Energy

Most people are familiar with the industrial revolution that began in the 1800's with the development of the steam engine. It was all about replacing manual labor with machines. The energy source started with wood then changed to coal and finally ended up with oil. It was oil that raised the people out of poverty and into the life we have today. How much this oil elevated mankind from physical work is not often appreciated. One barrel of oil has the same amount of energy of up to 25,000 hours of hard human labor, which is 12.5 years of work. At $20 per hour, this is $500,000 of labor per barrel. The average person in the US today lives better than the royal families of the pre industrial days. As the world moves inexorably toward nuclear power the benefits to human kind will improve by that amount once again. This time the West should plan to help raise the standard of living for all the people.