Are Americans more concerned about gas prices than all the dead people?

[mopaul]

or are both of these factors finally starting to have an effect on bush's masturbatory war?

[Deja Q]

1. Very likely. After all, we're raised to care more about low prices...

than truly giving a damn about our future.

And the Piper has come with the bill.

[lonestarnot]

2. Don't know but I say we continue to beat them about the head and face with

BOTH!

[Ezlivin]

3. I don't put dead people in my car's gas tank

That seems to sum up the average American's view of things.

Most people aren't really aware that we are at war. Why should they? Other than the occasional newspaper article, what evidence is there that we are at war? In my town it's business as usual.

[justinsb]

4. I would say that the American People are more concerned about gas prices

than anything else, just based on what I've been hearing and reading. I find it appaling really. I, for one, hope that gas prices keep going up. There is no better way to cut down on unneccesary driving, no better way to to promote conservation, and fuel support for alternative energy than for gas prices to keep going up and up.

I do not think that gas prices will come down significantly. I think that any drop (or failure to rise) in energy prices (at least any significant drop that lasts) will be an illusion and will probably indicate exploitation somewhere in the world. I just hope that (unlike in the past) that the American people aren't willing to turn a blind eye to that exploitation in exchange for lower fuel costs.

[greenbriar]

5. if you have to live in a big city with no mass transit

how do you suppose we get to say

work
doctor
school
groceries?


or are those unnecessary???

[justinsb]

8. The solution in that case

is to start promoting mass transit and changes in zoning that will allow doctors, grocery stores, schools and business to be closer and/or move back into the cities and out of the suburbs. Those are local issues with local solutions that do not involve bush, and do not justify what would have to be done to drive gas prices down. In Canada and Europe fuel is always more expensive than it is in the states. That has been true for decades (and Canada has oil, we are an oil exporter and the largest single supplier to the US). This time it's the US, it's cities and suburbs, that has to change

[greenbriar]

12. fine and dandy, but in the mean time

I am supposed to say yes please gouge me

[justinsb]

13. No one is guaging you

Gas in Canada is near, or even above $1 a liter in some places, we are paying the equivelant of $3.75-$4 a US gallon and there is less complaining here than there is in the US and, as I said, we are an oil exporting country. Gas prices are high because the world is running out of oil, and every single day the demand is going up - in India and China and even, in spite of the high prices, in the US. People may complain about fuel prices but every day they are buying more and more of it.

[Clark2008]

10. Agreed.

But we have to get on the stick and do SOMETHING.

I live in a city of about 300,000. Our mass transist SUCKS. If I needed to take a bus, I'd have to get up at 4 a.m. to get my kid to school and be at work at 8 a.m. and then I'd never have time to do much of anything else, because we couldn't get home until 8 p.m.

We've, unfortunately, built our cities around cars and not much else. And I don't think Americans are going to give up their cars - and the convenience - without a fight.

You can't tell me that in this great big country, with all our ingenuity, that we can't come up with a fucking car that runs on garbage or something. Or, do I think too much about "Back to the Future?"

[Missy M]

6. Many Americans are only concerned with what affects them...

personally. As long as they can drive their big SUV's, live in their McMansions (it takes alot of energy to heat and cool them) and go their merry ways they really don't care. They think global warming is a myth and oil will be around for an eternity. As long as their sons and daughters aren't being killed in an illegal, obscene war it just doesn't matter to them.

[justinsb]

9. Well said, people who complain about high gas prices in North America

do not have an ounce of my sympathy at this point. We've known this was coming since at least the 70s and no one cared, or cared enough to do anything so the whining now does not move me at all.

[Missy M]

14. It only continues to get worse....

that is all I see on the road are big SUV's (I realize some people in business need them) with one person sitting in them. All the new construction houses I see going up in this area are huge. I get so frustrated when I am driving my compact, fuel efficient car and I am surrounded by SUV's.

[justinsb]

16. I understand, there is some of that here

but generally, SUV drivers here are so vilified that you're seeing less and less of them on the road (doesn't hurt that gas prices here are between $3.75 and $4 per US gallon). My last boss in the states bragged that her new SUV got between 7-10 miles per gallon and she drove (because she wanted to live in the burbs) about 75 miles each way, every day - she also drove to lunch etc., I wish more people would visit toronto and see how things are done here - we have the best public transit system in North America and bike paths (with more and more of them being built, some car free ) and alot of the professional class lives right downtown and because of zoning I can easily walk to the hostpital, doctors, dentists, schools, grocery stores, bakeries, resteraunts, pubs, movie theatres, and other specialty stores.

[Missy M]

18. Toronto has a beautiful public transit system....

I have been there many times and it is a perfect example of what a city should be.

[justinsb]

20. Gawrsh Thanks!

It stands to get even better though. We have a progressive, proactive mayor now and there are (as I said) car free bike lanes going in (over old railroad tracks) and there is discussion of 'Car Free Zones' around the downtown core and a London Style toll to drive into the remaining parts of the downtown core (like $7 per trip). The hot ticket items (in vehicles) here now include bikes, vespa scooters, Austin Mini Coopers and hybrids.

[JuniperLea]

7. That's the message the Bush Regime is sending

so the lemmings follow.

Don't you get it? It's hard work! We need that oil more than we need your sons, daughters, husbands and wives. They are dying for your freedoms, don't you get it? They are dying for your freedom to waste fossil fuel and pollute the air! They are dying for your freedom to pay less for gas! See how hard it is to spend all that money to fill your tank? Those kids are dying so it will be easier to buy gas!

sarcasm/off

[justinsb]

11. You're forgetting the other part of the message

that "Those people" (the one's in oil producing countries) basically have "our oil, it is ours and they are trying to hold us hostage by not giving it to us".

[kikiek]

15. The war is still being hidden to the average american. Gas prices aren't.

One is easily ignored while the other is in your face everyday. It is really very pathetic. I believe most people still don't get what is going on in Iraq and will agree to ignore it to the best of their ability. That is why they are holding off the draft. The draft will force people to pay close attention. This administration needs their ignorance.

[justinsb]

17. But ultimately the war in Iraq is about gas prices

and very little else. I think on some level there are many Americans who are willing to ignore Iraq because it may result in lower gas prices (in the short term)

[kikiek]

19. I agree. And those with young children want it fought by this generation

so their children don't go. We are so self centered in this country it is sad. I read the book "The Sociopath Next Door", and it basically says our country is becoming one big sociopath. No conscience, narcissist. So true.

[justinsb]

21. Sadly I agree

(especially being next door) but this is not new. The US has long engaged in war, proxy war and less violent forms of pressure to ensure a cheap oil supply. US gas prices have been subsidized by blood (sometimes American, usually other) since at least the 1980s.

[mopaul]

22. ------------

[Swamp Rat]

23. Gas prices?

[lildreamer316]

24. Yes.

As shitty as that is.

[Disturbed]

25. If no Amerikan troops were dying in Iraq or Afghanistan..

what % of Amerikans would give either country a half second of a thought?

I just read that soon the Occupation of both countries will be mainly policed by forces from Columbia and other countries at a much cheaper price than Amerikan mercs. As soon as the Occupations are outsourced there won't be much talk about those Occupied countries.

[Jack_DeLeon]

26. Duh...

ofcourse.

[Nobody]

27. This is probably why we're not going after Saudi Arabia

After all....

Osama bin Laden is Saudi. His family is Saudi. 18 of the 19 hojackers that flew planes into buildings were Saudi. Saudi Arabia also owns a lot of our national debt.

How many were Iraqi? Zero.

But, if we were to go after Saudi Arabia, we'd be paying a lot more than 2.50-3.00 at the pump and Saudi Arabia would be calling in their chips.

It's like this: Your kid gets beat up by the class bully. You, the parent, want to confront the bully but you feel you can't because the bully's dad is your boss. You confront your boss's kid, you're out of a job. What to do.....

If you're George Bush, you beat on what looks like the wimpiest kid in class instead.

If we had a statesman for a president (which we don't), this could be resolved with far less loss of life and limb.

And remember, of the last several administrations, it has been the Republican ones that have had Bushes in them somewhere and these are the ones that have increased our national debt to epic proportions.

Jimmy Carter tried to be honest about the debt and OPEC was starting to flex its muscles. Remember the gas lines? Bill Clinton actually reduced it a little. Remember the budget surplus?. During the Reagan years, our national debt skyrocketed in the biggest jump since the founding of our nation. Remember who was VP then? Of course you do, it was our former CIA Chief, George Bush I.

Could it be the Bush Dynasty's intention to get us so beholden to Saudi Arabia that we could never ever go to war against them? Why would they do this? Because the Saudis have invested heavily in their oil ventures and they can't have a war wiping out their profits.

I now don my :tinfoilhat: