WHY DO COMMAND ECONOMIES CONTROL MOST OF THE ENERGY RESOURCES

The fact that most of the world's energy resources are controlled by countries with command economies is a result of two factors First, command economies use almost all of their resources, so they have little to spare for export Second, they prefer to use the resources they have to support their own people, not to support people in other countries This is just another demonstration of the old saying, "The best way to help the poor is to help yourself " However, this situation is not a permanent one When the command economies are no longer able to control their people, they will no longer be able to control their resources That is when their resources will become available to other countries which have a higher standard of living than the command economies It is also possible that the command economies will use their resources for their own benefit WHY DO THE SOVIET UNION AND CHINA CONTROL SO MUCH OIL? The fact that the Soviet Union and China control so much of the world's oil is a result of the same factor which makes it possible for them to control the world's other resources The Soviet Union and China have large populations They need a lot of energy resources to support their people They also have a very low standard of living This makes it possible for them to get their resources at prices which are very low compared to the cost of producing them in other countries " HOW DOES THE WORLD'S ENERGY PROBLEMS RELATE TO THE WORLD'S MANPOWER PROBLEMS? The world's energy problems is one of the reasons why we have a world's manpower problems The world's population has doubled in the last 40 years It is expected to double again in the next 40 years As a result, the world's standard of living is falling The amount of energy required per person has been increasing steadily The current world's population uses the energy equivalent of one steam locomotive per person In the next 40 years, when the world's population is expected to double, the number of people in the world will use the energy equivalent of two steam locomotives per person It is very unlikely that we will find the energy resources to support that many people at that standard of living