End Dependence on Foreign Oil!

[Asher]

In the late 80s/early 90s, my dad had to work with PetroCanada on the Hibernia project. He didn't start out as a particularly right-wing guy (he was born and raised in Ontario), but man...the ineptitude of the bureaucrats there was staggering. Most of them barely spoke English (or French), in keeping with the Federal Government's penchant for hiring recent immigrants for everything. People weren't fired for being inept, they were reassigned to screw up some other area.

The worst part was the government more or less forced favourable conditions to PetroCanada and forced others to work with them in order to get permits for inane things - such as transporting large pieces of equipment...in addition to tying strings to getting extraction rights.

No wonder it was "so successful".

[Wezil]

The socialist party in Canada (the NDP) came up with the bright idea that if you made as government owned and operated oil company...

Huh? It was Trudeau's baby - hence the name.

Pierre Elliott Trudeau Rips Off Canada


edit - NDP proposal passed by Trudeau's Liberals. I'm with you now...

[Asher]

Si, back then the Liberals were a minority government propped up by those evil commies.

[pchang]

You guys just don't understand.
We can only have a fair and just society when we all share and share alike






regardless of how little I actually produce

[notyoueither]

If it was run by the government I can pretty damn well guarantee folks weren't getting fairly paid, since governments tend to get voted out of office when they do that. Unless by that you mean a socialist's idea of fair pay, which isn't really fair at all.

Not to mention the fact that we know from the benefit of hindsight that the whole thing crashed and burned...

Far from it. The company was privatised and eventually merged with another energy company.

[Pax]

there are shedloads of people coming over to work in oil, gas and related industries. crazy money being offered too. portuguese isn't that hard to learn. i managed to from stratch in a matter of months.

What's it like to live in Brazil? Cost of living? Television and other entertainment? Safety?

[Dinner]

Brazil, I hear is expensive due to high tariffs on everything. Even a fast food level meal costs ~$12.

Not sure about the rest.

[giblets]

Brazil, I hear is expensive due to high tariffs on everything. Even a fast food level meal costs ~$12.

Not sure about the rest.

On the Big Mac index Brazil is only ~35% more expensive than the US (a Big Mac supposedly costs $5.68 there) so it's hard to imagine a fast food meal costing $12.

[Dinner]

There is a thread over at CFC about Brazil where a Brazilian said that. Go to CFC, search for Brazil in thread title, search thread for my name & right around it you'll find one of their Brazilian posters saying that.

[Elok]

Who goes to Brazil to eat fast food? Just eat the damn street food, I'm sure it's infinitely better and much cheaper. Just as fast, too.

[Dinner]

I agree. It was just an example to show the relative price differences.

[Aeson]

Looks like India is the place to be. (Not like there would be any real beef in a BigMac anyways...)

[regexcellent]

Considering Brazil is so much poorer than the United States the fact that a Big Mac costs more at all is pretty astounding.

[giblets]

There is a thread over at CFC about Brazil where a Brazilian said that. Go to CFC, search for Brazil in thread title, search thread for my name & right around it you'll find one of their Brazilian posters saying that.

I don't want to go on a scavenger hunt to find the source for your claim.

[C0ckney]

What's it like to live in Brazil? Cost of living? Television and other entertainment? Safety?

it's nice, you can have a good life here. a lot depends on where you live and what kind of life you want, i'm in rio de janeiro myself.

some things are expensive. clothes, electronics, transport, certain services. actually the cost of living can be very high, but it can be very low. i live in a favela and so pay very little for things like rent and food and pay almost nothing for utilities. however if i were living in one of the neighbourhoods nearby (my favela is between two of the richest places here) my cost of living would be astronomical.

i don't know about television, don't own one, but i'd imagine it's pretty awful from what little i've seen. there's an outdoor culture here, the beach, the street parties, the squares, football. all that relies on the sun though, no sun, no one wants to do anything. fortunately, we get a lot of sun.

in terms of safety, there are some problems with robberies and the like, but really it's not that bad. as long as you don't look like a tourist and take sensible precautions (no walking through the city centre drunk at 4am ) you're unlikely to have problems. i only had one bad experience, a fight with two robbers (there's a thread i made about it), but other than that everything's been cool in my two years.