I guess we have wondered a bit afield of Ethan Berkowitz, but that’s okay. Its a great discussion. I can’t help noting that not one correspondent has called another unpatriotic or referred to themselves as a “real American” from the “heartland”. Nobody has even refudiated anybody.

If I would do some comparing, I’d compare Alaska with West Virginia or southeastern Kentucky. I spent a few years going to school and working there. One might ask them how depending on the feds to help out after the coal/oil/lumber ran out has worked out. Nah, I think I’ll vote to hold onto our Permanent Fund.

The point is that it isn’t evil to tax oil companies. It is a good thing. They are not here to help Alaskans. They are here to make money, period. No problem with that. When the oil is gone, so are they. From Alaska’s point of view, when you sell an item, you need to find the highest price you can get and still generate adequate demand and sales. The trick here is to find the highest amount the state can generate income (taxes) consistent with maintaining responsible and manageable production. There is no right or wrong answer. ACES isn’t the best or the worst. Could we do better? Sure. Is ACES good enough? Well, I guess that’s what horse races are about.

They also have great schools. Great health care. Great retirement (public system, of course).

They have a lot of money in their account, because it is inevitable that the North Sea will one day not be a huge source of income for them, so they must have the infrastructure to bring in & foster & maintain other sources of revenue. Tourism. Technical. Etc. And they have politicians intelligent & uncorrupt enough to be relied upon to save for a rainy day. AK’s PFD is in place to force our politicians to do that after some pretty disastrous years.

If Alaska were its own country, the two could be reasonably compared in many ways, but as it is they are apples and oranges. You could just as easily compare Alaska and the UK. Alaska and Brazil. Alaska and Nigeria. Alaska and Russia. Alaska and any other place on the face of the earth that is extracting its mineral resources.

When we lived in Canada we had many conversations re: the health care situation, with other expats, with Canadians, with Europeans living in Canada, you name it. How can you compare the growing pains of the US in regard to health care with Canada? One has 32 million people, the other has over 330 million people. It’s the same with talk of Norway/Alaska re: the oil issue. Very very very very different. The only similarities are that both are cold and have oil.

We worked & lived in the UK, turned down a job in Norway. Know a little bit about it, not just going off on a tangent here.

I’d like to know how many of the people against Ethan’s proposal have sat in meetings, at the evil oil companies, that discussed the realities of drilling/producing/exploring in AK versus other areas of the world.

It’s okay to take money from the oil companies? Since when? Why is the resource an Alaskan resource? Someone living in Timbucktu, AL can move to AK tomorrow and it begin the process of claiming it’s their resource too. So how does that resource not belong to every single American? They’re all eligibile a year from the day they show up in AK.

I was born & raised in AK. Long before PFDs. I worked for an oil company for a long time, my husband still does.

But we can still stop the anti-oil hypocrisy. High taxes on oil companies = good, because more money for my pockets? Seems to me that palin managed to make even this into an us vs. them issue. She knows that money talks to Alaskans, no matter where it comes from!

Here’s the deal, ACES drove out small companies, left AK even more at the mercy of the Big 3. Jobs were lost. Real jobs. My husband talked to a company that was all set to start a project. They eventually changed their minds. Lots of companies did the same. The companies are in harvest mode, and that will not change until the tax structure changes AND the fall-out from the BP disaster is over — many regulation changes will come that will necessitate change, which, in the short-term, means that everything, save harvest, slows.

There’s a great post up right now, here on the Mudflats, about water/oil/3rd world projects. This post is a perfect example of why that sort of stuff goes on. Alaska needs more money! More PFDs! Oil companies are making enough already! And I need to gas up my SUV — for less than $2.50 please!

I am finding this really really discouraging. Alaska & its citizens cannot have a discussion about this issue without a fundamental understanding that Alaska does have many options, and ACES gives them even fewer. No incentive to foster other industries when the money keeps flowing in from the oil companies. Need more money? Well, our clear & equitable share was clearly not equitable enough, so let’s get more! PFDs only $500, not enough for a flat-screen? More taxes! But no personal income tax or sales tax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look, I know that there are plenty of people out there who spend their PFDs responsibly. They are the minority. By a long way.

B in Co, not being supportive of ACES does not mean one would like to see infrastructure needs neglected or a larger PFD. Alaska Pi says it well at 16.3.