Gas prices affecting middle class

[phantom power]

Not exactly a shocker, but this is the first "hard" data I've seen on the subject.

Almost 6 in 10 say the higher prices are causing a hardship, including 15% who say the hardship is "serious." More than a third of Americans have cut back on spending because of the higher prices, and about half have cut back significantly on the amount of driving they do. Lower-income Americans feel especially hard hit.

The poll, conducted April 1-2, finds that 58% of Americans have experienced hardship, the first time in the past six years that a majority has expressed this view.

http://www.emergingdemocraticmajorityweblog.com/donkeyrising/archives/001135.php

[maxsolomon]

1. dear middle & lower class: tough shit

love, the idiot you re-elected.

[havocmom]

2. Cost not limited to filling your car with gas, which you might be able to

cut a bit. Also has much to do with what you pay for food. Hits the poorest the hardest.

Learn to grow veggies. Even if you have to do it in pots on a window sill, learn to grow some of your food.

[kineneb]

7. Food is going to become more expensive

due to factory farming...think of all the petrol products used to get your food to market. Me, I have been out digging in the yard and starting seeds. Otherwise eating may get difficult.

[phantom power]

9. Oddly, I'm reminded of the original Star Wars

"One thing's for sure. We're all gonna be a lot thinner."
--Han Solo

[Nite Owl]

3. So are they rethinking their vote

for the boy king yet or still so happy that gays still can't get married? I'd love to see that poll.

[Coastie for Truth]

4. Peak Oil is not limited to the US

it is world wide.

[phantom power]

5. Correct, but I'd venture that

no other country has built their economy so thoroughly on artificially cheap oil, as we have here in America.

For instance, other industrialized countries have much higher taxes on gasoline, and have had for years. Another example is the prevalence of "suburbs" here, whereas they are less common elsewhere.

I think it will hit us especially hard, in some ways (but not others). The suburb facet may be the biggest problem for us, that isn't shared by other countries.

[Coastie for Truth]

6. Japan will be hit very hard-- import 100% of their oil

and as the North Sea Fields run out (they have already hit "Peak Oil") much of Western Europe will be 100% dependent on imports.

Also, a lot of the oil goes to chemicals and electricity.

So - we will not be alone in our oil-less society.

At least - with India, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Israel hurting ---> "somebody" will come up with the "killer" energy saving technologies to bail us out.

[aneerkoinos]

8. Killer technologies

If only it was that easy. The energy saving technologies and know-how are allready there, loads of them, but not any single deus ex machina.

The problem is not technological know-how, it's having an orderly society willing and able to implement the know-how. Maniacally short-termist corporatocracy is not willing and able, Cuban style socialism has proven to be able.

[Coastie for Truth]

12. But the Japanese (and to a lesser extent the Israelis)

can pull together to solve major technological problems facing their society. This is to be distinguished from the "screw your buddy" mentality in America. For example, see this Unocal Web Site --> http://www.unocal.com/rfgpatent/index.htm --> there is a lot of history, but it was a "short term advantage - screw your buddies" thing.

[solinvictus]

10. Heard an SUV'er bitching about it on Tuesday...

A lady driving a Yukon was griping about oil and, of course, had her requistite "W: The President" sticker. There's nothing worth saying to them, except that when the payments become impossible, bankruptcy is no longer an option thanks to your Boy King.

[phantom power]

11. Weird moment watching the local news last night.

They were doing the usual fluff piece about gas prices "Wow! Look at those crazy prices! Can you believe it!"

But then, they closed with this zinger: "You can blame the cost of the special ethanol blends we use (here in Phoenix)"

Suuuuure. Nothing to do with record high oil prices, or OPEC hitting the limit of it's production capacity, or Asia's exploding demand for oil. Or disrupted exports from Iraq.

It's all the fault of that ethanol blend! WTF???