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March 11, 2010

Working in the Green Slime

Green jobs have become the ginseng of progressive politics:
a sort of broad-spectrum snake oil that cures whatever happens to ail you. They are the antidote to economic malaise, an underskilled labor force, the inherent unwillingness of the public to suffer any significant economic and personal dislocation in order to save the environment. They enhance nationalistic vigor. (If we don't act now, the Chinese will steal all of our green jobs!) They stave off aging of stale political platforms. And I'm pretty sure they're good for bunions, too. -- Megan McArdle - The Atlantic [Thanks be Quotulatiousness]

Posted by Vanderleun at March 11, 2010 1:21 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

If there were 'Green Jobs' they would already be created without a pundit or government official calling for them. The 'market' (such as it is) moves faster than any pundit's understanding.

Posted by: Mikey NTH at March 11, 2010 5:17 PM

Go green. Lower quality, higher prices, get less for your money. Cleaners that don't clean. Paint that doesn't stick to anything. Harsh, retina grating light bulbs full of toxic chemicals. Electric vehicles that ultimately use more energy than they save. Wind powered turbines that destroy acres of land for a minuscule few kilowatts of unreliable power. Equally unreliable solar grids more poisonous than a cyanide farm. And don't forget the endangered species. Outlaw surfing because it might annoy some life form somewhere under water. Forget about trout streams, and surf fishing. Shut down the water for California's agriculture to prevent a negligible risk to a tiny fish while billions of acre feet flow out to sea unused. Don't worry. All your produce is coming from Mexico, Chile, and Peru anyway. Forget about the energy it takes to move it those thousands of miles. In the mean time, tax Co2 emissions until your winter heating bills run higher than your mortgage- in Southern California. And lower emissions standards until the internal combustion engine is outlawed altogether. We'll all get around on high speed railways that don't go anywhere anyone wants to go. There's a great future in bicycles. Made in China.

JWM

Posted by: jwm at March 11, 2010 7:57 PM

I concur with jwm. I just wanted to add a comment about the plight of the poor desert tortise. The planned solar farms in the mojave are on hold due to possible destruction of the tortises habitat. My understanding is that they were sited in a vast dry lake bed (undoubtably due to mans effect on the water table). So man drained the lake, the tortises moved in and now we can't build there because it might effect their habitat? I suppose all the other major development taking place in the vastness of the mojave makes every acre critical (note: SARCASM). Where were the tortises before?

Can we please just drop a few of the "Greenies" somewhere in the middle of this vast wasteland to give them an appreciation of how much room the tortises have? If they survive, they can explain it to their co-conspirators.

PS I also support registering these people and criminalizing their usage of ANY electricity that they do not produce themselves, as well as their usage of ANY petroleum-based products including fossil fuels, plastics, lubricants and petro-byproduct fertilizers or any products created using such products.That should pretty much limit them to whatever they could make from wood using stone tools. If you think this is a good idea, please write your congressman today.

Posted by: Roger Drew Williams at March 11, 2010 8:56 PM

Where does the idea of a crowded planet come from? The planet is almost empty of humans.Always has been.

Resources are everywhere and in great supply. Just add human intellect + faith to any old stuff lying around and it will become a resource. Petroleum is a perfect example.

GREEN is not a faith. It is faithlessness. That's why Green initiatives lack power and make waste: they're just a lot of go-nowhere fetishism.

Posted by: Robert Townshend at March 12, 2010 3:19 PM

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