A gallon of gas allows one to leverage the work of about 10 human men working all day long. this means a modern person can buy the power and work of 10 slaves, all day for about $2 bucks. And people say gas is 'expensive'.

This also means that any person or culture that has access to this cheap energy can leverage this power over other cultures every single time they take advantage of this energy. This is true for the common man as much as it is the entire culture. This means the more wealthy culture is moving further and further away at frightening speed from cultures with less ability to leverage this advantage.

It also means, however, that such cultures build a huge house of cards, and in some ways each moment of leverage they become accustomed to which entails the loss of knowledge in the 'old ways of doing things', also creates a huge vulnerability and soft spot that will likely prove to be a large source of both weakness and future pain.


Oil energy is truly an amazing thing to contemplate. I think it is a once in a billion year curiosity that will be looked back upon with awe and mystified and thought of in the the same way gods are now