Question for all you economy-savvy Hypsters

[Colossal Spoons]

Suppose that by some work of magic, the automobile market was suddenly flooded with cars that ran on let's say.....carbon dioxide(something abundant in the environment); and all gas powered vehicles were rendered obsolete. What effect would this have on our economy? Don't just say "it'd suffer" lol, specifics please.


Spoons is totally ignorant about stuff like this

 

[bullets]

i'd cry .. a lot

 

[Obi-Ron]

They would be squashed like a bug by Big Oil. Wouldn't be the first time, either.

 

[Holly]

we could build houses out of cars.

 

[The Original Bamfer]

I'd be out of a job.

 

[bullets]

there would be alot of trade -ins , it would be a gradual thing

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Right, but I'd imagine our country would lose crazy amounts of money immediately after people traded in their gas guzzlers. We'd no longer need our "deals" with the Middle East too, I'd imagine.

 

[AhabTheArab]

they actually are talking about a nitrogen-aluminum alloy that when added to water produces a lot of energy until that water is all used up. so you would just fill up the container of nitrogen-aluminum alloy pellets with water, and run until you ran out.

and the job loss of dismantling big oil would be large and hurtful on most of the economies of the world. not to mention the amount of scrap metals lying around after we get rid of all the gas cars and what not. and i mean the amounts of debts that would still be owed on the cars that would be traded in would be astronomical....

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Nice Ahab

Where do you think there are more jobs to be lost; the places where the oil is mined or distributed?

I guess my overall point is that if the price of "fuel" went down...what would go up in it's place?

 

[Holly]

is this your homework Spoons?

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Nah, I have a lot of time to think at work


I'm all gradumated remember

 

[bullets]

maybe the price of a vehicle.

 

[aSyluM7]

Suppose that by some work of magic, the automobile market was suddenly flooded with cars that ran on let's say.....carbon dioxide(something abundant in the environment); and all gas powered vehicles were rendered obsolete. What effect would this have on our economy? Don't just say "it'd suffer" lol, specifics please.


Spoons is totally ignorant about stuff like this

New technology would change the demand (what people want) so companies in a purely competitive market would have to pony up or drop out. Companies that can't technologically compete have no choice but to exit the market, especially if the new technology increases productivity. It can also cause a trickle effect through various industries (namely oil) which means depreciation of investment (stocks, trades, etc). There are many other factors that play into how this effects the economy though. As a social issue, a technology like this could potentially change the consumer preference, which drives the market in the first place. Old vehicals would not be necessarily "obsolete" because there would be a LOOOONG transition between the old technology and implementation of the new technology.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Beautiful, thanks man

 

[aSyluM7]

^No prob.

 

[Fenrir]

Right, but I'd imagine our country would lose crazy amounts of money immediately after people traded in their gas guzzlers. We'd no longer need our "deals" with the Middle East too, I'd imagine.

No we won't lose most of our "deals" with the Middle East. Petroleum is still the base for innumerable products in use by modern society - like plastics, for example. Of course, if vehicles don't need gas anymore, it's price would fall CONSIDERABLY, but that doesn't mean oil extracting companies would suddenly become obsolete.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Right, but couldn't we do that here in the mainland US or even Alaska? Assuming the need for oil to make car fuel is no longer needed.

 

[aSyluM7]

I don't know much about econ. I can tell you that --unless there's a miracle in the next 10 years-- by the time we have made the transition to some alternative technology, become completely independent of foreign oil, and can finally maintain sustainability of our natural resources, the ecological damage suffered will be irreversable rendering the new technology useless anyway.

 

[PLAS]

where's thesumofgod when you need him?

I read somewhere about eight or nine years ago that back in the mid 70's there had been mayor advancements in solar energy based combustion and other stuff, which if applied would eradicate the use of fossil fuels, supposedly, this was to be a project that would take some 20 years or so to be implemented in the whole world, but according to the story, the big oil companies pulled enough strings to stop this project from seeing the light, so now we are in a position where it's becoming very necessary to look for different types of fuels, but at the same time if a change is to be made, it would mean an economical collapse, basically, a cluster****

I really don't know if it's true or not, but it does make sense

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Too much sense

 

[PemLam]

Ultimately it'd be all out war. Aside from the devastating effect it would have on our economy, all the nations that depend on the billions we (and others) spend on oil and gasoline based automotive parts would suddenly find themselves on the outside looking in. The only reason many of the smaller Islamic nations can defend themselves is because of the money generated from oil...if that money stops coming in, who fills the void? Iran? Do you honestly think we would let Iran become the savior of all the other Islamic countries in the Middle East?

Nations get reduced to civil war over the dwindling economy and because of a number of factors, decide it would be better to take what others have (their neighbors) than to sit back and watch their whole world shrivel away. Nations fighting nations and we (US and Europe) try to hold off the tide.

 

[jaguarr]

New technology would change the demand (what people want) so companies in a purely competitive market would have to pony up or drop out. Companies that can't technologically compete have no choice but to exit the market, especially if the new technology increases productivity. It can also cause a trickle effect through various industries (namely oil) which means depreciation of investment (stocks, trades, etc). There are many other factors that play into how this effects the economy though. As a social issue, a technology like this could potentially change the consumer preference, which drives the market in the first place. Old vehicals would not be necessarily "obsolete" because there would be a LOOOONG transition between the old technology and implementation of the new technology.

It would take a long time for the economy to fully flip over from the oil related industries dominating it to the new ones dominating it. The time during the transition might get a little rough from an economic stability standpoint while things were still in flux. But, one thing you can count on is that once the public starts deciding they're going to spend their money on something in particular, big business will figure out how to make exorbitant and obscene amounts of money off of it.

jag

 

[Steve Rogers]

I suggest you watch the film Who Killed the Electric Car. It shows exactly what happens when a car that requires no oil or gasoline enters the market.

 

[jaguarr]

I suggest you watch the film Who Killed the Electric Car. It shows exactly what happens when a car that requires no oil or gasoline enters the market.

That's more about a technology that was squashed before it ever really hit the market than it is about an alternative technology that becomes introduced en masse like Spoons is thinking of in his question.

jag

 

[Steve Rogers]

That's more about a technology that was squashed before it ever really hit the market than it is about an alternative technology that becomes introduced en masse like Spoons is thinking of in his question.

jag

Good point. But still, he should check it out.