Author: Thomas Lee Abshier
by Thomas Lee Abshier, ND
Government should be the focal forum in the debate on national priorities. Taxes and group purchases (governmental expenditures) are the action-expression of society’s priorities and desires. These functions reflect government’s Constitutional mandate to “Promote the General Welfare”.
The application of affordable and plentiful electrical power will allow America (and the world) to address and solve many of the vexing Social/Economic problems facing us:
Solar, wind, and biomass-derived energy provide the virtually limitless energy needed to drive the engines of industry.
With sufficient affordable non-polluting power available, the economy of every country could potentially thrive.
Increased production enables increased consumption and compensation.
Increased employment follows rising production and consumption.
An abundant productive capacity eases the burden of charitable expenditures & social programs.
Supporting the elderly and poor
Affordable major medical care for all income brackets
Quality K-12 education, college training, and vocational training and retraining
A productive society can afford to divert the tools of production to support large group efforts
Dams, roads, research, and defense
This vision is only possible with plentiful and affordable energy available to combine with capital, raw materials, labor, and land.
Plentiful and cheap energy can make universal recycling cost-effective.
Energy applied to toxic or salty water (desalinization) can produce the pure water needed to expand the available productive land.
Education, civil law, and submission to the Spirit of the Law of God can harness the passions of humanity to create a stable social order and productive industry.
The combination of a Godly and moral social order, a willing and able workforce, and the leveraging of human effort by machines and energy are the necessary ingredients for industrial productivity and societal wealth.
America must first engage the engines of industry in the substantial productive capacity of solar/wind/biomass/hydrogen/fuel-cells.
Once matured, the technology can be exported to develop the impoverished nations of the world.
America must begin the process of reducing and eliminating domestic dependence on foreign oil
Add additional processing to effluents to detoxify gaseous, water, and solid wastes
Increase the availability of natural/mineral resources by making lower yield ores profitable to extract
Increase employment by increasing production and consumption
Increase the arable agricultural land by bringing desalinated water to the deserts and wastelands
Expanding habitable and productive lands will allow a huge increase in the earth’s capacity to support the human population.
Government sets the direction of the economy through laws, taxes, and moral persuasion.
The Free Market works well in creating an environment where people desire to work, thereby creating a plethora of products for consumption.
A vibrant and productive economy can support modest taxation. (The Laffer curve predicts a maximum tax rate of 17% will produce the optimum output for an economy.) Excessive taxes destroy the reward incentive for engaging in risk and production.
But, the Free Market does not direct industry or individuals well toward solving long-term problems with extremely high initial expenditures of infrastructure and/or research.
Government is the equivalent of the brain, the conscious mind, the overall integrator and director of movement of the body. The people must each listen to God, and the spiritual communities should all debate and process the direction of the nation. The leaders should be the voice of the group conscience and speak the vision of faith, hope, and charity to inspire the nation to achieve its highest potential.
Government should provide righteous leadership, vision, and discipline to the nation.
Leadership should encourage rather than enforce a mandate on issues not related to its Constitutional authorities. It should propose and inspire to action, rather than forcing programs by legislation, taxation, and bureaucracies.
The vision of the nation should rise up from a Godly people, and Godly leaders should give that vision a voice and point of focus.
Legislative Goal for Development of Energy Independence:
Creation of a legal and economic environment favorable to the rapid development and installation of an alternative energy infrastructure.
All the alternative intermediate energy solutions for energy independence should be considered as bridge technologies such as natural gas, methanol, oil shale, and domestic drilling.
Tax incentives for installation of increased production capacity
Grants for industry and university R&D centers to bring more efficient and low-cost implementation of the solar/wind/biomass/hydrogen/fuel-cell technologies
When the people embrace the laws of God, and their Government enshrines His Ways in their laws, then prosperity, peace, and favor will pursue that land.
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