(no subject)
Okay, now if you were to ask me if Iran's building nuclear warheads or something, I wouldn't know what to say. I know none of the facts--what the grade of the uranium they're mining (or buying) is, or even what grade would be necessary to make an ICBM, but I've been noticing something totally bullshit going on in the news. Everybody who reports on the Iran situation says something like "Iran is insisting they're doing nuclear research for the purposes of building nuclear power plants, despite the fact that the country is oil-rich."
Now, I don't know if they have some malicious motive behind nuclear development and testing, but there's something we have to take into account--Iran doesn't own any oil refineries...all of the oil refineries in the world are owned by western companies. I'm not claiming cultural imperialism or anything since the Iranian royal family has enough money to invest in, buy, or build oil refineries, they just don't. Given that they can't refine oil (at their present state), the fact that there's oil in the ground doesn't mean that they're going to be able to run an oil-burning power plant cheaper than anyone in say...Ohio, much less Texas. So, maybe I'm wrong here but Iran's oil reserves are no more evidence of their ability to cost-effectively provide power to their citizens than the Amazon rainforest is evidence of cheap pencil prices in Brazil. Crude oil and lumber are intermediate goods, pencils and refined oil are finished goods. Oy.
I'm not familiar with the other arguments, mind you, but I notice that that's a very bad one.
Now, I don't know if they have some malicious motive behind nuclear development and testing, but there's something we have to take into account--Iran doesn't own any oil refineries...all of the oil refineries in the world are owned by western companies. I'm not claiming cultural imperialism or anything since the Iranian royal family has enough money to invest in, buy, or build oil refineries, they just don't. Given that they can't refine oil (at their present state), the fact that there's oil in the ground doesn't mean that they're going to be able to run an oil-burning power plant cheaper than anyone in say...Ohio, much less Texas. So, maybe I'm wrong here but Iran's oil reserves are no more evidence of their ability to cost-effectively provide power to their citizens than the Amazon rainforest is evidence of cheap pencil prices in Brazil. Crude oil and lumber are intermediate goods, pencils and refined oil are finished goods. Oy.
I'm not familiar with the other arguments, mind you, but I notice that that's a very bad one.