The world we live in....
*grumbles* I've come to realize that the current run up in fuel prices means I won't be attending Worldcon this year. I simply can't afford to get there. I looked up ticket prices the other night and while the airfare isn't bad, the fuel / homeland security / port charges cost more than the damn ticket. In this case about $500 all told. Cheaper than driving it but I can't afford to do that either. What I', looking at is $500 + $200 (membership) + $600 (hotel) + whatever for food, local transit, stuff to buy = $1700 for four days. And much more if Bill goes with me as I'd hoped. Figure $3400. >.< I can't manage that. Not for such a short time. Hell... for less than that I can visit Cameron in Sydney and stay a week or two.
By next week I'll be paying $4 a gallon for gas. I'm soooooo glad I got the new car. I don't know how I would have ever managed to fuel the Jeep. I know gas is much higher around the world. ( quick search gives me approx $8.50 a gallon in the UK ) So yeah... it could certainly get much worse. But the thing is, here we have almost no public transit and certainly nothing that rivals the other major countries.
When I've traveled overseas and even in places like Canada. I could get just about anywhere either by rail or autobus. Here we've embraced the one car / one driver mentality that began back in the 1940's. Too much sprawl... too many roads. Listening to talk radio today the solution that I hear is to drill, drill, drill. Maybe someday technology will give us a better choice but for now... keep driving!
I think that as a nation we are about at the limit of what people can afford. Much more... say $5 a gallon and there'll be a major shift in things. Imagine, all those folks who got a SUV simply being unable to afford to keep it? So they turn it back to the bank or commit insurance fraud? Total chaos! You thought the sub prime crisis was / is bad? You ain't seen nothing!
Homes outside of towns / cities will be almost impossible to live in. It'll cost too much to get to essential services like groceries. Which will cost much more as diesel runs up in price even faster. In an oil based economy / technology having the basic raw material triple in price will have far reaching and unexpected consequences. If the world were to end.... I'd blame oil. Big cities would become uninhabitable and isolated living would be difficult. Small towns though would flourish.
Ah well. I believe we'll stagger into a depression greater than that of the 1930's. Oil will push food and most durable goods higher as delivery and manufacturing costs are passed along to the end consumer. As the basics of life use up a greater percentage of income, things like debt to credit and loans will go into default. If that happens and banks begin to fail, that'll pull down the stock markets. As capital dries up and the economy shrinks we will begin to see an economy in serious retreat.
Imported goods would skyrocket and we don't produce a fraction of what we consume domestically. Government would eventually be forced into several radical moves. Give houses to homeowners and forgive outstanding mortgages / debt. Forcibly remove foreign nationals. Give companies incentive to open U.S. production facilities. Encourage greater diversity in farming and work to build a world class transportation network that would truly be an alternative to having a car of your own. And finally, build nuclear power plants. It's time to switch all of our reliance to that and away from oil & coal. Wind & hydro will certainly play a role, but relying on something that can be cut off is just plain stupid.
Well, that's a few late night thoughts. Hope everyone is well.
*hugs everyone*
By next week I'll be paying $4 a gallon for gas. I'm soooooo glad I got the new car. I don't know how I would have ever managed to fuel the Jeep. I know gas is much higher around the world. ( quick search gives me approx $8.50 a gallon in the UK ) So yeah... it could certainly get much worse. But the thing is, here we have almost no public transit and certainly nothing that rivals the other major countries.
When I've traveled overseas and even in places like Canada. I could get just about anywhere either by rail or autobus. Here we've embraced the one car / one driver mentality that began back in the 1940's. Too much sprawl... too many roads. Listening to talk radio today the solution that I hear is to drill, drill, drill. Maybe someday technology will give us a better choice but for now... keep driving!
I think that as a nation we are about at the limit of what people can afford. Much more... say $5 a gallon and there'll be a major shift in things. Imagine, all those folks who got a SUV simply being unable to afford to keep it? So they turn it back to the bank or commit insurance fraud? Total chaos! You thought the sub prime crisis was / is bad? You ain't seen nothing!
Homes outside of towns / cities will be almost impossible to live in. It'll cost too much to get to essential services like groceries. Which will cost much more as diesel runs up in price even faster. In an oil based economy / technology having the basic raw material triple in price will have far reaching and unexpected consequences. If the world were to end.... I'd blame oil. Big cities would become uninhabitable and isolated living would be difficult. Small towns though would flourish.
Ah well. I believe we'll stagger into a depression greater than that of the 1930's. Oil will push food and most durable goods higher as delivery and manufacturing costs are passed along to the end consumer. As the basics of life use up a greater percentage of income, things like debt to credit and loans will go into default. If that happens and banks begin to fail, that'll pull down the stock markets. As capital dries up and the economy shrinks we will begin to see an economy in serious retreat.
Imported goods would skyrocket and we don't produce a fraction of what we consume domestically. Government would eventually be forced into several radical moves. Give houses to homeowners and forgive outstanding mortgages / debt. Forcibly remove foreign nationals. Give companies incentive to open U.S. production facilities. Encourage greater diversity in farming and work to build a world class transportation network that would truly be an alternative to having a car of your own. And finally, build nuclear power plants. It's time to switch all of our reliance to that and away from oil & coal. Wind & hydro will certainly play a role, but relying on something that can be cut off is just plain stupid.
Well, that's a few late night thoughts. Hope everyone is well.
*hugs everyone*