Posted on 04/30/2008 7:19:14 PM PDT by Charles Bronson Forever
Absolutely, but very tough times are ahead. Really, how the hell are we gonna get out of this mess unless we drill and refine at home? When is Washington going to do something? Easy. When WE do something about it.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as a homeschool mom of 7 and 11 year old boys.
I think the 11 year would make a great pastor. I also think I should teach him an overview of the Koran and politics as well a thorough review of the history of the world and computers.
The 7 year old I have not figured out yet, but keep watching for clues. However, I think what he picks up from his brother will be a great base along with a more in depth science and math curriculum.
The high price of gas will touching everything in our lives. Not a single person will go untouched by it.
As I said on another thread, gas above $4 will bring John Edwards 'two Americas' to life. Gas over $5, and this country will be divided into the haves and have nots. Gas over $7, God help us all. If I trusted Americans would act rational, it would be different. But Katrina proved to me that people resort to their most feral states to survive- and are willing to kill to do it.
Yeah, but wait to HillCare takes over. What will happen to the salaries then? They will all be set back to every other government job wages.
I say let’s just go take over a major country in the middle east that’s so full of oil it actually oozes out of the ground.
Ooops, been there .. done that! :(
See ya in the poorhouse!
Leni
It will. Look what the Great Depression did. Social liberalism was born of it.
“The loses to the travel industry alone would send the economy into a depression.”
You know the old saying about getting the government we deserve. In large part, the same is true of our economy. We scream at the government, do nothing else about it, and then pay $22 per month on our $30k credit card debt.
I’m not pointing finger, and I know many Freepers are the opposite of this, but the “old days” of thrift being a virtue are long gone in this country, and who didn’t really think in the back of their mind that the current standard of living was unsustainable?
I actually worry less about people having to tighten their belts than I do about the complacency spilling over despite some dire economical circumstances, and people fail to get off their fat asses, read some basic economics (since it apparently is no longer taught in Public Screw), and vote to prevent a Rat New New Deal.
After that post several FReeper’s felt it necessary to slow roast my chestnuts in an open fire.
Would all those chestnut roaster's please come out of the closet so they can see the light of day and learn just how much the weak dollar is killing middle income and those below already stressed budgets.
Despite what Nancy would have you believe folks, her advice is nuttier and more moldy than a nine year old Christmas fruit cake.
On this business of not drilling in Anwar.
I have been to Anwar back in the 70’s and it is a desolate expanse.
Two thousand acres might seem like a lot to the liberal New York City Slicker Environmentalist but in Alaska two thousand acres is not pimple on an elephants butt.
For those of you who believe like the soap opera Dallas that JR could drill a well and immediately pump gasoline to your local Shell heres the skinny.
Even if we drill in Anwar it will take years to get the pumped oil from the well sight to a refinery somewhere in Canada.
First the Oil Company bronc riders have to break the caribou and train them to pack out those barrels of oil for 2,000 mile trip.
The truth is the United States has allowed the ignorance of the Al Gore and the Sierra Club wannabe liberal politicians to override common sense.
All of what were discussing now should have been done years ago.
What I do not understand knowing the current problems Ms. Nancy is why we can't start tomorrow?
‘Glen Beck had someone on tonite who said that even if we could drill in Anwar, it would take 10-15 years to see the benefit here in America.”
The same argument will be made 10-15 years from now.
I don't like the price of gas but it isn't hurting me as much as most. I'm retired and don't have to drive to work everyday. Try working for awhile $8 to $10 an hour like some folks have to do and then tell hour cheap gasoline is and how well off they are.
Do I like slackers and complainers? H...no I don't! But I am not going to criticize people who have no control over what jobs are in a particular area and the wages they receive.
Can your rich corporation give all the people working at low paying jobs employment? Don't make me laugh. Your corporation nor any other one can. Those folks work hard to produce things that add to the national wealth. You know, things like all the paper your corporation uses...all the unnecessary forms that folks, working for low wages, have to fill out before they can see a doctor.
I'm not critical of your own success, as I have have some success in my life too, but you really need to back off of people who have not been so fortunate.
Amen brother, amen
Nevertheless, the psychological benefit of a renewed commitment to domestic supplies would be felt right away in the market >>> price.
What are your thoughts on shale(oil)?
Comment:
Please cut the snotty Obama elitists crap.
We know your just common trailer trash trying to impress everyone on FR with your keyboard riches....LOL.........
People like you are the reason most people spell it FLORIDUH.....
People like you with your high-nose attitude are the reason Rats despise Republicans. Thanks for maintaining the stereotype.
Take your snotty attitude back to the 19th at Boca Raton.
Try your attitude against the golf pros there trying to feed a family on 50K/yr.
Are we separated at birth or what? Posts within one minute....
My husband and I both have four-year degrees. I'm a full-time mom after a 20 year career, raising our son and we both help take care of elderly parents with health concerns. My husband does very well as white collar professional, but between rising taxes (property especially, geesh!), food and fuel costs, we've really cut back on our discretionary spending. Not to mention saving for college and paying for braces, I don't know where we'd find the funds for additional education for ourselves. We did the math, and if I worked full-time outside of the home, it wouldn't be worth it.
This is the land of opportunity and if all you can afford is cheap food and fuel it is hardly anybody’s fault but you own.
I see you live in Florida. Would you like to see our energy bill this winter in Minnesota? We have a very nice home and two paid for cars. We handle our mortgage and bills nicely, but with food and fuel costs and the above afformentioned expenses, we watch our pennies.
Still people need to take responsibility for their own life and gas is cheap compared to almost anything that does what gas does. It should be cheaper but it is still a bargain.
We are people that have taken responsibility for our own lives. We are getting taxed to death. I feel this even more intensely than others because I live in Minnesota, I guess. My husband's not about to leave his long career here for greener pastures. Even if he did find something elsewhere, good luck selling your house.
I bet half the people complaining about fuel have been wasting money on cigarettes, lottery tickets, and other crap most of their life. If you put this in XOM stock you would be singing.
Gardening is our main vice. We're putting in a large vegetable crop this year. Seems like the smart thing to do.
There are several implications with $5 a gallon. Figure about $4600 at $5 a gallon in costs, for one car.
This basically means that most of the folks who make $35k a year...are giving up $1800 out of their pocket and cannot make the money back, when they look back at $3 a gallon. They can also figure that their weekly $150 grocery bill, will slide up another $20 to cover gas costs to the grocery, the farmers, and general increase.
Then you can start to figure that the guy is going to cut back on driving. He will plan things enough that there aren’t any wasteful miles on Saturday or Sunday driving. The ten nights a year he would normally go bowling....will be cut back to six nights. The chance to take the family out every two weeks for a dinner.....will go to once a month, as he pays more for gas and simply quits buying meals out.
The wife? Well....she starts to time trips out, with doctor visits and shopping combined. The quick trip to the local grocery she made three times a week.....now goes to once a week only. She’ll pick up a neighbor on occasion and the two will shop together....rather than burn gas.
The trip by the family to visit relatives every June for eight days? Well....it gets canceled this year. And likely won’t occur next year. The tickets for the flight to Grandma’s around Thanksgiving? They went up twenty percent over last year’s and its mostly fuel costs added. The repainting of the garage this year? Won’t happen, you don’t have the extra cash to pay for the job.
So as you start the dominoes falling.....now we have a restaurant trend where everyone is eating ten percent less out because of no desire to use extra gas and no real extra cash left. The airline, hotel, car rental and touristic businesses suffer because folks won’t travel as much. The grocery business starts to see trendy food dumped and bulk items bought more often. Bowling alleys and theaters start to notice a ten percent drop in clients. Movies that were geared toward younger audiences (16 to 18).....suddenly notice that their clients don’t have the gas money to go and if they do go....they are very picky about what movie they see or don’t see......so fewer movies start to get made.
So at $5 a gallon....this is’t a simple game anymore. Folks will start to make a decision and think about how to waste or not waste $1800 in a year. But those with two cars in the family? Or how about three cars (one for junior).....can the typical middle-class family survive paying $9k a year on fuel? The answer is no.
The amazing thing here....even we all cut ten percent of our fuel usage out....the pricing trend won’t likely stop....and will continue (thanks to the Chinese and the Indians going out to buy their first ever car). So our entire future, now depends on a hydrogen fuel cell car and its development...which might be still twenty years away....when fuel cost $22 a gallon.
So settle back and watch for the warning signs, when hotel chains start complaining about empty rooms, airlines start cutting flights which they can’t fill to maximum capacity, theaters who can’t fill more than half of the place on a Friday night, movie producers who can’t make the standard cut on teenage films, and car dealers stuck with SUVs which won’t sell off the used lot.
The first hit will be the bottom of the barrel folks....who make $7 an hour at Wal-Mart. Then later the $35k a year folks. And by next year...even the folks who make $60k a year will start to complain. The next president will walk into a miserable period where the economy is stalled badly and will spend most of his or her four years trying to figure the magic formula.
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