Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Government Assets



While it is a bit hard to explain why, the U.S. government owns a lot of things.

A 2013 report from the Institute for Energy Research (understandingly writing about energy), states that the government owns “above ground” assets such as “buildings, lands, roads, railroad infrastructure, levees, dams, and hydroelectric generating facilities, to name just a few, many of which are underutilized,” and “below ground” assets such as “rights to mineral and energy leases, from which they receive royalties, rents, and bonus payments.” The IER report said  the mineral rights for oil and gas reserves are  worth $128 trillion.
128 TRILLION dollars!

Every once in a while, when William Devane somberly announces an update of the national debt, currently 19 trillion(!) dollars, it is reassuring to know that all these underutilized resources exist and that even a government official could, with a modicum of good sense and a smidgen of public responsibility, exploit to the nation's advantage

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