Thursday
24Jan
America, The Land Of Plenty Much Nothing
Jan 24, 2008 at 09:48PM
Here in the Southland, electric companies are looking at shutting down nuclear power plants because they no longer have enough water to cool them and can't risk another 3 Mile Island or Chernobyl. Looks like it's going to be a cold winter.
Solar electric power seems like a good idea except that there's a worldwide shortage of silicon ingots that are the primary ingredient in solar panels. Solar hot water systems are built primarily from aluminum and copper but do you realize the scrap value of a penny is now approaching 2 cents? Scrap copper brings over $3.00 per pound and there are approximately 166 pennies to the pound. It's now illegal to melt down US coinage but there are people shipping pennies out of the country so they can melt them down and resale the copper and other metals back to the United States. Did I mention the Chinese are buying copper like there's no tomorrow. I've got a 5 gallon bucket of coins I've been saving for hard times and it looks as if I'm going to get to use them.
Aluminum isn't cheap either. There's currently a worldwide aluminum shortage with beer cans bringing .96 per pound. One case of 24 cans equals 1 pound. And if I catch you trying to steal the copper and aluminum solar panels off my roof I will shoot you down.
Recently, someone stole Meblogin's central air-conditioner from off the side of his shop. They hit a bunch of his neighbors as well. By now I imagine his air conditioner is being melted down so he can buy it back next year.
Brass is currently paying over $2 per pound of scrap and scrap iron is fetching well over $200.oo per thousand. That beater car you were thinking about fixing up is worth more at the crusher than it is on the road.
Windmills seem like a great idea. Too bad there's a worldwide shortage of windmills caused by a worldwide shortage of carbon fiber-- the primary ingredient of wind turbines. Seems the top three users of carbon fiber are three of the biggest energy wasters in the world-- the United States Military, Airbus and Boeing in that order.
Did I mention the mortgage debacle? You don't want to know.
Gasoline is over $3.oo a gallon in much of the country. I'm glad my motorized bicycle gets 200 miles per gallon. Laugh if you want but I can ride all day on what it costs you to crank that SUV in your driveway.
The price of milk is $4.oo per gallon and eggs just jumped from $2.oo a dozen to $2.39. I'm almost finished building my chicken tractor. Sadly the price increases never made it to American farmers or farmers anywhere else.
Scrap glass is going for as much as $40.oo a ton and the Chinese will pay the freight. Sawdust is selling for as much as $100.oo a ton and I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have put all that sawdust David gave me on my garden. And the Chinese are also paying the highest prices in the world for scrap paper which began as trees right here in America.
And does anyone have any idea how much $3.50 a gallon diesel fuel it takes to get a container ship from the US to China? I haven't a clue but most tractor-trailer rigs get around 8 miles per gallon. The sad part is you can hire a container to China cheaper than it costs you to drive east to west across North Carolina. Why? Because most of the containers go back empty.
Scrap wax is approaching $1.oo a pound so I'd think twice about trying to read by candlelight.
Yep, along with our jobs, America is out-sourcing our natural resources as well. Pretty soon there will be nothing left to sell and no money to buy imported oil and manufactured goods.
Oh, and before I forget there's a drought in progress and the stock markets are about to crash.
Solar electric power seems like a good idea except that there's a worldwide shortage of silicon ingots that are the primary ingredient in solar panels. Solar hot water systems are built primarily from aluminum and copper but do you realize the scrap value of a penny is now approaching 2 cents? Scrap copper brings over $3.00 per pound and there are approximately 166 pennies to the pound. It's now illegal to melt down US coinage but there are people shipping pennies out of the country so they can melt them down and resale the copper and other metals back to the United States. Did I mention the Chinese are buying copper like there's no tomorrow. I've got a 5 gallon bucket of coins I've been saving for hard times and it looks as if I'm going to get to use them.
Aluminum isn't cheap either. There's currently a worldwide aluminum shortage with beer cans bringing .96 per pound. One case of 24 cans equals 1 pound. And if I catch you trying to steal the copper and aluminum solar panels off my roof I will shoot you down.
Recently, someone stole Meblogin's central air-conditioner from off the side of his shop. They hit a bunch of his neighbors as well. By now I imagine his air conditioner is being melted down so he can buy it back next year.
Brass is currently paying over $2 per pound of scrap and scrap iron is fetching well over $200.oo per thousand. That beater car you were thinking about fixing up is worth more at the crusher than it is on the road.
Windmills seem like a great idea. Too bad there's a worldwide shortage of windmills caused by a worldwide shortage of carbon fiber-- the primary ingredient of wind turbines. Seems the top three users of carbon fiber are three of the biggest energy wasters in the world-- the United States Military, Airbus and Boeing in that order.
Did I mention the mortgage debacle? You don't want to know.
Gasoline is over $3.oo a gallon in much of the country. I'm glad my motorized bicycle gets 200 miles per gallon. Laugh if you want but I can ride all day on what it costs you to crank that SUV in your driveway.
The price of milk is $4.oo per gallon and eggs just jumped from $2.oo a dozen to $2.39. I'm almost finished building my chicken tractor. Sadly the price increases never made it to American farmers or farmers anywhere else.
Scrap glass is going for as much as $40.oo a ton and the Chinese will pay the freight. Sawdust is selling for as much as $100.oo a ton and I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have put all that sawdust David gave me on my garden. And the Chinese are also paying the highest prices in the world for scrap paper which began as trees right here in America.
And does anyone have any idea how much $3.50 a gallon diesel fuel it takes to get a container ship from the US to China? I haven't a clue but most tractor-trailer rigs get around 8 miles per gallon. The sad part is you can hire a container to China cheaper than it costs you to drive east to west across North Carolina. Why? Because most of the containers go back empty.
Scrap wax is approaching $1.oo a pound so I'd think twice about trying to read by candlelight.
Yep, along with our jobs, America is out-sourcing our natural resources as well. Pretty soon there will be nothing left to sell and no money to buy imported oil and manufactured goods.
Oh, and before I forget there's a drought in progress and the stock markets are about to crash.
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Reader Comments (6)
So far I have not heard of any arrests regarding the thieves that stole copper...even though we identified the place they sold to along with name and phone number of who received the money...
I don't know what else we could have done to help.
me
Great Post...btw
I guess you're supposed to go arrest them and drag them in yourself, I donno.
Thanks.
What do you know about the Liberty Dollar? I think it's supposed to at least be worth the metal it's made of, which could come in handy if the stock market crashes, but last I heard the government was making some kind of trouble about it -
Billy wrote:
"I guess you're supposed to go arrest them and drag them in yourself, I donno."
Yup, it's called Citizen's Arrest, Billy. To make this kind of arrest work though make sure you bring Patriots team with
you..;>
Verona,
I haven't heard.
Janet,
In my neck of the woods citizen's arrests are discouraged as the criminal rarely arrives at the jail fully intact if they arrive at all. ;-)