Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: Question of the day
Next Post: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
Posted in:
* I love the new Facebook ad tracking page. You just never know what you’ll find…
* Speaking of Casten, here’s Greg Hinz…
At issue, in a mistake that I think Casten is making worse by refusing to talk about it, is a blog post he wrote almost six years ago provocatively titled, “Thoughts on Economic Growth and Energy Slaves.” I was pointed to the post by a political operative working for an independent group that supports Roskam’s re-election. It’s buried if you do a broad search, but pops up on Google (and Bing) if you put in the right search terms.
In the post on Grist, Casten makes the argument that American prosperity and living standards have grown dramatically as we’ve boosted our use of fuels as opposed to “coercive labor.” I don’t disagree with his point. But the way he expresses it is tone-deaf, to put it mildly.
“How much energy was available to the (free) population of the antebellum South? In 1860, the U.S. had just 4 million slaves, working for about 8.5 million free residents of the South and border states,” Casten writes. “Adding 3.4 million horses, mules and oxen in the South as of 1860,” and assuming that the average pack animal can do the work of about seven people, “an average slaveholder had . . . 4.2 energy slave equivalents per free person,” and the South, as a whole, 3.27 “energy slaves” apiece.
By today, the nation’s “energy use amounts to 100 energy slaves per capita,” he concludes. “That is the extraordinary legacy of industrialization and fossil fuel extraction. We get 30 times the energy access of an 1860s plantation owner . . . and human rights, too.”
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 4:03 pm
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: Question of the day
Next Post: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
Maybe someone will ask Roskam about this at his next town hall meeting. Lol.
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 4:07 pm
“Tone Deaf” is a very, very kind way to describe his thesis. Wow.
Comment by A guy Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 4:07 pm
Our foundational base for energy equations: the 1860s plantation owner…ick.
Comment by A guy Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 4:08 pm
Well that’s an enormous stretch. Good luck finding any evidence that Sean is in lock step with Madigan. Having the same positions on discreet issues is not being in “lockstep.”
I suspect there are a whole pile of things about which Roskam and Madigan agree upon like Blue sky, the Chicago Bears and pizza. Oh and neither of them like town hall meetings or the media. Lockstep!
Comment by Chicago Cynic Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 4:34 pm
If Casten is Madigan that makes Roskam Trump, doesn’t it?
And while he can hide for a while longer, at some point Roskam is going to have to answer for the tax cut disaster that will force Illinoisans to pay more in income taxes. Roskam can run, but he won’t be able to hide.
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 4:38 pm
Wow 5 whole comments Petey must have forgot to alert his mom that she needed to go to work or else he was movin’ back home after his loss
Comment by Annonin' Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 5:11 pm
Here’s a news flash. Not all Illinois taxpayers are facing a federal tax increase. Some are going to get a tax cut. Talk about living in denial.
Comment by SSL Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 7:01 pm
That’s true SSL, but have you ever visited Roskam’s district? Plenty of his constituents will be paying more federal income tax thanks to him. There’s no denying that my friend.
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 7:17 pm
Don’t you think all the Madigan talk is turning into noise? It’s been going on for so long is it still toxic?
Comment by Paul Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 7:43 pm
I’ll see you Mike Madigan and raise you President Bone Spurs. better yet, focus on some issues of concern to your residents, Roskam.
Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 8:02 pm
This Madigan fellow must be omnipotent. Is there nothing he does not control or cause. I think he is typing my keyboard as I read this. Amazing.
Comment by zatoichi Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 9:58 pm