We have been taking a small cut of the hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil we have been producing daily for the past 100+ years and spending it as fast as we possibly can.
Right, but the money was spent on something tho'. So the question - and I don't know the answer - is whether having that thing, at the time, was worth more than having something else, in the future.
We could ask the same question in the UK. Successive governments believed in using the money to lower taxes instead. Whether that was right or wrong no-one can really say - but consider that around the time the North Sea came online, income tax was as high as 83% and tax on income from investments was 98%.
Right, but the money was spent on something tho'. So the question - and I don't know the answer - is whether having that thing, at the time, was worth more than having something else, in the future.