I am pissed off and want to do something ....

[earthmama]

but can anything be done?

These F-ing gas prices are CRAZY. Price of food and everything is going up. I know alot of low income single mothers who have to decide between gas and food.

Protest the oil companies? Don't buy gas? I dunno ...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Check out alternative fuels and engines.

My husband is investigating this right now. He got plans for a hydrogen generator that he plans to make and put on an old car we have to see if it works. We're waiting for our tax refund so he can get the parts. Should cost under 1K. He's a mechanic and thinks that it will work to improve gas mileage and maybe even run the car. We'll see.

[Wednesdays]

17. Someone on a fixed income deciding between food and gasoline

Are hardly in the market for an "alternative-fuel engine." :shrug:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

19. the fix my husband is looking at

costs less than a thousand, and can be placed on our 1980 Toyota. But hey, a bike costs a lot less than that. Perhaps that is the way to go.

[GOTV]

2. Find a way to use public transportation whenever possible...

... buy a smaller car
buy a bike
tell people about what you've done.

[earthmama]

7. I live in Charlotte NC

Public transprtation sucks, rideing a bike every where is not doable in this town.

I do have a smaller car.

[GOTV]

Yes P.T. sucks almost everywhere but it won't get better if it's not used.

We're all going to have to put ourselves out some to change this stuff.

Can you get to work on PT even if you need to take a couple of buses and it takes twice as long?

There's not much else you can do.

Longer term, move to a home on a better bus line.

[HereSince1628]

3. Maybe not this time around...but...

The high gas prices and elevated food prices are getting to be quite predictable.

It reminds of my early childhood my father was a carpenter. Even in good times he was mostly out of work from November til April. Not surprisingly my parents had all seven of us involved in gardening and drying and canning vegetables and fruit. That year's supply of food nonsense of the mormons didn't look so much like nonsense.

Shopping in February and March to stock up the pantry to carry us through the high prices of summer is starting to look reasonable too.

[jebediah]

4. Talk to those mothers and collaborate on trips to minimize gas

pull together and find ways to save the money. Don't buy the gas by making a small group of people more efficient and interdependent.

What we can't do is maintain the habits of our current communities where everyone is so removed from those around them. If you want to really *do* something then you do it around you. Garden. Bike. Collaborate. Share tools and lawn equipment. What you can't do you trade with the micro community for what you can do.

Join a CSA farm where you can help and pick-your-own surplus. Share hand-me-down kids clothes. Find out what the big needs are for each member of the micro community and rotate the focus to addressing those things as a group.

I don't see angry protests about gas making any substantial changes. If you really want to protest then do it with your dollar and your lifestyle. Driving down to the protest is only telling them that you're still addicted to their stuff even if you're angry about it. Sitting in the box and yelling about it won't get you out of the box.

None of these changes like gas prices, etc. are going to get better in the long term. If you really want to get them then work on surviving without them.

(I'll be spending the weekend planting my garden with my family, mowing the lawn with my manual push mower, and working on my endurance on the bike. So, I'm not blowing smoke here... )

[Warpy]

5. Learn how to COOK

Learn how to get adequate nutrition from cheap foodstuffs like beans and grains with root veggies and homemade sprouts. Turn your nose up at all that adulterated convenience food. It's only convenient for the eventual enrichment of the CEOs who run the medical industry.

If you're healthy enough, buy an old bike and use it for short trips and errands. You can get luggage racks and panniers for the back which can hold an astonishing amount of stuff. You can even get a trailer for young kids. Older kids can ride their banana seat bikes along with you.

If you're financially able, unload the gas guzzling dinosaur and get something small, light and efficient. Even Detroit is making decent small cars now, although you'd never know it since the only ones they promote in advertising are the dinosaurs.

Realize that this is going to get worse, not better. Realize you're going to have to do some painful prioritizing. Realize that other folks are all in the same boat and consider getting together with them for bulk purchases from places like Costco. You can do bulk meat purchases online if you eat meat and can afford it.

Learning how to live on practically nothing is a challenge and an adventure. It just sucks being forced to learn it.

[earthmama]

8. I know all that ...

I do cook and live a simple life on next to nothing ... I have a neon and live in a town that public transportation is not an option as well as using a bike.


I am just pissed that the oil companies are making so much money off of us.

[Warpy]

11. It's Enron, all over again

because that's how monopolies work.

The refiners all colluded and closed refineries at the same time, just before the peak season. The prices are being manipulated upward by that, alone.

Undoubtedly all those smart boys from Enron who laughed at little old ladies in California going hungry to pay their exorbitant light bills are now laughing at families who are going hungry so Mom and Dad can get to work.

All you can do is vote for Democrats and pressure them to enforce the damned antitrust laws and break up these monopolies, all of them, from energy to the press. If they don't do that, vote them out in the next election and keep doing that until they get the message.

Oh, and use this as an object lesson for your libertarian acquaintances in how unregulated "free trade" actually works in practice.

[Breeze54]

12. Learning how to live on practically nothing??

WTH do you think most single mothers already do???? That isn't the whole issue.
I'll bet I could or the OP could write a book on that topic!

[Warpy]

13. So could I

but I see a lot of single moms out there feeding their kids bologna on white bread 3 times a day when they could be feeding their kids real nutrition for less money.

It's really saddening to me, which is why I keep harping on learning how to cook as being key to surviving the supply sider's great new prosperity.

[Breeze54]

15. I hear you. I feel the same and

it's really annoying to me too! I've always cooked for my kids and baked.
But I was brought up that way. Old fashioned mom taught me how early! ;)
And I've taught all my sons how to cook and they do pretty good too!

[dweller]

6. the prices are crazy

w/in 1 mile (or less) in the small town i'm in: Citgo $3.25/g, diagonally across the street, Exxon $3.24/g, w/in 1 block (barely 50 yards) BP $3.05/g, less than a mile down the road, Crown $3.05/g and across the street Kangaroo $3.04.

Now, i can drive across town to another district (more business) and it starts at $3.25/g and goes up.

:shrug:

dp

[CK_John]

9. Rickshaws are the wave of the future! n/t

[Breeze54]

10. Join grassroots organizations and take action!!!

Join:

ACORN

http://www.acorn.org/

Who Is ACORN?

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community
organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger
communities. Since 1970, ACORN has grown to more than 350,000 member families, organized in 850
neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S. and in cities in Canada, the Dominican
Republic and Peru.

ACORN's accomplishments include successful campaigns for better housing, schools, neighborhood
safety, health care, job conditions, and more.


----------------------------------


The Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR)

http://cesr.org

was established in 1993 to promote social justice through human rights. In a world where
poverty and inequality deprive entire communities of dignity and even life itself, CESR
promotes the universal right of every human being to housing, education, health and a
healthy environment, food, work, and an adequate standard of living.

http://cesr.org/unitedstates?PHPSESSID=5a195fbfc609439d0b90b8b2b51d4d07

[Arkansas Granny]

14. Gas has gone up where I live by $.42 per gallon since last Friday.

Gee, I wonder how that can be.

:eyes:



(AP) Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday its net income grew 10 percent in the first quarter, as higher refining, marketing and chemical profit margins overcame lower crude oil and natural gas prices from a year ago.

The earnings of $9.3 billion were the company's highest ever for the first quarter and beat Wall Street expectations, but revenue slipped and fell well short of analysts' forecasts.


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/26/business/main2731113.shtml

[BlackVelvet04]

16. I don't know the answer but I know

that everyone suggesting public transportation is getting old and annoying. If it were available I would use it but I, like many people on D.U., live in the country. And NO moving and spending thousands of dollars to move to save a thousand a year on gas makes no sense whatsoever. Just the 6% commission to sell the house makes moving a ridiculous option for high gas prices (and that isn't taking other costs of moving into account.)

There is only ONE reason gas prices are so high and that is the greed of the oil companies. It's time to write some congresspeople and to the stupid networks who keep spouting the mantra that we aren't upset about high gas prices.

So, please before you say "use public transportation or move" realize that for many people those aren't viable and/or economically sound options.

[bdamomma]

18. if this helps call your Reps and Senators, write a letter to your

town paper, or get on some town/state committee. just an opinion.