How are we benefiting from oil?

[Bpeep]

Whats needed is huge tarrifs on imported goods, but that wont happen coz all the govt's cronies own the large manufacturing bizs that utilize the almost free labor.
The peeps will go to hell in a handbasket, as long as the big doods are makin dough, everything will stay the same.
They know that the weakling peeps wont revolt for as long as they can still eat.
Home ownership is dwindling, peeps are financing autos that are produced like wallpaper, their purchasing power dwindles, they go a little more without year after year, but they are too chickenshit to say squat, as long as they can still eat.
Get the majority so poor that they all go without food for a day, then, and only then, will they let themselves be heard.

Canada is the second largest country on the planet, with the greatest wealth of resources, and one of the lowest population densities. We should be the wealthiest nation on the planet.
We are quickly joining the ranks of other banana republics.
I dont blame oil. I blame the people for allowing it to happen.
There will probably come a time where if we speak out against govt, we will be jailed.
In some respects, we're already there.

Peeps are getting so dumbed down its pathetic, and so many of them have put their faith in the ''Follow the Leader'' game.
I laugh at ''the worldwide financial crisis'' of '08.
It was the biggest ''pump and dump'' in man's history.
And everybody swallowed it.

[Crazy Horse]

What or who are peeps?

[Glacier]

"peep"
"peep"

Amen Bman....

Every man, woman and child in oil-rich Norway became a theoretical millionaire this week.

The country’s oil fund — which collects taxes from oil profits and invests the money, mostly in stocks — exceeded 5.11 trillion crowns ($905 billion) in value this week, making it worth a million crowns per person, or about $177,000 per Norwegian.

That’s right. Norway, the “socialist paradise,” is effectively running a surplus of nearly a trillion dollars, thanks to oil revenue.

About the same time this happened, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation released calculations showing that the taxpayers of Alberta are on the hook for $7.7 billion in debt, or about $1,925 per person. It expects the debt to spike to $17 billion by the end of the 2015-2016 fiscal year. The CTF is so alarmed by the province’s descent into deficits that it has launched a debt clock specifically for Alberta.

What's wrong with this picture? Norway, with an economy and population somewhat larger but on the same scale as Alberta's, has managed to guarantee its citizens' prosperity for decades to come. Norway's oil production is declining, down to one-half what it was in 2001. Alberta, where oil production keeps growing and growing, is writing IOUs.

Norway isn’t the only one, though its fund is the largest. The United Arab Emirates’ funds are valued in excess of US$800 billion, Kuwait has about US$400 billion, and Russia and Kazakhstan have accumulated about US$180 billion each.

These facts should renew the long-running debate about whether the federal government or the provincial governments of oil-rich provinces should set up the sort of sovereign wealth fund that has made Norway stupendously, incomprehensibly rich.

But are Albertans, or other Canadians, ready for the sort of reforms that would turn Alberta into the new Norway?

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01/11 ... 76887.html

[dinosaur]

Whats needed is huge tarrifs on imported goods

You really are trying hard to avoid the idea that oil could be causing problems. I guess you missed the bit on mangoes and apples; google David Ricardo and the concept of comparative and absolute advantages. The other problem with what you are saying is that we are not the hegemon; we the ones who operate in a system sometimes called "free-trade" where the big powers set the rules and we generally follow them. The world has been this way since it started. That means that it is not up to us to start the tarrif game which is a game where other nations will immediatly slap even worse tarrifs on us, it is up to us to fight it, if we start the tarrif game we lose. You yourself just described Canada as a country full of resources with no people (markerts) so how do you expect us to capitalize on those resources if the rest of the world closes its doors on us. Our resources are specialized and most of our best food growing areas have already been occupied with subdivisions, so unless you plan to eat nothing but bread best to keep the borders open.

The last country I can think of that closed its borders and won at the tarrif game was Paraguay in 1814.

We do tax imported wine at a high rate, but this is a bone at the WTO, and for it the sword of Damocles hangs over the whole industy here which, supported artificialy, could be ended with the stroke of a pen. Because of this, both the high cost of our wine and that the feds are not allowed to get involved lest they be slapped by the WTO, BC wine will never be sold in an important way in the rest of Canada, which is a shame because there are some nice local bottles.

Having businesses that can compete with global prices makes them real enterprises that will survive. Cheap labour and lowering our standards and shopping at Walmart is not the only way to do this; we can be smart, efficient, and productive, and if we arn't then we don't deserve a prosperous economy.

[Crazy Horse]

Whats needed is huge tarrifs on imported goods...

Canada is the second largest country on the planet, with the greatest wealth of resources, and one of the lowest population densities. We should be the wealthiest nation on the planet.

Ok, but with huge tariffs, how much are you prepared to pay for your iPhone, laptop, bike, car, etc. Oh, make them in Canada? Same question then. Research how much an iPhone would cost if produced here.

As for the "wealth of resources", that is exactly why we are exporting them. How else can you get wealth from your resources?

[Bpeep]

As for the "wealth of resources", that is exactly why we are exporting them. How else can you get wealth from your resources?

Did you happen to notice who benefits from those exports?

[Poindexter]

"



Every man, woman and child in oil-rich Norway became a theoretical millionaire this week.

The country’s oil fund — which collects taxes from oil profits and invests the money, mostly in stocks — exceeded 5.11 trillion crowns ($905 billion) in value this week, making it worth a million crowns per person, or about $177,000 per Norwegian.

That’s right. Norway, the “socialist paradise,” is effectively running a surplus of nearly a trillion dollars, thanks to oil revenue.

About the same time this happened, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation released calculations showing that the taxpayers of Alberta are on the hook for $7.7 billion in debt, or about $1,925 per person. It expects the debt to spike to $17 billion by the end of the 2015-2016 fiscal year. The CTF is so alarmed by the province’s descent into deficits that it has launched a debt clock specifically for Alberta.

What's wrong with this picture? Norway, with an economy and population somewhat larger but on the same scale as Alberta's, has managed to guarantee its citizens' prosperity for decades to come. Norway's oil production is declining, down to one-half what it was in 2001. Alberta, where oil production keeps growing and growing, is writing IOUs.

Norway isn’t the only one, though its fund is the largest. The United Arab Emirates’ funds are valued in excess of US$800 billion, Kuwait has about US$400 billion, and Russia and Kazakhstan have accumulated about US$180 billion each.

These facts should renew the long-running debate about whether the federal government or the provincial governments of oil-rich provinces should set up the sort of sovereign wealth fund that has made Norway stupendously, incomprehensibly rich.

But are Albertans, or other Canadians, ready for the sort of reforms that would turn Alberta into the new Norway?

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01/11 ... 76887.html

[/quote]

10/10!

[grammafreddy]

We have to get the wages in Canada down to the point where we can compete with China and India.

How do you see that working for us?

[Hassel99]

I thought Alberta has the "heritage fund" that mirrors what is going on in Norway. I sure would like to see the Feds do something similar, however IMO you need pay the debt down first.

As for me, I have many clients that work in the patch, thus as they benefit from wages and I benefit from added clients.

[GordonH]

We have to get the wages in Canada down to the point where we can compete with China and India.

How do you see that working for us?

As long as the single most expensive purchase we make (houses) stays at it current level, this will never happen. Than add in second item... vehicles.

Sorry, better luck making a snowball on hot sands beach in July.

[Crazy Horse]

Did you happen to notice who benefits from those exports?

Yes, you and me. Every time you go to a doctor, or to school, or to a park, or drive on a paved road.

The Norway piece is a little misleading. Just check out their cost of living and you will see that they pay a very heavy price compared to us. And one in 5 Norwegians is on some kind of social assistance.

[Glacier]

And one in 5 Norwegians is on some kind of social assistance.

Same goes for Canada and the United States.

[Crazy Horse]

Same goes for Canada and the United States.

Maybe, but I'm just pointing out Norway isn't some sort of Utopia that some people think it is. By the way, lots of oil pipelines and tankers in their waters.

Boils down to this for me; I think the state is there for making rules, not for being in business. Do we need better rules that benefit Canadians more without driving business away? Possibly, but the original questiom was "How are we benefitting from oil?" And I don't think there is any question that a good part of our relatively strong economy is thanks to oil.

[dinosaur]

My business makes 30% less now. I cant get locals to work on my farm (and I pay more than local service industry jobs). A house now is 100,000.00 more than they used to be, and we are now paying extraordianary EI claims for workers in the oil fields who are supposed to be the benificiaries of this windfall, and the supposed spinoff effect is that we are bringing in foreign workers? Finally, Ontario just anounce 40,000 newly unemployed, a new record!
I think the fundamentals of our economy were looking good before the oil indusrty when we had a dynamic and growing economy. There is no question we are moving around a lot of money, it just seems like its benifiting a very small group, and not only that but that everyone else is paying for their gain with lost jobs and the increase in speculators who are driving up the costs of a home. Cuddos to Norway for seeing to it that this mistake didnt happen there. IMHO if the oil industry had never happened the have-nots we would have been much better off today. Now a lot more of them will forever be rent-slaves because of the way we have missmanaged this resource.

[delSol97]

Anyone reading or responding to this is one of the sheep.

The sheep do not benefit from oil.

As sheep, we are used, abused *wink*, and after there's no more wool left to be fleeced of we're replaced by our decendants.