@buck.. I know you're American. I know which region of which country ander lives in, that OzChris is Australian, and that drunkengandalf lives a block away from Marie Curie's lead-lined casket in Paris. I've got some pretty strong suspicions about QuizMaster's precise location in the USA. Does all this make you sad?
tribalism gets my vote. An argument can be made for greed, but IMO not a very good one. A lack of empathy is another strong contender, but tribalism breeds that more than anything else. Money and oil are much further down the list, I think.
Yeah, none of the ones that are there really surprise me, but I really would have expected Oman to be there. Iran too, although that's probably the sanctions.
Bahrain was the first Gulf country to develop it's oilfields and they're basically all used up now. That's why they're not here. Oman's oil fields were never as impressive as those of some of their neighbors, and they were developed later than most of their neighbors, but they still produce 900,000 b/d, just behind Azerbaijan. I was most surprised to not see Indonesia on the list, they're even close to Azerbaijan with 982,000 b/d.
P.S. Colombia has recently joined the top 20. Pushing Azerbaijan off.
I'm afraid not. It is expressly prohibit under US Federal Code 4569.152. Please wait there, and the FBI will be there shortly. Thank you for your cooperation.
Wow, that always feels great. I got this one with only 0:09....was going back through the Middle East seeing if I'd missed something since I'd already typed in so many guesses. I hate when I mentally go through a region in my head and forget a country like that.
Very enlightening. Guessed the Persian Gulf countries, as the top producers, followed by Venezuela and Brazil. Would never have guessed the USA as #1. (So, then what was the great gasoline crisis in the '70s/early /80s all about?).
The USA was the #1 oil producer and oil exporter in the world back in the 1800s when Pennsylvania became the site of the first modern oil well in history. But it wouldn't take long before American oil consumption would eclipse its oil production and it then became a net energy importer. As American energy production was stymied somewhat by environmental regulations which began in the mid 20th century, and by cheaper sources of oil coming from overseas, the country became very dependent on Middle East oil which is why the Saudi oil embargo of '73 and the disruption of oil flow following the '79 Iranian revolution both created an oil shock. Partially in response to this recognition of dependence and vulnerability, and partially due to decades of work by Republicans to dismantle environmental protections in the US and enrich their patrons in the oil industry, oil production in the US has seen a dramatic increase lately. But they still use more than they produce.
and, given this irresponsibly short-sighted and environmentally-reckless increase in American oil production, and the fact that US oil reserves are considerably smaller than those of Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and many other countries, the end result of this is going to be that the US runs out of oil pretty soon and then they're going to be in an even worse position than they were in in the 70s. All this talk about increasing oil production for the sake of American security is such BS. They are doing the exact opposite, putting the US in a position where it is going to be entirely dependent on others, all to line the pockets of the Koch brothers and the Cheneys. To say nothing of the environmental catastrophe that putting that much carbon into the atmosphere will lead to.
I guess they are not opposed to getting rich selling the substance to foreigners. Today, Norway's sovereign wealth fund has over $1 trillion and owns 1.4% of the global stock market.
Well Australia's missing, and it's larger than India. Also Argentina's missing and it's almost as big as India. Other than that all of the world's ten largest countries are represented. I guess if you have an area that big, chances are you'll have some decent oil reserves somewhere in all that territory.
Amazing that Venezuela, with the world's largest proven reserves, fails to make this list. It's staggering that such a country could be mired in poverty, chaos and corruption, despite such a titanic natural endowment of resources. It really takes a talent for mismanagement to get things that wrong. Chavez and Maduro are real Hall of Famers for sheer incompetence.
They have the largest proven oil reserves, but catastrophic mismanagement of the country since the rise of Chavez and Maduro has led to them no longer being among the top producers. They also went from being the richest country in South America to the poorest. Many people would blame socialism for this, but it's really more the result of corruption, incompetence, stupidity, greed, a lack of economic foresight, and a deliberately belligerent and anti-American foreign policy. Blaming it all on "socialism" is pretty dumb. Blaming it all on the American sanctions is even more dumb. But anyway the end result is that the Venezuelan economy is in absolute shambles and its enormous natural resources are not being fully exploited presently while workers flee in record numbers.
I don't think being 'anti-American' has much to do with it, even if you meant what I think you did, which is that they don't follow the principles of the Washington Consensus. Many countries refute that, including ones in Europe, and they've done just fine. Venezuela's problems are more to do with many of their policies being what I will generously describe as 'anti-logic'.
And yet the country with the world's largest oil reserves, Venezuela, doesn't even make the list of 20. This just shows again the influence of politics in our lives.
Not sure exactly what your angle is, but however messy politics can be, and as toxic as American politics in particular have been lately, it's worth bearing in mind that the alternative to politics is dictatorship. Either we get to have say in how things are done (politics), or we don't (dictatorship).
Try to give power to people who can conduct themselves thoughtfully and with consideration for others. Then worry about their policy preferences.
Right under that though I would put pride...basically esteeming yourself above others.
P.S. Colombia has recently joined the top 20. Pushing Azerbaijan off.
Not sure why that vital emphasis often gets left out.
1 Timothy 6:10
Try to give power to people who can conduct themselves thoughtfully and with consideration for others. Then worry about their policy preferences.