Fox: "Suck it up, America. If you can't afford the gas, drive less"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Suck It Up, America
Monday, August 22, 2005
By Cal Thomas

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,166372,00.html

Today's consumer culture expects cheap prices allowing us to buy more and more stuff. But the law of supply and demand says you can't expect low gas prices when the U.S. has five percent of the world's population, yet consumes 25 percent of the available oil.

We consume too much and that's the problem. We have confused needs with wants. Whatever delights our eyes we think is a necessity.

Prosperity is now considered an entitlement. For many, it has been more of a curse than a blessing. We have gained the whole world, but we have lost our souls. Our false god is the golden calf called the Dow Jones Industrial Average (search). In Dow we trust.

Suck it up, America. If you can't afford the gas, drive less, get a hybrid, ride a bike on short trips, combine tasks on the same trip, take public transportation.

[whistle]

1. If you can't afford the milk, drink water, if you can't afford the food

...eat straw, if you can't afford the electricity fo A/C, open your windows, if you can't afford to live in America, get the fu*k out -- a public service message from Faux News

[KarenInMA]

4. but don't cancel your cable!! Anything but that!

[Lorien]

23. Lol! That was the FIRST thing to go in my home

when things got tight!

[mtnsnake]

2. What a condescending statement. Might as well say that poor people

shouldn't have the same driving priviledges as weatlthier people.

[whistle]

17. Well.......?

[etherealtruth]

29. I think that's exactly it ...

poor people don't deserve any of the privileges of the more affluent ... including affordable food, home heating .... if they deserved it they wouldn't be poor, now would they!

[gratuitous]

3. Pretty easy to say

When you're paid a six-figure salary for your sinecure at Faux. Try your solutions on minimum wage, Mr. Thomas. The difference between a monthly gasoline bill of $150 and $250 just to get to and from work can mean that your kids don't eat.

Scumbag.

[tuckessee]

19. How true.

I can't imagine Cal scrounging under the seats of his car for loose change to buy a little extra gas.

[Infomaniac]

5. The Right Laughed at Carter

The Right laughed and made fun of Carter for proposing we conserve by keeping our homes cooler and wearing sweaters. Now the Right feels its perfectly fine to lecture Americans on "entitlement." Cal Thomas sounds like he wants to send the slew of us off to Brat Camp.

[Ron Green]

6. How ironic

that such an apologist for the Free Market entreats us to take public transportation, the very sort of works project in which we should have engaged 30 years ago were it not for his beloved Free Market.

[TheFarseer]

7. Yeah, that's pretty much the answer

until someone invents something to make gas obsolete. I wish they could say it in a less ass-holey way and possibly encourage EVERYONE to conserve, not just the little worthless everyday people that they seem to think we all are.

[Bob3]

8. but didn't our fearless leader say go out and shop?

Cal Thomas has gone off the deep end - you can't (as he has) praise Ronald Reagan and his greed is good philosophy to the skies and then tell us to live green.

Between * biking in the mountains while kids get blown up in Iraq, Pat Robertson praying for a hit on a foreign leader and now Cal Thomas telling us to buy a hybrid car I think my head is going to explode. And why isn't there a smiley for that?

[kittenpants]

20. yeah, I thought I was supposed to keep America rollin?

[Bob3]

9. delete dup

delete dup.

[calico1]

10. Wow. So does that mean that as the

standard of living goes down for most Americans, that is to be considered progress?

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

11. Ah yes, "Let them eat cake"....

Hmmmm. Now what happened the last time those words were spoken.:evilgrin:

[kahleefornia]

12. should have been said this way:

Instead of saying that people who can't afford the gas should conserve, how about EVERYONE conserves so that the price goes down, and regular folk can afford it again.

Or EVERYONE comes up with a way to drive without the polluting, politically damaging, corruption-producing stuff.

[TheFarseer]

24. I don't understand why they have to have this

every man for himself mentality. I thought Christians were supposed to helped other people out? Or maybe that just means donating worn out furniture they don't want anymore to Catholic Social Services? If we would work together, this would be a much better country instead of trying to cut each other's throats and wasting resources before other people can waste them.

[calico1]

13. He is also idiotic because its not jus the gas

we are putting in our cars. The gas prices are affecting every imaginable business in the country. Which means the cost of living in general will go up and not keep up with inflation. Its not just a few extra dollars in your gas tank.

[KayLaw]

25. That's right

Gasoline is only one part of high oil prices.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

14. Dear Working Poor:

Shush. Suck it up, and don't bother asking ME to give up anything.

Regards,
Cal Thomas, Sneering down my nose at the rest of you.

PS- When the fuel costs drive up the cost of your food and clothes, eat less and enjoy the rags.

[SammyWinstonJack]

15. As if that over paid blow hard has to worry about being able to

put gas in his vehicle to get to his job so he can "put food on his family". How arrogant and condescending!

[underpants]

16. What happened to "Go see a movie go out to dinner enjoy yourself"?

consume consume consume

[catnhatnh]

18. "More a curse than a blessing"

...Bless you, Bless your Family, Bless your Children-even unto the 20th generation.May you and yours wander the streets in hand me down clothes hungry and homeless, but secure in your Souls. While those poor misfortunates with options and prosperity suffer the horror of daily affluent choices, what to drive,what to eat and what to wear, may you and yours live in joyous, simple, poverty, knowing neither indecision nor (snarf) obesity....This is my prayer-asshole...

[Lorien]

28. He's addressing the affluent, and for them it is true

I know a number of "comfortable" Americans who are downing in "stuff" and working harder and harder to maintain their excessive lifestyles ("how long will it take to pay off that huge plasma TV you "had" to have"?). It may be hard to relate, as many of us on this board are struggling just to pay the bills, but there are many millions of Americans to whom this article applies. Their insatiable demands are quickly driving up the costs of supplies (resources are finite, after all).

[Lorien]

21. For much of America, this is true

take a trip to Costco, and watch as families line up with carts filled to overflowing with snacks, decorative items, DVDs, toys, gadgets, lawn ornaments, etc. I'm always stunned at what so many can apparently afford (while I buy food, rechargeable batteries, kitty litter, discount phone cards and new socks). They pile into new Expeditions, while I load my goods into a 12 year old Toyota. They divide between the prosperous (not even rich by BushCo standards) and the poor (or struggling) is huge these days.

I live in a mixed neighborhood; 2 million dollar mansions sitting on the same street as $90,000 run down 2 bedroom bungalows. I am STUNNED by what people place on the curbs on trash day. Brand new videos, books, kitchenwares, good furniture, working electronics, clothing, sets of towels, sports equipment...I salvage what will fit in my car and take it to Goodwill. It's obscene!

Things DO need to change because the earth can't sustain our consumption habits, but by the time those expedition drivers are cutting back to basics, those of us already doing so will be living in cardboard boxes.

[Jacobin]

22. Tell that to the independent truck drivers

Tell that to their children who won't have anything to eat.

Tell that to the banks that hold liens on the truck driver's trucks.

Tell that to people who have to commute to go to work with depressed U.S. wages who are barely hanging on, with a giant house note.

Tell that to farmers who have to use thousands of gallons to diesel to harvest their crops....with prices for crops often already fixed last spring....and with competition from third world growers for prices.

FoxSnooze can suck me.

[earthside]

26. Cal is Correct!

Most of what Cal Thomas writes here is correct.

Most Americans do consider prosperity an entitlement. I see lower income folks in my neighborhood who have bought $30,000 SUVs just last year ... and now they are crying about the price of gasoline.

Sorry, but I know these folks get the daily newspaper, too. Like most Americans they've just been in total denial about the oil situation and they bought all the Bush economic propaganda because it was easy.

Now, Thomas is a hypocrite, he'll defend Wal-Mart which has been instrumental in creating the culture of low prices that has given us the culture of low wages ... so folks cannot afford pricy gas. And I'm sure he would dispute Peak Oil.

But it is just true ... gasoline is going to be more expensive ... and if you cannot afford it you're going to have to give up the air conditioning, the stereo and the cell phone when you want to drive two miles just to rent a DVD.

[ProfessorGAC]

27. The "LAW" Of Supply & Demand

Only those with less command of economics than my cat, believes supply & demand is a hard and fast LAW! It's a hypothesis that changes for every commodity, every situation. So, Cal can use that canard all he wants, but it just proves to me that he knows nothing about which he speaks.
The Professor

[mcscajun]

30. Yes, we consume too much, collectively -- there are plenty of exceptions

...yes, many of us, not all, have confused needs with wants.

I don't know too many people who consider prosperity an entitlement, outside of those who were Born Prosperous.

When Cal's saying "Suck it up, America", he's not talking to the Prosperous...just the rest of us. Can you imagine Donald Trump suddenly taking to the streets on a bicycle? Bill Gates on the BART?

Those who are the Prosperous will be able to afford the gas no matter what. The rest of us are already doing some or all of the things he says. If we can...for some, driving less isn't an option...nor is buying a new hybrid car, however much we may want one.

What an asshole.

[Stirk]

31. I wonder what Cal would be saying if we had a non-Republican President?

Somehow I doubt it would be "suck it up, America".

[Saphire]

32. Let Them Eat Cake!