5/14    Where would you find the world's biggest man-made islands? The
        world's tallest building? The world's largest man-made marinas?
        The world's largest theme park? The world's tallest hotels?
        The world's largest shopping malls? The world's largest indoor ski
        resort? The world's first underwater hotel? Dubai, world's fastest
        growing city at a cost of $100 billion USD:
        http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/dubaiprojects
        http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/37925466 (The World)
        http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/56426971 (sales office)
        (each island starts at $25mil/each, all sold out in 8 hours)
        \_ What a waste of money. If they have so much money, they should
           build lots of freeways, mega malls, and endless suburbs so that
           they'd have a much better quality of life. You can't even have
           pets or raise camels in Dubai City.          -dim's #1 follower
        \_ Their super mega infrastructures cost $100 billion USD. Where
           the hell did they get that kind of money?
           \_ Uh, I don't know. Your $4/gallon gas? Regardless, $100B isn't
              a lot of money these days. US spent a lot more on the Iraq War.
                \_ And there't not even a single underwater ski resort to
                   show for it.
        \_ http://www.theworld.ae
           http://www.theworld.ae/video/The_World_Video4.mov
           http://www.theworld.ae/video/The_World_Video4.wmv
        \_ Very impressive. My impression of the Arabs used to be that
           they're primitive beings who lived in huts and used camels to
           travel. I guess they're a bit more sophisticated now  -ignorant
           \_ Without reinforcing extreme stereotypes, it's useful to point
              out that Dubai's a great example of income disparity: the
              wealthy live in the Crystal Palace, while the poor are lucky to
              have a camel. Oh, and there are a lot more poor than wealthy.
              \_ So? One of the free market Republican theories says that
                 wealth from the rich funnel down to the poor and everyone
                 has something more in the end.
                \_ "My father rode a camel, I drive a car, my son flies a
                    jet plane.  His son will ride a camel."
                 \_ And yet real world implementations of the trickle down
                    theory have resulted in more poverty and a lower standard
                    of living for the poor. Also, Reagan-era advisers who
                    first pushed trickle down have admitted that it was a con
                    job.
                    \_ If you're going to say something so blatantly stupid
                       you should at least try to find references        -pp
                       \_ STFW, ass.
                          \_ Ad hominem when you can't find references.
                             So typical liberal.                -pp
                             \_ What about "voodoo economics"? -!pp
                             \_ Uhm, I don't think that's unique to liberals,
                                but it's most definitely common to motd.
        \_ Places like Dubai are a result of the temporary oil phenomenon.
           In a decade or two these places will be ghost towns; without the
           means to import mind-blowing quantities of food, industrial goods,
           and cheap labor, only a small population can be sustained.  Note
           that many Middle Eastern countries have very high population growth
           rates.
           \_ Dubai gets 6% of the revenue from oil. The rest is tourism
              and service and finance. The wealthy people not only put money
              in Swiss banks, but also Dubai banks.
                \_ Everyone will be hurting once oil production peaks.  How
                   many will be able to afford to go there, will there be as
                   much need for financial centers, etc.?  The point is that
                   the loss of the primary resource extraction can have grave
                   consequences on secondary and tertiary economic activity.
                   I'm not talking just about Dubai, but the whole region.
                   If they are successful in turning into a Middle Eastern
                   Singapore, then yes, it could work.  But what happens if
                   importing food suddenly costs 2x, 4x, 10x as much?
           \_ Where do you think those people will go?
                \_ Somewhere else.  Not like there is no precedent for this,
                   look at the massive immigration in Europe or the United
                   States.
           \_ Remember that oil fields have fairly slow declines, and if we're
              really in a global peak oil situation, rising prices should keep
              export income strong for quite some time.  I do agree that in the
              absence of oil there's no 'there' there, but perhaps with a slow
              enough decline in oil revenue they will diversify their economy.
                \_ Modern oil recovery methods extract oil much more
                   quickly, so the later an oil field was developed, the
                   quicker the decline.  Witness the difference in the decline
                   of the very mature oil fields in the United States, which
                   are declining slowly, compared to say Canterell or the North
                   Sea, which are practically collapsing.  Also, many oil
                   exporters are trying to pump oil too quicky to take
                   advantage of the current high oil prices, which ultimately
                   hasten the decline and reduce the total amount recoverable
                   due to damage to the geological structures.  If we're lucky
                   decline will be 3-4% year to year, but it might be as high
                   as 8%!
                   \- there is a quite good article on peak oil,
                      alternative sources for oil/hydrocarbons,
                      the state of stocks etc in the recent e'ist
                      issue with the Band of Democrats cover.