitting typically takes longer, costs more, and is even more labor intensive than ground-up construction). These are the only solid jobs on the horizon: as we outsource so much of the rest of our economy, these are the only ones that simply can’t be done elsewhere. Of course, there could be an issue with in-sourcing, but it hasn’t happened…yet…
Don’t worry about it, they’re the ones that are unAmerican. There will always be change and some jobs are done away with while others are created and it’s certainly unAmerican to commit the lives of the country’s youth for maintaining an unsustainable geopolitical status quo and you can still support the troops while supporting withdrawal.
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How on all the gods’ green earth did you come up with the idea that investing in clean energy will cut jobs? It won’t, it will simply change the job descriptions. I know several former oil-rig monkeys that now work for wind companies climbing and maintaining their equipment. Dismantling and cleaning up the old technology will keep thousands of folks employed for years, and building the new infrastructure and adapting the old infrastructure will literally take generations (remember, it took generations to build the cities we have — and remodeling and retrofitting typically takes longer, costs more, and is even more labor intensive than ground-up construction). These are the only solid jobs on the horizon: as we outsource so much of the rest of our economy, these are the only ones that simply can’t be done elsewhere. Of course, there could be an issue with in-sourcing, but it hasn’t happened…yet…
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It sounds that while you don’t like it and don’t support some aspects of it – that you have bought into the speels issued from the same big business who exported our manufacturing jobs, sold off our manufacturing equipment over seas, sold off the rights to our technology over seas, and are using other country’s engineers to develop the next levels of technology based capability. These are the same folks who relied on our debt fueled, retail based economy. Meanwhile, "main street" ate it up because they got more for the same or less. "Main street", Wall street, and even Market Street ended up feeling the pain while the talking heads and decision makers of many of these businesses did not do as poorly as individuals. We are still feeling the pain and will for some time to come.
If we do not enter the clean and alternative energy industries both on the technical and manufacturing levels, we will end up one industrial revolution behind the rest of the powers, and growing powers, of the world. It would be like us deciding that there were too many unknowns and too much cost for us to get involved in the computing and internet services industry.
There is a growing pressure from the other nations of the world for us to "clean up our act". If not addressed, we are sure to feel trade (economic) and other pressures. At minimum, we are certainly used to being among the top dogs. At the same time, we have come to realize that we depend on one heck of a lot of other countries oil. As far as jobs go, we realized what a mess a rise in fuel prices could tumble into. But, this dependency has other implications as well.
In terms of jobs – We are down a several million as it stands right now. And there is no indication that many of them are ever coming back. I’m not sure what jobs investing in an industry that will add any jobs will do towards the eventual loss of jobs. Nor, am I sure what investing in a totally new industry resulting in the creation of jobs that never existed before will do to eventually cut jobs. Which jobs will clean and alternative energy source development and manufacturing cut? Now, if we outsource the engineering, patents, manufacturing equipment, technology, and manufacturing jobs to cut the costs of the alternative energy development and manufacture…
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Investing in clean energy is actually one of the most American things you can do and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The truth is that fossil fuels will not last forever. Oil will eventually run out. Also, fossil fuels generate lots of pollutants into the atmosphere.
If people start investing now, when the problem is not imminent, even the impact on jobs can be lessened if steps are taken in advance. We have more time to think about all of the alternatives carefully, rather than think with our back to the wall.
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