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Nice chatting with your over the pond Arragonis.
The debt our US kids inherit is like the anchor on a US super carrier, at least here, per kid.
Gas prices will rise and fall, but the inevitable trend is up. Increasing the tax burden has the same effect as rising gas prices, the only difference is one goes in the OPEC toilet and the other goes in the toilet of political vote purchasing. OPEC understands that rising prices have a tipping point, just like climate change, and their resource is finite, which will solve the global emissions problem, more than likely before the planet becomes uninhabitable as some would have us believe.
We can see the same process looking at Britain and America, both countries are facing a decline in International influence with Britain further along in the process. While we may think China has serious political problems, they also have the advantage of not having to play stupid games for votes. Not an advocacy for their political system, but an admiration of their political willpower. 100 million electric bikes in China today, while we debate gas prices, a dedication to hydro and other energy sources outside of petroleum, shows that China has learned the lessons of our profligate consumption. China has the advantage of our history to guide their direction in progress.
The key point in your post is efficiency, and it is really our only hope, of prolonging the inevitable fact that China and India are the future economic superpowers of this century.
This is why "My Agenda" is to adopt the hydraulic option, which is technology that can be implemented today, without any "break even point" that requires massive influxes of non existent capital.
Future advancements in energy storage and application can never be predicted, although many would love to do so and use it to support their own "AGENDAS", which should be expected I guess.
Personally I find the US, at least the citizens who I know to be more politically inclined to become isolationists similar to our pre WW2 political attitude.
Supply and demand will drive oil prices to $10 a gallon in the US inevitably, but will also accelerate the development of alternatives, which will have the opposite effect. When oil has real competition for all of it's uses, alternatives will become inevitable and profitable, without the necessity for debt financing and the burden of an ever larger anchor on the beneficiaries.
regards
Mech
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