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Where's the outrage?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by slappy4428, May 23, 2007.

  1. Chuck~Taylor

    Chuck~Taylor Active Member

    The congressmen are too busy trying to get Michael Vick suspended. ::)
     
  2. jgmacg

    jgmacg Guest

    Oh, I know that, Buck. I just thought with your fancy big-city crime statistics, mass transit might be an option at some future time. Again, the redress and remedies for big oil's stranglehold on us is going to vary from town to town and person to person. It might be something as simple as getting a V-6 instead of a V-8 in your next car. Or a hybrid, or a Vespa. Whatever incremental change an individual can make is still worth making.

    But mass transit can be made to work again in a lot of places if we simply have the political and social will to make it so. Before WW II, one of the best mass transit systems in America was that of Los Angeles, the most atomized city imaginable. Streetcars. The Detroit car makers and Akron tire companies killed it, of course, in a mind boggling act of political corruption. By the 50s it was gone entirely.

    That we've become a nation too lazy to walk three blocks to catch the bus is evident in our obesity rates. We're programmed to ride, alone, in our cars. So there's more than one obstacle to get past in how we change our thinking.

    And while I agree that we're being robbed by the oil companies, I don't think the long term answer to our oil addiction is lower prices at the pump.
     
  3. pallister

    pallister Guest


    I run 8-10 miles a week, in addition to riding an exercise bike, doing push-ups, sit-ups, etc., so if I don't feel like walking to the bus stop and prefer to drive my car to the store two blocks away, I ain't gonna feel too bad about it.
     
  4. dog428

    dog428 Active Member

    The reason the prices go up around Memorial Day each year is because of the change over from Winter to Summer blend gas. It doesn't have much to do with the demand increasing. And even so, the price jump this year has far exceeded the price jumps in years past.

    We're not in control and that's obvious. If you think that, you haven't been paying attention. Hell, we can't even get assault weapons banned -- something that over 75 percent of the population agrees should happen (Probably the only thing 75% of the population agrees on). We're not running anything when it comes to gas. There are alternatives out there, but who's going to promote the research to actually produce working, realistic alternatives? It ain't gonna be the guy who just accepted $4 million from the oil and gas lobby.

    And that's the really insulting part to me -- that they're slapping us in the face with both hands and then kicking us when we're down. We've resigned ourselves to the fact that our government leaders simply aren't going to press for alternatives to oil. We've accepted it and moved on. And then they do this shit -- allow the prices to be gouged so high that we're all going broke while their oil baron buddies are taking in billions. And then they accept the "donations" to help with their campaigns.

    It's criminal.
     
  5. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    People say that nothing can be done - that its "the market" - if that's true just be sure to find cheaper gas. Then it should go down right? I'm hoping Congress starts talking about breaking up the monopoly and limiting oil companies from owning the refining, distribution and retail sale of gasoline, similar to how the movie studios owned theaters before that was broken up. There needs to be more competition/incentive to refine more oil and not less. I vowed never to buy Exxon again after that Valdez thing; Texaco after it was leaked that they were racist and Shell due to the Apartheid thing.
     
  6. pallister

    pallister Guest

    How about Citgo and the Chavez thing?
     
  7. dreunc1542

    dreunc1542 Active Member

    Well I'm so glad that comment had loads of relevance to the discussion.
     
  8. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    I think the outrage will really kick in when food prices go up as suppliers begin charging more to cover gas costs.

    If that $4 per gallon gas results in $5 per gallon milk, then you'll see some serious anger coming out of the working poor and middle class.
     
  9. Rusty Shackleford

    Rusty Shackleford Active Member

    Here's what gets me. Every summer price goes up. I can kinda see the claim that demand is higher during the summer, what with vacations, recreational vehicle use (boats, etc) and the like.

    And at the end of the summer, usually after Labor Day, the prices come tumbling back down slowly. Fine. Demand is apparently lower then.

    But the part that gets me is that the price never really comes all the way back down. At it's lowest this past winter, gas was still .10 or .20 cents more than it was the previous winter. And that previous winter was .10 or .20 cents more than the winter before that. In my area, gas got as cheap as about $2.00/gallon over the winter. I'd be willing to guarantee that the lowest it gets this coming winter is $2.10-2.20. And then this time next year, it'll be a dime more than it is now.

    We get conditioned to it being at a certain level, and that level is slowly, steadily getting higher. People don't notice if this winter's gas price is a dime higher than last winter's. But when that happens every year, people realize that a decade ago, gas was a dollar a gallon or more cheaper. Hence all the gas-guzzling SUVs that were sold in the mid to late 90s, when gas was, at its highest, $1.80/gallon.
     
  10. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    Shit milk is already up near $4 a gallon. It's getting harder to maintain my lactose habit!
     
  11. JackS

    JackS Member

    Here's my outrage: As far as I'm concerned the price of gas is too low until people start cutting back and *demanding* more public transportation and reduced sprawl. The last thing I want is a continuation of the status quo in an age of dwindling fossil fuels and environmental destruction.

    Now commence hitting those "Ignore JackS" buttons, guzzlers. ;)
     
  12. jgmacg

    jgmacg Guest

    I completely agree, Dog, that this Spring's hikes are unprecedented. And I'm also aware of the semi-annual blend switch - although I've never entirely believed it, since it is, after all, the oil companies telling us that's what accounts for the regular increases. (How convenient that the expensive switch occurs just in time for American hitting the summer highways!) As Rusty says, though, the prices never seem to return to their previous lower levels - long term or short, demand or not, blend switch or not.

    In fact I'm not disagreeing with anything anyone is saying here.

    I guess I'm just agitating for a better personal and national strategies than being angry about high prices - without rethinking what lies at the root of the problem. The answer is in part political, certainly, and in part commercial to the extent that we can move the marketplace based on our personal behaviors. The deeper answers and the longer term solutions lie in our own choices and ingenuity and willingness to change and undertake sacrifice, I think.

    We made these systems - economic, corporate and political - what they are. We have to have the courage and the will to unmake them.
     
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