I thought we were WINNING the Iraq War. And I thought the Saudi's were Dumbya's friends!!! How come gas is so high?

. . .the oil companies are "winning" as a result of the Iraq war, as are Bush's buddies in Saudi Arabia. No real surprises there. Also, the problem with this article is that it looks at driving as a "habit" which to some degree it is--but the real issue is that we've developed our infrastructure and housing/working patterns in such a way as to make it impractical for many people to not drive. I live in NE Mpls and work in a second-tier southern suburb--the 15 mile bike ride each way down Nicollet Ave (not that pretty) isn't something that I would expect most people to undertake. It's more than habits that we need to change, it's really the entire way that we've shaped our living environments. When gas was cheap and traffic was light, we didn't have to think twice about these issues, now folks are about to start getting burned on a metro-wide basis, from city to city across the nation.

Let's just take the oil

We've known this was coming for 30+ years. And we've done nothing to plan for it. Our entire economy (and general way of life) is built upon cheap oil. That's going to change. And the worst part is, it could have been avoided with some planning and forethought.

I would hazzard a guess that were the government forced to figure the cost of fuel and food into the core group of commodities when figuring the COLA for Social Security rather tahn ignoring them they would find a quick way to curb oil prices. Yes fuel both for home heating and vehicles as well as food is excluded when figuring the COLA even though both are the leading inflation escalators.

Fact is, for most people there is not a lot of realistic change to make. Sure there are small things like walking a block or two to somewhere nearby rather then driving. However, use of public transport is not an option for many. Public transport is limited. Some folks need to drive as part of their jobs. There is no simple drive less. Folks cut back where they can while the folks with money drive up the prices through commodity pricing.

There's a LOT of non-essential RECREATIONAL tearing around going on out there 24/7. Although, even though the commuter rushes are as strong as ever, I think I detect a slight decrease in after-hours tearing around...

Steps to screwing our children: 1) use all the oil we can neglecting that a car in 1970 got 14mpg and Hummer in 2003 gets 8mpg (plus Bush gave a $100k writeoff if you were self-employed, yes a lot of accountants and lawyers need large suv's to carry around a briefcase), that is progress, 2) fund a war for oil raising the debt per person to 35k, but what the hell it's not my credit card (maybe I should learn mandarin, but what dialect?), 3) Don't save enough money, because our kids should fund our retirement (just because I want to retire at 60 my kids won't mind paying China and Social Security until they're 70). Baby boomers are truly the locust generation, consume everything in their sight and no planning for when they devour it all.

Paying the piper.

As I've posted here occasionally for the past 12 monthes or so, here's the bottom line: A country that bases it's entire economy on the ASSUMPTION that a commodity it does NOT control will remain cheap forever is STUPID. We are reaping what we've sown. Pure and simple. Quit complaining and use less oil. As I've posted elsewhere, people with a brain that have seen this coming (smile), are making BANK off of your idiocy. No sympathy here. Go Oil Go. Every penny gas goes up is money in my pocket off of the idiots.