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Musings on the Price of Gas | 65 comments (65 topical)

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I'd like to know (5.00 / 1) (#11)
by Dave B on Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 12:16:12 PM EST
How is it good for low income and retired people.

My mom lives on social security and her utilities and gas now consume about half her income.

Those are the real victims.  There is no making the transition for them, they just get buried.  And so do the kids that have to try and keep them afloat.

[ Parent ]

the truth is (5.00 / 1) (#24)
by Jeralyn on Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 12:36:49 PM EST
they better not live too long. Nursing homes (not assisted living) run $6 to $8k a month around here for room and board. Even long term care insurance benefits are just a drop in the bucket.

[ Parent ]
We'll go back to the good old days. (5.00 / 1) (#31)
by Fabian on Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 12:51:25 PM EST
Those idyllic extended families?

They'll come back.  Adult kids living with their parents because it helps everyone afford a place to stay.  Grandma and Gramps living with their kids because it's a whole lot cheaper than living on their own.

Financial independence will be replaced with financial codependence.  Doing what you want, when you want to will become something only the rich can afford to do.  Organized sports?  Too expensive and who can afford the gas to run the kids back and forth!

I'll ask my mother how her family lived.  Might as well get used to going back to the future - or forwards to the past.

[ Parent ]

I remember it well... (5.00 / 2) (#35)
by oldpro on Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 01:10:56 PM EST
My grandmother and my aunt (mother's divorced sister - what a scandel in those days!) lived with us until grandma died and aunty (finally) got married again.

The culture for our kids has changed so much that I doubt they would 'take in' their parents...values totally different...wants have become needs and sacrifice an unknown concept.

[ Parent ]

My sister and I (5.00 / 2) (#54)
by magisterludi on Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 02:48:37 PM EST
have talked about combining our families and living together on my mothers land. There's plenty of room to build and have a very large garden. And we can have goats and chickens (my life-long dream)!

[ Parent ]
Becaue it will change how we think (5.00 / 2) (#38)
by dianem on Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 01:17:50 PM EST
Right now, we have a "One person, one car" standard in the U.S.  Low and fixed income people have to live up to that standard, or they will be isolated from society. What happens when the car breaks down? Or when a person can't drive anymore? It is tragic. They can't function as full members of society. Thta is why we are seeing more indicences of people in their 80's and 90's getting into trouble driving. They don't want to give it up.  We have to change the rules. Better public tranportation, more senior independent living housing.  The rest of us need more flexible work hours, more telecommuting so that we can spend less time on the road and more actually working and living. This will also free us up to help out people in our neighborhoods who have mobility issues.

And they will benefit in more immediate ways. Higher fuel prices mean Fewer SUV's, more carpooling, less miles driven, which means cleaner air. This is a big issue in urban areas where many senior's live.  

[ Parent ]

It is good in the long-run (5.00 / 2) (#62)
by facta non verba on Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 07:35:28 PM EST
not the short-term. It will be extremely painful. It already is. We had have food riots in Egypt, Haiti, India, Burma this year. This is all related.

The long-term is a twenty year or more horizon and frankly apart from Iceland, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland and Cuba, the road off oil has not been broached.

To broach this subject in the US requires a political leadership that is wholly missing apart from a few on the margin. To not tackle the complex energy issues that confront is to sign our death warrants.

The fact is that we eat petroleum, it permeates every aspect of modern civilization. Without it, I could not send this message to you. We have peaked petroleum and while we can replace parts of it, for some uses there is no substitute. Our grandfathers produced 40 bushels of corn per acre. We can produce 200 bushels per acre because of petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides. When that's gone we will be able to feed maybe 3 billion people, other estimates are in the range of a billion to two. How we get there will matter thus I say those who come after us will curse us.

[ Parent ]

Musings on the Price of Gas | 65 comments (65 topical)

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