what makes oil so unique is that it doesnt have to be made. it only has to be harvested. the oil is just there in the ground. the consequence of this is that literally anyone can make use of it and everyone who uses it does not know how to make it without using oil to make it. if you had to produce the hydrocarbon molecules you consume a much different world would exist that could not externalize waste and error.  notice how whenever a politician encounters a problem, the answer is always to print money and build an institution. this would never work if oil was not abundant. so to a politician today, an error is just another expense rather than something which requires a correction. and that is why nothing ever happens, but like the picture (falling eroi) says, this is a very temporary luxury. a system can only function without unity and harmony if it has an abundance of cheap energy. that does not describe our current situation. it only functioned that way in the past based upon ignorance
United States