Most Americans are mad about the ever-rising gas price (latest prediction: $6 to $7 per gallon in 6 to 24 months), but not Chris Pummer of MarketWatch. He said that when gas hits $8 per gallon, we should celebrate instead and gave us 8 reasons why.
For example:
7. Restoration of financial discipline
Far too many Americans live beyond their means and nowhere is that more apparent than with our car payments. Enabled by eager lenders, many middle-income families carry two monthly payments of $400 or more on $20,000-plus vehicles that consume upwards of $15,000 of their annual take-home pay factoring in insurance, maintenance and gas.
The sting of forking over $100 per fill-up would force all of us to look hard at how much of our precious income we blow on a transport
vehicle that sits idle most of the time, and spur demand for the less-costly and more fuel-efficient small sedans and hatchbacks that Europeans have been driving for decades.
See if you agree: Link
Previously on Neatorama: Is $120 Oil Actually Good for Us?
Comments (46)
I live car-free, and when I quit, gas was around $2/gallon, and I thought it was getting excessive then.. then I realized, with a good driving record, that I was still essentially subsidizing the cost of my insurance and driving for the lack of responsibility every one else seems to show on the road- thus, I took it upon myself to power myself where I need to go, and trade in a ridiculous, wasteful, unnecessary expense in a car for a slightly higher rent payment, to live closer to where I work and play, or at least closer to transit for that.
that's really the best option, honestly, particularly for people without large families.
for you to say that if someone can afford a thing then they should be allowed to do it displays AMAZING lack of comprehension.
I can afford to build and run a nuclear car that spills depleted uranium around your neighbourhood, and so can all of my friensds with enought money to do the same.
Are you quite so relaxed about that?
Also YOU look out of YOUR window and YOU see only one SUV in YOUR street, so YOU say that there are only one person drives an SUV.
see this is taking the PARTICULAR and extrapolating it to the geneeral.
It is the argument of a child.
Also the price of oil is not effected by the war in Iraq.
You'll find that prioduction is the same as it was , a little highher if truth be told, Iraq was not allowed to seell oil under Saddam, only trade a little for essentials like medicine. So they were off the international market since 92. The demand has remained the same more or less in line with prjected figures, since gulf war 2 began.
So if you apply the theory, much beloved of US free marketeers, SUPPLY AND DEMAND, if the supply and the demand are unchanged then where did the price hike come from?
Senior execs at Aramco (google it) have been interviewed saying It is down to market speculation and a consumer concern.
We are all prepared for a price hike so one ciomes.
As he said, it a bad time to be buying oil, but it's a great time to be selling it.
Now the other point is that the US population uses a HUGEKLY disproportionate amount of the worlds resources, and wagging your finger at Europe and calling them "Elitist" euro-weenies and all the usual stuff is NOT actually and answer.
Europe has it's problems and are trying to fix them.
the US refused to sign the Kyoto Prptocols, the US government stuck it's fingers in it's ears went La LA La refusing to believe in Climate change.
You have to unsderstand this is the equivelant of all the nations in the world all in ahot tub, the US takes a piss but insists that it's only pissing in it's part of the hot tub.
TAXES should be on the cars, but the Gov dont tax Cars or GAS fully.
Every other nation TAXES them to the HILT..
IF they dont sell the SELLERS drop the prices..so the prices will maintain.
In my experience, those are some pretty allergenic foods they're letting him eat. I find it odd that he can tolerate heavy metal-laden tuna and not leafy green vegetables.
I guess it depends on your perspective.
hypochondria
Munchausen's
I get so sick of people pooh-poohing the allergic reaction thing; you may not have the problem yourself, and that limits your understanding of it, but that doesn't change the reality of the effect allergies have on some people. For those of us who have allergies, they can be very debilitating.
I grew up without any allergy problems, but my allergies have become worse as I've aged. 20 years ago I had cats as pets; now I can't be in the same room with one. There was a day I could eat anything (and did); now I have to watch ingredient listings on product labels very closely; anything with sunflower seeds, sunflower oil, peanuts, peanut butter, peanut oil, or any of a dozen other food additives can set off symptoms ranging from a stuffy nose to sinus headaches or hives. Thankfully my allergies aren't deadly, but they make me miserable if they get away from me. Avoidance is my best insurance, but it's difficult as some of those things are so prevalent. When I do get something, Benadryl (diphenhydramine hydrochloride) and Sudafed (pseudoephedrine) are my best friends. Caffeine also helps.
Allergies are real. They really suck, but they are really real. Don't mock something you don't understand.
OK, perhaps "total scam" is a bit of a stretch on my part. My apologies for inferring that there aren't some kids with real peanut allergies... perhaps it's even more than 1 or 2 per country as I suggested :-)
I just wonder where they were 30 years ago when I was a kid. I never *heard* of anyone allergic to peanuts and almost all kids ate peanut butter sandwiches multiple times a week. I for one HATED peanut better (and still do) and would have loved to offer allergies as a means of defending myself against parents of friends that were forever trying to feed me it! 8-)
Now, many schools ban them for fear that half the class will lapse into anaphylactic shock. What gives? And where I live (Western NY), the ADHD is really out of control. When something like 20% of the children in some disctricts are diagnosed to have a "disorder" and need meds, the definition is completely in disorder itself. Kids'activity level run the full continuum from very calm to rather hyper. That's normal -- suddenly everyone wants their kids doped up to mae them easier to manage. Others have observed that the growing list of allergies, disorders, and syndromes, is symptomatic of our attention-craving excuse-making culture.
It's possible that peanut allergies were less common 30 years ago, and something in our diet or environment today is making people react to things like that. I worked for several years in a print shop, in close contact with some pretty harsh chemicals; that's what likely started the snowball rolling for me. The only assurance my doc can offer on that is to nod and say "maybe".
But it's also possible that these allergies are nothing new, and it's only the PC, sue-at-the-drop-of-a-hat culture that we live in that makes their presence more prominent. I know that the school districts who have banned peanut products do so more for protection from lawsuits -- someone tells administrators that their kid has a peanut allergy; if the school district does nothing, and the kid takes a bite from another kid's peanut butter sandwich & dies, who are the parents going to blame? The kid? Nope. The school district? You betcha. It's far easier for those administrators to take the heat from parents for banning peanut butter than to suffer a lawsuit like that.
Part of me also bristles at the subjects of allergies and ADHD being lumped together, but I think there probably is something to that. I've read a lot of stories from parents of ADHD kids who have some success in reducing those symptoms by changing what those kids eat, and some studies have shown that diet plays a huge role in that. My hunch is that the prevalence of ADHD and food allergies is somehow tied to the same root causes. I think you're absolutely right in saying that a lot of cases of ADHD are misdiagnosed, but that's not to say ADHD isn't a real disorder. Some kids truly do have it, but I don't think dumping more chemicals into their bodies is the answer either.
Thanks for hearing me out.
Well, that's completely wrong. Allergies are NOT always life-threatening histamine responses. Learn your facts before you comment, it's obvious you know nothing about allergies.