Governments (Canadian, US or otherwise) spend a lot of money. Much of this money can be invested in wasteful endeavors. But R&D dollars that help reduce risk in new markets can be money well spent. In effect, government investments can create energy around certain markets.

In my opinion, the US gov’t spends far too much energizing the Defense market. Historically this was important. But as the “Competition for Resources” heats up around the world, it shifts importance away from the “Competition of Ideas or Ideologies”.

To win the ‘Competition of Resources’, the US gov’t needs to dramatically shift dollars away from Department of Defense (DoD). This money should go to Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the EPA. The EPA might well be divided into divisions focusing on air, land, and waterways.

Right now, 50% of the US discretionary budget (money that isn’t already earmarked for things like Social Security, Health Care, debt repayment, etc) goes to the DoD. 50%! To boot, 50% of the worlds purchase of weapons and military related equipment comes out of the US.

I could go on, but to wrap it up, consider the following. If we had serious alternatives to oil–alternatives that enabled US demand for oil to drop preciptiously–towards ZERO–the Middle East might not be such an important place, and we might not be spending billions of dollars on the war.

That said, the real world says demand will only increase in the foreseeable future. The real world says Middle East oil is of high strategic importance for the entire world. For better or worse, that’s what we have to deal with. We can only search for ways to unite theories (Zero oil demand, high funding for EPA, DOE, USDA) with reality.