The Growing Awareness of Economic Alternatives

At certain points in history, ordinary people have stood up to economically powerful and said enough is enough, we want a share in the wealth. Those moments are certainly rare - but they have happened. And today, we may be quietly heading toward one of those points on energy policy.

The New York Times reports that more and more oil-rich countries are demanding that private energy companies start forking over a share of the profits they are making off of natural oil deposits. The logic makes sense - those oil resources are the collective property of these nations, and therefore, at least some of the profits those resources create should go to helping the population.

This is not an isolated phenomenon happening only outside the United States. As noted on this blog, communities all over America are starting to press for publicly-owned power, so that energy companies are not allowed to gouge citizens.

Meanwhile, in Wyoming, the state has built up a massive budget surplus largely through taxes on mineral extraction, proving this isn't just something that's happening in "liberal" places. There, Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) is sounding much of the same themes as have been heard in Latin America (though clearly in a different style). His point is simple: the surpluses should be used to help the working poor.

To be sure, in places like Venezuela this phenomenon has been coupled with authoritarianism - and that's not a good development. But it doesn't negate the fact that it seems people are slowly waking up to the fact that there are alternatives to having most of the population locked out of the profits that are derived from what should be public resources. And while there is a ways to go, and a huge amount of oil money that will fight this kind of movement, this awakening is a very, very good thing indeed.

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