Question about rising cost of gas and food?

Question

How are people going to make ends meet? Do you think it will get as bad as the depression in the 1920's? I'm surprised they haven't started charging for our kids to ride the school bus with the rising cost of diesel.

Answer 1

the good news is that American habits are extremely wasteful, both with food and gas consumption.  that means that we can cut back on consumption a great deal without suffering substantial serious consequences.  People in urban areas are better off with options for reducing their need for gasoline, while people in rural areas can reduce their food costs.

Behaviors can and will change as the prices of these products become prohibitive.  this will reduce demand, helping to ease prices, and will also spur investments in substitutes and cheaper production methods, because the higher prices attract investments, and then price competition begins again.

Answer 2

The most important thing for you and *everyone* else to be aware of, is that the politicians inside the Beltway are the people most responsible for the high oil prices, high food prices, and all the rest!!!   Federal and State EPA regulations and restrictions and letting the Sierra Club, tree-huggers, etc., dictate where oil companies can and cannot drill is horrible public policy and frankly, it's time for some sweeping changes in Washington D.C.!  The United States Government has not allowed a new oil refinery to be built in America since the late 1970s!  Communist China is drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico; but not American companies!  The Feds are also prohibiting the drilling for oil in ANWR, off the East Coast and the Left Coast!  

Congresswoman Maxine Waters had a slip of the tongue late last week, when she said that if "Big Oil" doesn't do as Congress demands to invest in alternate energy, etc., Congress will socia...er...er..ah, *take over* the oil companies!  That's the *real* agenda of the Socialists who have hijacked the Democrat Party!  Even if they call themselves "Progressives" that does *not* change the fact that they are Commies and Socialists!  But the fact remains that the Federal Government and the various State governments receive much more money for every gallon of gasoline sold than the oil companies do!  And most of the profits the oil companies go to stockholders, mutual funds, IRAs, and other retirement funds and whether it's the salaries of the workers and salaried employees of the oil companies, or the stockholders, such income is taxed by the Feds, the States, cities, counties, etc.!

It uses more energy to produce one gallon of alcohol than that same gallon provides to power a gasoline engine!  E-85 fuel cannot be transported by pipeline; most of it shall have to be transported by semi tractor-trailers and a small amount by rail.  The effects of alcohol on gasoline engines and their components has not been studied long enough to determine what the total extent of the damage will be.  By then, the USA may be so heavily invested in E-85 and similar forms of alternate energy that our economy won't be able to recover!  Meanwhile, there is a shortage of corn to feed animals and humans, increasing costs of meat, milk, eggs, and other produce!

BTW, the largest foreign supplier of oil to the US is Canada; Mexico is either the second or third largest foreign supplier.  But the fact remains that there is plenty of oil in the United States and the technology to extract and use that oil for well enough into the future that even our great-great-grandchildren will not have to worry about running out, if the government lets go of the stranglehold it has on the average, everyday, American citizen and resident (including the illegal immigrants)!

Another BTW: Vinton County, Ohio, the very rural county where we raised our children have used primarily propane to power their school buses for several years!