Governmental Responses to Peak Oil & The Meaning of Currency
Most people rely on their government for help, especially during times of crisis, if this weren’t true would there be a government(rule with authority)? Looking at the most desirable and more importantly most likely actions that will be taken by the government in response to peak oil is essential in predicting post-peak life. The most obvious connection between the people and any government is currency. Therefore this is the first place that we will notice a difference in our lives once oil has peaked. Inflation will start, actually it probably already has but it will get much worst; there will be a dramatic inflation or possibly deflation while this green means anything. At some point a different kind of green will be much more valuable than the faith based currency. Green plants, raw foods which are high in calories such as nuts and avocados will be the most valuable, because if you do not need to heat your food then you don’t need to use any energy to be able to consume it, also raw food contains much more water and other liquids which are essential to survival, than heated food.
Money is a symbolic representation of a barter system or of value as indirectly and collectively decided on. The government prints the money it is able to manipulate the currency some what. So, what if it looses its value(as directly decided on by the people)? Will there be a new local currency that the people of each community decide to have faith in? Or will communities be small enough that a barter system will come in to place spontaneously (even though it will be more complicated)?
Emergency relief camps will be set up by the government. These will basically look like concentration camps in which people will be living in conditions just good enough for survival. They will also be doing a lot of manual work for the state and will not be paid in currency, but in food and water. This is where the urban poor will be because the government will have to provide them with the essentials for life. Given that it seems unlikely that they will organize in to sustainable communities (such as those in Havana) they will be put in to such camps. Along with the camps the government will maintain control through rationing. If food continues to be mass produced and transported in to cities and then rationed this is still unsustainable even though the amount of food consumed will be limited. This way the people will not know how to support themselves, they will just become even more dependent on the government. How will the federal government resolve wars for resources between local communities, if they are created and managed?
It is very hard for me to come up ideas about with what is desirable for the federal government to do. Because I think that this situation is an opportunity for the people to break free of the federal government and create very local governing systems in which the workers(everyone) will do everything they can to better their local community. Hopefully when a strong community is created the self and collective interests will be in a much better balance than they are now. With out a larger web of agricultural mass production as a form of short term sustainability all of the rest of the components of our physical and mental surroundings must be torn down and changed as well. In the city we must rip up the concrete using abandoned construction mega tools, which are in abundant supply. Can cities really be torn down and dismantled, or is civilizations damage irreversible? Is the ground of NYC useable dirt or anti-life sand?
Most people rely on their government for help, especially during times of crisis, if this weren’t true would there be a government(rule with authority)? Looking at the most desirable and more importantly most likely actions that will be taken by the government in response to peak oil is essential in predicting post-peak life. The most obvious connection between the people and any government is currency. Therefore this is the first place that we will notice a difference in our lives once oil has peaked. Inflation will start, actually it probably already has but it will get much worst; there will be a dramatic inflation or possibly deflation while this green means anything. At some point a different kind of green will be much more valuable than the faith based currency. Green plants, raw foods which are high in calories such as nuts and avocados will be the most valuable, because if you do not need to heat your food then you don’t need to use any energy to be able to consume it, also raw food contains much more water and other liquids which are essential to survival, than heated food.
Money is a symbolic representation of a barter system or of value as indirectly and collectively decided on. The government prints the money it is able to manipulate the currency some what. So, what if it looses its value(as directly decided on by the people)? Will there be a new local currency that the people of each community decide to have faith in? Or will communities be small enough that a barter system will come in to place spontaneously (even though it will be more complicated)?
Emergency relief camps will be set up by the government. These will basically look like concentration camps in which people will be living in conditions just good enough for survival. They will also be doing a lot of manual work for the state and will not be paid in currency, but in food and water. This is where the urban poor will be because the government will have to provide them with the essentials for life. Given that it seems unlikely that they will organize in to sustainable communities (such as those in Havana) they will be put in to such camps. Along with the camps the government will maintain control through rationing. If food continues to be mass produced and transported in to cities and then rationed this is still unsustainable even though the amount of food consumed will be limited. This way the people will not know how to support themselves, they will just become even more dependent on the government. How will the federal government resolve wars for resources between local communities, if they are created and managed?
It is very hard for me to come up ideas about with what is desirable for the federal government to do. Because I think that this situation is an opportunity for the people to break free of the federal government and create very local governing systems in which the workers(everyone) will do everything they can to better their local community. Hopefully when a strong community is created the self and collective interests will be in a much better balance than they are now. With out a larger web of agricultural mass production as a form of short term sustainability all of the rest of the components of our physical and mental surroundings must be torn down and changed as well. In the city we must rip up the concrete using abandoned construction mega tools, which are in abundant supply. Can cities really be torn down and dismantled, or is civilizations damage irreversible? Is the ground of NYC useable dirt or anti-life sand?
posted by Nina Jankovic at 23:39
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