Balancing Resources

Do you remember your parents saying; “Turn out the lights when you leave the room”? Now the power companies say use CFC’s to save electricity. Hybrid and electric cars are supposedly reducing energy use and pollution. Where does that energy come from? A lot of it comes from coal.

Some of it comes from Nuclear and Hydro. It has been said that it requires more water to turn the light on in the bathroom than it does to take a shower. Maybe we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t. How can the economy, available resources and protecting the environment work together?

They probably can’t. Oil, Electricity & Gas have largely replaced coal and wood in much of the world as a home heat source. Are we really better off? What about the damages caused in the acquisition of these resources? We build modern cars that run on ethanol or electricity, using up our food and water. Where is the trade-off? The only real answer is to go nowhere, eat cold food and stay home in the dark with the television off.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

No Middle Ground

            The world’s political, social and economic middle seems to be disappearing.  In the USA the Republicans and Democrats take extreme opposite positions and refuse to budge.  Paraguay’s leftist president took the country into disaster.  After he was impeached, a staunch conservative took over.  Venezuela’s upper class was so abusive that they created Hugo Chavez.  You can’t get much worse than that.

            Austerity is a principle that should be practiced when times are good.  Instead, the government gets money and spends twice as much.  An example is the Bush tax cuts that led to our situation today.  Now our government, like those of Europe, is trying to cut all of their expenditures when they should be investing in infrastructure and putting people to work.

            The gini coefficient in much of the world is dropping.  Soon there may be no middle class.  When the middle goes away from any structure the entire structure collapses.  Are we headed back to the middle ages?

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/