Nutty Tea-Party types who have conveniently forgotten that higher spending levels are what lifted the West out of the Great Depression are on a tear nowadays about trimming what they see as fat. The reality is, though, that there really isn’t much financial fat left to trim in countries like America.
Indeed, such thinking is akin to cutting a leg off a horse in the belief that the weight saved will make the horse run faster.
Forget trimming the so-called fat from government budgets, though. Trimming the real fat – that around the middle of the average westerner – is where the real opportunity exists.
Think about it. All that lard from cosmetic surgeons’ offices could be put to good use cheaply heating our homes and powering our factories and automobiles. No more oil-price shocks to our economies. No more oil money to prop up enemy regimes. And those skinny Chinese, well they’d never be able to keep up with the West.
So, belly-fat biodiesel could finally allow us to celebrate our peerless reputation as a bunch of tubby bubbies.