Gas to hit $4 a gallon in August

Bra-freaking-vo.

 

Aren't SUV-makers Ford and GM already getting their comeuppance with horribly sagging sales?

While Toyota and Honda are doing great?

That's what I've been reading anyway....

 

The problem is that there are a lot of people who don't have an extra $1,500 per year.

How many threads have we had on this board from fresh out of college writers who are trying to make ends meet on $18,000 per year? It's one thing for DINKs like me to carve out an extra $30 per week. It's something else entirely for somebody just starting in this business to spend 10 percent of their paycheck to pay for a gasoline rate hike.

 

My point was to spend less on other things. I don't know anyone under 30 that cooks. I can save you at least $100 a week right there with nothing more than four spices, a good knife, a cutting board, a can opener and a trip to the local MegaLoMart. Hope you like chicken and hope you're not so squeamish you won't cut one up.

 

Sure, there are plenty of youngsters like that. There are also plenty who eat Ramen noodles, PBJ sandwiches and drink water straight from the tap of their shithole apartment to keep from going into debt when they get started in this business.

And, speaking of this business ... How long until another round of layoffs begin happening at papers because of the gas prices?

 

Going back to the argument I had with my doctor and lawyer friends, this is where we ended up: The doctor argued what kleeda is here, which is every consumer can easily make up for it somewhere else, spending a little less money here and there.

But - as someone else, I think footballbat, pointed out - that ends up causing general harm to the rest of the economy. People like me are not earning enough extra money to easily fit the higher cost of gas into our budget. Therefore we have to cut back on this and that, which means the grocery store is getting less money from me and millions of other folks, as is TGI Friday's, Amazon.com, the bar down the street, etc. And like someone else pointed out, that pretty much always leads to recession.

So I'm back to my original point: As much as I would consider myself adverse to normally doing this, in this instance I think the government should step in and do SOMETHING. The best idea I've heard, and it's not a great one but it's a start, is to tax the oil companies on windfall profits and provide relief to poor and lower-middle-class people.

By the way, politically this is a huge opportunity for the Democrats, since this is most affecting people in red states and poor folks. But the Democrats being who they are, they don't realize it.

 

More-expensive gas is "taking money out of the economy"? What, oil companies don't employ anybody? They are a business just like any other.

The windfall-profits tax really worked wonders back in the '70s.

How about this -- maybe the American consumer should demand more cars that are more fuel-efficient. And maybe we also should demand we exploit more of our own natural resources -- including drilling in a very small part of Alaska, and increasing our use of nuclear power.

The Al Gores of the world aren't entirely wrong, but neither are the George Bushes.

 

Sure, and if they don't innovate you're going to stop driving?

 

Spoken like a true socialist.

 

Boy, trounced, you're dumb.

 

Four words, Jones, and you've hit on the truth.

You keep that up, you'll be out of the magazine game in no time.

 

Dumb for telling the truth?