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Old 02-05-2012, 12:56 PM   #66 (permalink)
Arragonis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Mechanic View Post
...

And we would not owe 48k for every living person in the US today, including a child who takes his first breath this morning, and bears the burden of that debt until he breathes his last breath.
This debt our kids will have is the biggest drag. I'm glad uk.gov is trying to make savings, whether they are the right savings is questionable. Our previous uk.gov was uselessly spending money we didn't have instead of investing when we had the chance for 13 years. We will be paying for Mr Brown for a few decades to come and I doubt we will ever be free of it.

Back on topic - fuel hitting $10 a gallon won't happen in one go, unless there is a serious disaster in the mid-east or elsewhere. It will be a gradual ramping up of cost as the US market has to compete on price with China and India for supply. Same will happen here but the effect will be less as a % of the total cost because of tax. US gas prices nearly doubled a few years ago, it was ~15-30% here. Fuel is now 30% more than it was in 2005 - £1.31 a litre vs £0.98 then.

The best thing the US could do for its own security would be to start an efficiency program to use less but that means legislation and control which is not what people there will accept.

The other alternative is to use force to maintain supply. China knows this and is preparing itself to prevent that happening - with the money we in the west are sending it to pay for our iPhones, TVs, christmas toys, cars, ships, chemicals or indeed anything manufactured. China already owns Africa, the mid-east is next.
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