What the heck is going on? Oil up over 55.00 per gallon at 9:35 am eastern time. Sheesh pretty soon we cant even drive to work.

shakes head and mutters "sure glad me gotz a 4 banger"

THOUGHTS and Opinions wanted, please reply. Surely someone in here has an interesting, make sense of it all opinion.

-- american (just@an.observer), October 18, 2004

Answers

Let me do this one, guys.

American, there is a very simple explanation for this. Contrary to what the White House is telling you, the price of oil has NOTHING to do with any "volatile situation in the Middle East". Simply put, the world is running out of crude oil. The United States, for all intents and purposes, ran out of oil in 1974, and since then, the amount of oil we import has gone from 0% to 80%.

The problem with crude oil is that it is a non-renewable resource. Our (the world's) use and rate of consumption has gone up exponentially since the 1800's, and now the Earth is running out. The price of gas may go down again after Halliburton divvies up Iraq, but that'll only be good for a few years. After that, the price will go from 2 to 5 to 7 to 8 bucks a gallon and beyond.

However, there is good news. If we don't have an alternative to fossil fuels by this point, then the price of gas will be the last thing on your mind. There will be some other issues that we'll have to worry about:

(1) Yellow is already having to slap a 10% shipping cost to deliveries to cover the price of gas. Imagine what will happen when your local supermarket has to pay an extra $1000 bucks per food shipment.

(2) Oil and gas aren't the only thing that comes from crude oil. Imagine what happens when hospitals start running out of PLASTIC.

(3) Fossil fuels and other nasty things run our power plants. What happens when you can't afford your power bill or when the plant runs out of stuff to burn?

(4) Odds are, all the negative feelings we have about the price of gas will inspire our politicians to do some pretty nasty things. Such as, I dunno...go to war with Iraq? Wait...

If you want to depress yourself, American, I recommend this site:

www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net

or just read "The Hydrogen Economy" by Jeremy Rifkin if you want a more optimistic (and that's not saying much) outlook on this situation.

-- I Like Pasta (penne@pasta.com), October 18, 2004.

Buy guns for you and your family, and learn how to use them. Then sit back and enjoy the ride. When trouble comes, you'll be prepared.

BJ

-- 2 (1@3.4), October 18, 2004.

I seriously hope you're kidding, Joe. Please tell me you're kidding.

-- U msut Feers Me (Dubyalovesblow00@hotmail.com), October 18, 2004.

Thanks there penne pasta luver. The search for the 'depression' site only made my computer freeze up. The other site on the oil crash is down as of 9-30.

Your thoughts are provoking, but I am NOT looking for the latest scare tactic of the late great almost made me broke y2k BS.

Any other thoughts members?

-- american (just@an.observer), October 18, 2004.

No, I think Joe's got the right idea. Arm yourself for when the proverbial shit hits the fan, at least learn how to grow some of your own food and purify your own water (for when the literal shit hits the water supply!), and learn basic first aid. There will be a point in our lifetime where all of these services that we generaly associate with the government will be left up to us, so it can never hurt to be prepared.

-- Anti-bush (Comrade_bleh@hotmail.com), October 20, 2004.

In past threads I was 50% wrong with a theory on oil prices that I put forth, and for that I am very sorry. I once said it was do to Clinton telling OPEC to raise prices so that they could gain more profit... this is most likly only 10% true.

Prices are mainly out of control because of supply and demand. America's demand has gone up, and now we compete with EU China and Russia over oil....... at the same time oil levels in the mid east are slowly going down. This all helps to combine to make prices go up. Granted it isnt as insane as it is in Autria. 1 gallon of gas in Austria equals up to be 4$ dollars. So America not being a socialised crap whole liek Europe and most of the other world is actualy helping to keep the prices down.

-- Lt. Alexander (Annunaki God@aol.com), October 20, 2004.