Record High Gas Prices?

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

China already is, quietly. They have been buying gold with USD for > 4 years.

Keep up at the back...

It's refreshing to see that someone understands this.

It's sarcastically been called the "Golden Rule": the one who has the gold (or other valued commodity) gets to make the rules.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

If you would care to look up really high you will see the point of that quote, flying somewhere way above your head.

Don't be cryptic. State your point forthrightly.

[cleanspeed1]

What's so funny about this whole situation is that there is plenty of crude. All shortages have been artificially created.

We are the Saudi Arabia of natural gas, yet we are not using it widely as a motor fuel.

All the things that China is enjoying now are on the back of American innovators.

The only reason they are where they are now is because we have spent money and continue to do so with stores that sell Chinese product. We have not said to Walmart and others, "No American products, we won't spend a dime."

Until we wake up en masse and stop spending money on the people who can't stand us, we won't be free.

I'm done, getting off soapbox, going to build still and run my stuff on homemade.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

I look at places like Europe and Japan where people have adapted to $6/gal gasoline. They have small cars, diesels, very livable cities, useful mass transit, and a culture of sharing the road with bicycles. I want to see gas prices high enough to bring these good things to America.

You want things to be "the way they used to be".

You want your cocoon to remain undisturbed. I will admit, it is more comfortable that way, and life can be disturbing. But everything has its price, including the desire to be in a cocoon.

fact, one of the biggest reasons I would like to see the price of gasoline rise is to encourage conservation, change people's attitudes about consumption, and reduce the trade deficit. I would have preferred that the price increases came from taxes instead of market forces, but I'll cheer on any price increase I can see until people start taking the actions required to reduce their consumption to a sustainable level. Buying the right car, driving it correctly, and getting >40mpg would be a start.

"Buying the right car, driving it correctly, and getting >40mpg would be a start"

The "right" car. By whose standard? Yours? It's just the regurgitated, politically correct standard of the political Left, of course.

"Driving it correctly". Well, the Leftist view doesn't get more politically correct than that, does it?

How about calling it what it is: namely, an AUTHORITARIAN MENTALITY. That puts the "correctness" part of the politics at front and center stage, doesn't it?

"Correctly"? Pretty damned ARROGANT to say so, by any measure.

RE: "fact, one of the biggest reasons I would like to see the price of gasoline rise is to encourage conservation, change people's attitudes about consumption, and reduce the trade deficit. I would have preferred that the price increases came from taxes instead of market forces, but I'll cheer on any price increase I can see until people start taking the actions required to reduce their consumption to a sustainable level."

Bullcrap. At least Frank Lee is honest about what he wants: he wants the world to be as it used to be. That's the essence of nostalgia. That's the emotional appeal of it. I have respect for the honesty of the admission of that.

Don't tell us it's all for the planet, or all for the nation, or all for the global economy, or whatever, any more than the entrenched educational bureaucracy in America is "all for the children".

Bad enough you urinate on my leg; But don't tell me it's raining.

Also, ThymeClock, let me jump ahead to the ad hominem attacks. You are a very sour person.

HA! This coming from someone who wants to penalize prosperity and its benefits, including increased mobility. Nooo sir! - We gotta keep those uppity people down, the sooner the better! They need to be made to suffer like we did, back in the bad ol' days! "They can come along for the ride - but they gotta sit in the back" It's retribution time! And be sure to tell them (and try to brainwash them) that they need never desire anything more than a meager way of life. And if that strategy doesn't work, impose it upon them. Hey, that's YOUR attitude, not mine!

The old adage about the political Left (Socialists/Communists, ultimately just a matter of degree) is true: Misery loves company. And the Leftists won't be happy until everyone is reduced to their proscribed, enforced, level of deprivation.

What could be more "sour" or mean spirited than wanting THAT???

[Frank Lee]

Seriously, you are too consumed by hyperpartisanism. Every thing, thought, and utterance in the world is not part of a liberal plot to separate you from your hard-earned (real or imagined or wannabe someday) wealth.

I won't speak for james but I think we're on the same wavelength in that we have in oil a resource that is too valuable to be squandered, yet squandering it we are, all because it's artificially cheap at this point in time.

Yes, I said artificially, as it is heavily subsidized AND it's price does not now reflect it's importance and soon-to-be scarcity.

Yes, I said scarcity, of course there's a lot of oil out there but it's harder to get, lower quality, more energy intensive to get and process, it's gonna be way expensive, yadda yadda yadda.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

As for the rest, I suggest you go find a quiet corner and resume practicing your autoproctology? You've demonstrated a native talent, and with a little work could become really good at it :-)

When all else fails, and you have nothing left worth saying, resort to pure, outright insults, relevant to nothing in the discussion.

And, since you are perpetually in denial and cannot be even be candid in your emotions, always attach a smilely face to your barb.

[cleanspeed1]

At the end of the day, Left or Right does not matter. It never was about that anyway with the rich, because once you get past a certain economic threshold you can play both ends and make money. High fuel prices do not affect millionaires and billionaires, and most politicians who are bought and sold by them are rich as well. This has been all out class warfare on the middle class and poor. Wars are started by rich people and fought by poor and working class people. Most, if not all, economic policies benefit the top while crushing everyone below it. People who are in the same economic boat at the top do not fight each other; they do it on camera for the benefit of those who think there are philosophical and ideological differences, but really there aren't any. That's why on the one hand America vilifies dictatorships and Communism, while at the same time we owe and have given most our money to places that support both. The Chinese and other dictator style governments could not get a hold economically in this country unless there were people here that said it's ok and we will enter into agreements with you. No one put a gun to anyone's head and said "you have to do business with me or else." We didn't have to do any of the things that got us here. We really don't need anyone else if it came down to it. We have the talent and the resources, we have the work ethic. No one can take over this country from without, but it has been sold out from within.
While the working class and poor fight each other over arguments that always split people apart, the rich are laughing and making money and gaining more power. They don't want the majority ( which is us ) to snap out of it and come together and deal with them, because the day that happens, their reign of tyranny is over.

[user removed]

My aunt told me once that we should do more for the poor so they could improve their lives.

I told her to go to downtown Norfolk and pick out a "poor" person and give them 20k dollars. She was worth about 2 mil at the time. She looked at me like I was crazy. I told her if she gave the 20k to the govt, that same poor person would never see a dime of that money. (She died two years later and the property the family had bought 60 years earlier had been sold and she paid $500,000 in taxes on the inflation driven value of the property 6 months before she died).

Bottom line is even when you have a significant amount of money few people feel like they are the wealthy elite that we all love to hate. After all they are the ultimate minority, very few with a lot of capital.

Does anyone here actually know any of these wealthy egomaniacs? You know the ones who are pulling all of our strings, being as we all are such puppets to be so manipulated.

While I am sure there are some out there, most of the people I have known in my lifetime, in the category I would call fairly well off (others might call wealthy) the overwhelming majority are people who worked their arses off to get where they are and consider their success as not as significant as many would.

In fact I once calculated the value of the retirement commitments and medical benefit commitments my father earned with combat military service and civil service retirement and found it to be around 2 million dollars, depending on how long he lives, which is currently approaching 90 this May.

He sure does not fit the "elite" categorization.

You know when we go there, hating those who have succeeded (in our perspective) those same wealthy "elites" might just do the same thing the "elites" in Germany did in the 1930s, which is to get the heck out of this country and go somewhere where their success is appreciated. We all know how that scapegoat oriented society ended up, right?

A lot of wealthy people are old and in bad health, so lets hate them for success and ignore their medical condition. We wouldn't want to have to sympathise with someone who had money, now would we?

regards
Mech

[Frank Lee]

Ha Ha, threaten to leave... they have fave spots globally, there must be some reason they keep coming back.

[user removed]

They aren't coming back to Detroit Frank.

regards
Mech