Franklin’s observation is just as true today as it was in the 18th century, but Franklin probably would be surprised to see how technology has been able to prolong human life and how the US government has managed to compound taxes.

Pushing the limits on certainty
Although death itself is a certainty at some point, the fact is that people are living much longer these days. While that generally is a good thing for people, it has meant that the world’s economy has had to adjust to an additional generation or two of mouths to feed.

Most of those who work in the energy world are familiar with Hubbert’s peak oil principle. It, too, is right in a sense. Hydrocarbons can be considered a finite resource. Because we are using them up faster than they can be replenished by nature, the world likely will run out of hydrocarbons at some future date.

What Hubbert did not consider when he made his famous prediction was the influence technology would have to prolong the process.

Just as technology and improved health care are extending human life, technology and innovation are adding enormous potential reserves, for example, in deep water and frontiers. Those reserves were beyond the conventional wisdom of Hubbert’s time.

New production processes have opened economic access to vast reserves of heavy oil. And additional completion and production technology has increased recovery factors far beyond those achievable only a few decades ago. Hubbert’s theory notwithstanding, the demise of the petroleum industry has been pushed into the future, and if technology advances continue, as they surely will, the day of reckoning will be postponed further yet.

From death to taxes and back again
Americans have been at odds with taxation from the beginning of the republic. Whether the issue was an onerous tax on tea or the infamous stamp act, taxes made blood boil in the colonies. At the heart of the issue was taxation without representation.

Most reasonable people acknowledge that nothing is free, and if we want to have a system of government or federal projects like the Interstate Highway System that benefit everyone, we must have a system to pay for them. But an increasing number of Americans today are coming to believe that their hard-earned tax dollars are not going to support activities that benefit everyone.

Of increasing concern is the government’s propensity to print money whenever it wishes. But regardless of what the money is spent on, every dollar printed represents an obligation to pay, and last time I checked, the taxpayer is the only one that can supply the money.

The problem is that just as our petroleum reserves are finite, so are our financial resources. This is true even of folks like the legendary Bill Gates or Warren Buffet.

So what happens when the taxpayers cannot generate resources as fast as the government can spend them?

The answer brings us back to the other certainty – death – only this time we are talking about the death of America.

The future of the American dream
It is time for Americans to wake up to another certainty that perhaps is just as sure as death and taxes, and that is the certainty that the American dream rides on the back of energy. Without energy, the industrial revolution would not have occurred, the phenomenal economic growth of this nation would not have been possible, and the world’s highest standard of living would not have been achievable.

Whether energy comes from the oil and gas industry or some marvelous yet-to-be-discovered resource, the role of energy in securing America’s future, and indeed that of the rest of the world, cannot be overlooked.

Today, on the eve of the US mid-term elections, America needs a government with the wisdom of the founding fathers that acknowledges the certainties of life – all of them.

What will be determined on Election Day is whether Americans can elect a government that will reduce the national debt, balance the budget, promote industry and commerce to create jobs, eliminate handouts, and, yes, treat energy like the necessity it is, the lifeblood of the nation.

That is undeniably a tall order. And it is not only the future of the American dream that will be in jeopardy if the order is not filled.

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