Rulers of the oil

[Dixie]

Serious question for debate…

There has to be more than coincidence at play. Why is it that countries gifted with large oil reserves (Iran and Venezuela are perfect examples):

• Are run by extremists.
• Are predominately autocratic.
• Hold the U.S.A. in disdain?

[imcarthur]

Ahh . .

I don't think you could call Stephan Harper or his party extremists.
Autocratic? Well, I guess some of us are.
Disdain? Well you watch the same TV channels that get beamed to us. Can you blame us?

see Wiki Oil Reserves

#2

[Dixie]

Reserves are useless if you can't extract them. (Heck, The U.S.A. has Alaska.) Let's talk production....

Canada produces roughly 3.1 million brls/day. But Saudia Arabia produces over 9 million/day. And Russia produces 8.4 million barrels/day.

[Seric]

There is oil everywhere.

Why use up all ours when we can use up some other countries? The money they make will eventually come back to us when we have control of the oil and can gouge them like they did us?

I have no hard facts to back that up as true, but it's a thought

[the]

Originally Posted by Capt. Carrera

Serious question for debate…

There has to be more than coincidence at play. Why is it that countries gifted with large oil reserves (Iran and Venezuela are perfect examples):

• Are run by extremists.
• Are predominately autocratic.
• Hold the U.S.A. in disdain?

I think a lot of them are because . . . they can be!

An oil rich country does not need to have an educated or resourceful populace to have a GDP. All a leadership has to do is take control of the country and the resources, and that's it. You can rule by force, you have all the money you need by just pumping it out of the ground.

In fact, the leaders of such countries do well by keeping the population dumb and subjugated.

A country that relies on actual work or production to create a GDP doesn't work so well under such a regime. At best, you'd get Cuba.