David

“For decades, Green activists have been attacking our sources of energy. Every single one has been demonized. Coal, which liberated mankind from the Malthusian trap, gave us manufacturing, railroads, and steamships; more than doubled our life expectancy; and saved almost all of us from having to be dirt farmers. Oil, which substantially replaced coal in the 20th century, made airplanes and the private automobile possible, along with the rest of the modern world. And, starting in the 1960s and ’70s, hydropower, nuclear fission, and even natural gas have come under the guns of the activists. The currently fashionable “renewables,” such as wind and solar power, have largely escaped the attacks. Battery-powered electric cars are the darlings of the Greens. But this is because they are simply not capable of providing anywhere near the energy or range that civilization depends on at a price it can afford. Should any of these, or other new forms of energy, prove actually usable on a large scale, they would be attacked just as viciously as fracking for natural gas, which cuts CO2 emissions in half, and nuclear power, which would eliminate them entirely.”
― J. Storrs Hall, Where Is My Flying Car?

“I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best material, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one—and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces.18 Defining the motorcar as a necessity “that would meet the wants of the multitude,” Ford linked his vehicle to a larger vision of contentment through consumption. In My Life and Work, he dismissed some businessmen's fears of overproduction and market saturation with a utopian vision of consumer abundance: We believe it is possible some day to reach the point where all goods are produced so cheaply and in such quantities that overproduction can be a reality. But as far as we are concerned, we do not look forward to that condition with fear—we look forward to it with great satisfaction…. Our fear is that this condition will be too long postponed.”
― Steven Watts, The People's Tycoon

“will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best material, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one—and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces.18 Defining the motorcar as a necessity “that would meet the wants of the multitude,” Ford linked his vehicle to a larger vision of contentment through consumption. In My Life and Work, he dismissed some businessmen's fears of overproduction and market saturation with a utopian vision of consumer abundance: We believe it is possible some day to reach the point where all goods are produced so cheaply and in such quantities that overproduction can be a reality. But as far as we are concerned, we do not look forward to that condition with fear—we look forward to it with great satisfaction…. Our fear is that this condition will be too long postponed.”
― Steven Watts, The People's Tycoon

“Roosevelt remarked on the anomaly whereby man, as he progressed from savagery to civilization, used up more and more of the world’s resources, yet in doing so tended to move to the city, and lost his sense of dependence on nature. Lacking that, he also lost his foresight, and unwittingly depleted the inheritances of his children. “We cannot, when the nation becomes fully civilized and very rich, continue to be civilized and rich unless the nation shows more foresight than we are showing at this moment.”
― Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex