T + 80 days    professor types must love it

"This is just the kind of thing I'm talking about."

Mercuriou was reading the latest news dispatches from Earth.  Two
giant oil companies had merged to form an even larger oil company.

"Energy crisis," Mercuriou sneered.  "There's no energy crisis.  The
only energy crisis that all the people who control the energy are
capitalists, so they're going to hold back on supply and jack up the
prices to make their record profits.  If they'd run their production
facilities at full capacity we'd have plenty of cheap energy.  By the
time the petroleum runs out in fifty years, we'd be able to develop
nuclear or solar energy, but nooo... that's not how you maximize your
profit.  Not where you want to be on your supply and demand curve, no
sir.  If your demand schedule is inelastic, you want to restrict your
supply schedule, _that_'s how your maximize your profit.  The profit
maximization point is _not_ the maximum supply point.  That's a
freshman mistake, fail you on your ECON 101 exam for that, right?
Well, am I right?"

Mercuriou stopped talking and looked around.  Nobody else was present;
he was alone in his quarters.


