gas (oil) prices is not just about driving! HEAT, price of all things

[greenbriar]

yes driving is a factor, but I know NO ONE who drives just for the hell of it.

WORK
SCHOOL
DOCTORS
Groceries

thats all I drive for


but its gonna be really bad when we have to actually have HEAT and what about the elderly...



WE only keep our furnace on 65 but some can't

[KharmaTrain]

1. I Just Posted On That...The Ripple Will Crunch This Winter

The big inflation of the 70's can be tied to the doubling and then doubling again of the price of oil. Dare I say I remember .35 a gallon gas!

The rise in the price of oil is like a tax hike on everyone...a real flat tax where those who can't afford it gets hammered the most.

The soaring price of oil mean higher production costs, higher transportation and delivery costs...then higher prices to compensate for the higher expenses and so on. Since the changes are incrimental...people just suck it up, but it gets harder and harder to hold back the inflation juggernaut once it gets rolling.

The real pisser is there are big winners in this oil mess. It's the stockholders of the big oil companies and their Wall Street buddies. Yep, while it's gonna cost them an extra $100 a month to fuel up those fancy SUVs, they're making an extra $5000 on their portfolios. It's sickening, since this is the mindset that drives our media and attempts to manipulate this issue for their own gain as well.

[BiggJawn]

6. Investors who make fat cash...

Who is in a better position to try and effect a change in energy policy?
Some consumer who's going broke?

Some major stockholder who makes $150,000 a month on his portfolio and has lunch with Neo-Cons?

Yeah, they could, but when you make that much money, the cost of gasoline is, to steal a line from "Ghostbusters", "Like the buzzing of FLIES!"...

Fuck the smelly little people.

and they tell me there is no Culture War brewing in this country?

Aux Armes, Citoyens!

[1monster]

7. Only the shareholders who have huge amounts of stock in the big oil

companies are cleaning up.

We have 190 shares which we have had since the year dot. We get about $80 to $100 per year from this investment.

And no, I can't afford to sell it. Capital gains on those 190 shares would be very high since we've had it for more than thirty years.

(The real pisser is there are big winners in this oil mess. It's the stockholders of the big oil companies and their Wall Street buddies.)

[KharmaTrain]

8. Many Retirement Portfolios Are Surviving This Way

Many people have portfolios that are modest...or have their retirements vested in these stocks, and right now it's one of the only positive ticks in their financial picture.

My "rant" was toward those who have and do manipulate the oil prices as they stand the greatest short-term gains with little regard to how their greed affecting others.

[1monster]

10. Right. Understood.

[BiggJawn]

2. You and me both, Greenbriar...

I have no boat, no jet-ski, no 4-wheel ATV-thing, no motorcycle for a plaything, no airplane, we don't go for "A drive in the country" like I remember going for with my granpa on Sunday afternoon.

I don't have a kid at home anymore, but if I did, she sure as hell wouldn't have one of those "pocket bikes" that seem so popular with the ditto-monkeys. You wanna go play on 2 wheels? PEDAL!

We plan the shopping trips out so tight that if we can't get what we want at one store, we will not drive to another store 5 miles away, we'll do without for the week, or until we can stop by on the way home from work Monday.

Monday-Friday, we go to work and back home. No side-trips. Then a trip to town to go to the store on the weekend, and that's IT.

So when somebody from overseas chimes in with "You bloody Murkans just like to drive everywhere and play with your gas toys all weekend long" it gets me a little steamed...

[greenbriar]

3. exactly!

thank you

[greenbriar]

4. and we are a ONE car family

have been for 7 years

[gollygee]

5. snow plowing

cities in the north are already stretched as far as they can go keeping streets plowed.

[newportdadde]

9. Very true sometimes I think people forget the trickle down.

to other areas of life. My wife and I are thinking of replacing our 30 year old furnace with a new much more efficient one. Its expensive but it may play out in the long run.

[greenbriar]

13. exactly

its not just gas to drive!

[skids]

11. That's why we need a cheaper source for these:

http://www.mathematicsmagazine.com/energy/solar_batch_heaters.htm

...and extremely large storage tanks to go with them. And radiators
to use the heat for more than just taking a shower.

[rman]

12. Anything that requires transportation from factory to the store

where you buy it.
Such as food.