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Why hasn't anybody looked at the bright side of Iraq's conquest of Kuwait?
Some worry about the political effect. But all the publicity about the Middle East takes your mind off other things, like the S&L scandal. Since both Republican and Democratic incumbents are caught in that one, the less we think about that $500 billion bill for political malfeasance, the more likely we are to return incumbents to office this November. That insures domestic political stability, no small consideration in these troubled times.
Further, the Pentagon discovered a new use for American troops, just as its budget was about to be whacked. The defense pork barrel will continue to function, and we all know how important that is to Colorado's economy -- even Pat Schroeder puts up a fight every time one of our defense installations is proposed for budget-cutting closure.
Iraq's actions have already caused a considerable increase in petroleum prices, and high petroleum prices are good for Colorado. Remember the last time that it was feared that crude might hit $30 a barrel? Exxon spent $1 million a day on our Western Slope. Coal towns like Paonia and Craig turned into boom towns. New office buildings sprouted in Denver almost daily, and foreign investors stood in line to buy metro real estate at outrageous prices. Happy days will return, and Denver will again be known for its instant millionaires, rather than its empty buildings.
Previous oil price shocks have always translated into general inflation, especially in minerals and commodity foodstuffs. Our farmers will profit and our mines will go back into full production, so rural Colorado should prosper.
And suppose this is just the start of a long period of instability among our foreign oil suppliers. We might start rethinking our long love affair with the automobile.
About 46 percent of America's petroleum consumption is imported, and 53 percent of our oil consumption goes to transportation, primarily private automobiles. Eliminate those, and we don't send $6 million every hour to blood-thirsty foreign dictatorships.
Just from oil, that's about $50 billion a year which would remain in America, and there's another annual $48 billion we spend on imported cars. We'd be a much wealthier nation if we stanched this annual $98 billion capital hemorrhage.
What would happen if people quit driving? The upper and middle classes would have to rely on public transportation, which would create a large and powerful lobby for improved public transportation: streetcars, inter-urban lines, railroad passenger service.
We'd also have to walk more. That's healthy, thus reducing medical costs, and it also means no more fringe shopping malls. Everybody has tried to find a way to make downtown and neighborhood shops thrive, and this would do it. The more people using the sidewalks, the less street crime; our cities would be much safer.
The world would be safer, too, if our presidents didn't find themselves compelled to draw lines in the sand and send soldiers to protect every exporting oil well on the planet.
The Kuwaitis have every reason to despise Saddam Hussein. But he could be the best thing that ever happened to the rest of us.
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