[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Nano', 'S')o part of my solution would be to reintroduce the draft and tentatively begin a new round of colonisation and invasion, taking care not to cross the outher major powers.

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cash', '"')My plan would be this:
Cut military spending 90%. Bring everybody home.
Cut Domestic spending 50%.
Raise gas tax 2 dollars per gallon"

[Byron100]

To heck with all that birth control stuff...it sounds mighty good on paper, but to try and have mass sterilizations....can anyone say "revolution"?

Since there's no way to avoid the economic crash and all the chaos that is sure to follow, I'd just try and give the people some glimmer of hope for the future, mainly by massive redistribution of wealth. Being poor isn't so bad when everyone else is poor as well. It's when you have the rich overlords hiding in their fortress towns in the midst of great economic deprivation - that's when it gets to be bad. Cities burning down, streets turned into rivers of blood, all that good stuff.

If I had my shot at being the man in charge, I'd probably get on TV and sing this little ditty:

Why weep or slumber America
Land of brave and true
With castles and clothing and food for all
All belongs to you

Ev'ry man a king, ev'ry man a king
For you can be a millionaire
But there's something belonging to others
There's enough for all people to share
When it's sunny June and December too
Or in the winter time or spring
Ev'ry neighbor a friend
With ev'ry man a king

(written by Huey Long in the mid 1930's)

There you go, that's my plan...to share and share alike.

Otherwise, I say just keep going like we are...full speed ahead until we slam into that brick wall...at least the crash will be a fast one...hehe.

[jlw61]

Actually, you forgot the other way of feeding people. Through the generousity of others. In the situation that is being described, the government is the sole decision maker of who get's food and under what circumstances.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')align=center]Giving government money and power is like giving a teenager booze and the car keys.[/align]

[coyote]

No guesses about the timeline or the rate of overall decline. Too many people have too many different ideas, most of them are wrong, and even our gurus doesn't seem to have a solid clue about it. Best stick with the sure knowledge that peak oil will happen, and probably soon.

So - if I am Emperor:

1. Environment: takes precedence over economy. No more "smart growth." The long-term carrying capacity of our bioregion becomes a federal policy issue. Coal plants are clean or they don't operate (phased out). Logging, fisheries and pollutants severely restricted. Negotiate intensely with other nations, especially China, over their environmental policies.

2. Population: halt immigration. Once again, takes precedence over economy. If corporations whine about the loss of cheap labor or goods, tough.

3. The shift to alternative energy is a priority. Biomass ethanol possibilities physically tested in real-world cradle-to-cradle scenarios. Wind, geothermal, tide and parabolic solar dish systems emphasized and subsidized. Let the big energy companies go after all that natural gas we just found, that will help.

4. Implement tougher CAFE standards, but only up to 30 or 35. After that you're losing return on investment.

5. No more public funding for roads. All of that goes into public transit and rail. Higher gas tax, although that wouldn't even be necessary without the road subsidies.

6. Economic incentives for localization, especially in food production and energy production. Encourage large-scale experiments in permaculture and dry-farming with minimal irrigation. Enforce water recycling in the West and South.

7. Get our troops the hell out of foreign lands. Cut military spending. Illegalize corporate welfare.

8. Negotiate with other nations to implement something similar to Heinberg's Oil Depletion Protocol.

9. Old-World skills and crafts programs introduced into community colleges nationwide.

10. Batten down the hatches.

There, I think I've just made myself the most unpopular leader in U.S. history. Now it's time for my day job...

[Revi]

I think we need a program to get electric cars on the road. 2 million neighborhood electric vehicles and 1 million more buses on the road would help a lot. Scrap 3 million SUV's and we might be in better shape.

We need to insulate millions of houses now, before winter and install millions of wood stoves, correctly.

We need to get people out of suburbia and into town. Renovate millions of in-town apartments, insulate and get them ready for the people who will be abandoning suburbia and moving into town where they will be driving neighborhood electrics and taking the bus.

Get people back into farming.

That's my plan.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', '
')That's my plan.

[Revi]

Thanks for asking that question, Ludi, we are already trying it out. We just registered our neighborhood electric vehicle:

http://evmaine.org/

We did the Keep Maine Warm program when it existed. We insulated over 30 of our neighbor's houses and handed out CFL's.

We support the local farmer's market and make maple sugar in the spring.

We cut the fossil fuel use in our house by more than half and now use solar and wood for over half our heating (including 2/3rds of our hot water).

http://www.msad54.org/sahs/appliedarts/ ... /index.htm

Our transportation is by bus when we go on long trips, and train when possible.

If we can do this, why can't everyone else?

We don't make much money, our house is an ordinary in-town home and we drive regular cars, except for the NEV.

[Nano]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'H')ow would you sell the draft to the populace and how would you sell the idea of invasion? How would you pay for invasions?

[Byron100]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', '
')
You would have to know exactly what I do to understand the depth of my Darwinism. I select children who can succeed based on genetic attributes, and then I teach them what they need to know to succeed.

If you cannot make it, you wash out. That is the way it IS. I don't have to make the decision, the failure to survive the environment makes the decision for me. Its VERY tough, they almost ALL wash out. So it goes in the society at large, almost all will wash out, only a few will survive. I just watch it happen, I don't need to play God here. Nature does the work, always.

Reverse Engineer

[joelcolorado]

VERY SIMPLE: Love your neighbor as yourself.

THat solves it all. Youwill use less energy, wont be a pig, eat less food, share with others, care about the world and planet, make changes that might mean sacrifice personally. OH>>>NO>..I hear ya. NO ONE WILL DO THAT unless forced too.

[Revi]

People say that they want change, but do they really? Most people would freak out without highway speed cars. They would rather walk than take the bus. They will starve before they grow a garden.

It isn't going to work very well at all.

We are going to have a very hard time getting people to accept austerity, but it has to happen.

Nature has a plan.

Her plans will trump ours anyway.

[vilemerchant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'I') think we need a program to get electric cars on the road. 2 million neighborhood electric vehicles and 1 million more buses on the road would help a lot. Scrap 3 million SUV's and we might be in better shape.

[jlw61]

That's it! Run the debt up even faster and if you don't like debt, then tax the hell out of the sheople until the whole damned country bleeds in the streets.

Oh, and don't forget to force a solution on everyone instead of encouraging people to think for themselves. I mean, after all, it's so much better to use a $30,000+ EV that weighs 2,000 lbs to move a 200 lb man down the street than a $9,000 750lb EV moving a 200 lb man down the street. If we can't go over 65mph, we'll die.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vilemerchant', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'I') think we need a program to get electric cars on the road. 2 million neighborhood electric vehicles and 1 million more buses on the road would help a lot. Scrap 3 million SUV's and we might be in better shape.

[joelcolorado]

And the electricity will come from WHERE?????????

I am in coal industry and we are maxed out on frieght. NO MORE room on the railroads. Now what?

[Quinny]

Cash no fundamental disagreement but just like to point out that fuel tax in UK is around $6 per gallon and it still hasn't had a sever effect on consumption. Timeline seems about right.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cashmere', 'Y')ou're in charge. You can allocate money in the U.S. any way you want.
I'd like to know 2 things:
1. What's your best-guess Peak Oil time line, meaning, when do you think production decline sets in and we exit this plateau, and what do you see the annual decline rate at?
2. Where do you spend the money.
My answers:
1. Within 12 months, likely (75%), within 24 months, very probable (90%), within 36 months, almost certain (99% confidence interval). Decline rate of 10%, meaning oil production is cut in half no later than 2018. -snip-Please state your premises and your plan.

[vilemerchant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jlw61', 'T')hat's it! Run the debt up even faster and if you don't like debt, then tax the hell out of the sheople until the whole damned country bleeds in the streets.
Oh, and don't forget to force a solution on everyone instead of encouraging people to think for themselves. I mean, after all, it's so much better to use a $30,000+ EV that weighs 2,000 lbs to move a 200 lb man down the street than a $9,000 750lb EV moving a 200 lb man down the street. If we can't go over 65mph, we'll die.

[JustaGirl]

I think it's possible we might hit a new peak in 2010, depending on how the megaprojects pan out & the decline in existing fields. After that I would expect a decline of around 4-5%.

I would implement a nationwide 55 MPH speed limit. Raising the gas tax by $2 and increasing the tax on vehicle sales seems like good ideas too. I would like a way to encourage people to grow some of their own food. Maybe some type of tax credit, although that would have to be done more on a state level I would think.

I'm not sure I agree with closing military bases, except maybe overseas, at least without offering our service members some other government job.

I would also make condoms available for free at every high school. I would also like nurses available to prescribe BCP's, but maybe that is going too far. But to hell with this abstinence only crap. It does not work! No more tax credits for having children, none. You won't be penalized, but you will not be rewarded for having children either.

Other than that, I have no idea. Guess that's why I'm not running for pres

[Quinny]

There seems to be a fair consensus that fuel tax should rise.

Is it general knowledge that the tories in the UK are proposing fuel subsidies!

[coyote]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JustaGirl', 'O')ther than that, I have no idea. Guess that's why I'm not running for pres