Conservation of available gasoline supplies

Bush can't impose rationing. Because there's no way at the pump to distinguish between the Rich and Poor; and he can't possibly ask the Rich to ration gas like the rest of us. After all, they don't give a damn that the price has gone up of gas, it's not even a drop in the bucket. But having to wait at the pump? That would get him in mucho hot water with the only group that really matters to him.

That, and twenty years of calling LBJ 'loopy' for imposing gas rationing prevent Republicans from proposing the same without admitting that they were wrong; something we all know will happen right around the time hell freezes over.

Cycloptichorn

Cycloptichorn

Gas rationing based upon need not affordability.

Well hell, I know that; but my point is that Bush and the top Republicans have no ability at all to limit the excesses of their constituents (the top 1% Rich). They would lose all their support instantly when they tried to do so.

So you won't see mandatory rationing, period. Bush telling the Rich that they dont' need gas more than peasants do? Ridiculous!

Cycloptichorn

I think the rising price of gas may do the trick.

Although $3.50 per gallon might not be quite high enough.

If we had any kind of intelligent energy policy in this country, we'd be in a lot better shape right now. Let's not forget that gas prices have been rising for quite a while now, not just since the hurricane.

But all Bush cared about is protecting the domestic auto industry and helping his friends in the oil business...

Cycloptichorn
Oh ye of so little faith. I doubt that the rich will stop supporting Bush over gas rationing. Or the lowering of the speed limit.

You never know. It contradicts what they have been taught to expect: that they will be treated preferentially at every single opportunity. After all, it's what they deserve, right?

I've seen studies that show that commodities have to go up tenfold before people really begin to change their buying habits. Wait and see; it's gonna get real ugly when all these people who have 30-mile commutes have no other option than to pay $5 a gallon.

Cycloptichorn

Cyc wrote



It will play hell with those folks who have no other option. However. it will push many into public transportation, where available. It without a doubt will push those who drive into NYCity each morning from Long island,Conneticut ,New Jersey and points north onto the available public trasnsportation.

I must confess to indulging in Schadenfreude for those fine citizens who insist on driving gigantic SUV's 30 miles to work each day with no passengers.

I would love these gas prices to lead the logical result... a big investment in public transportation, and a trend toward cars of a saner size, and maybe even neighborly carpooling.

I would also predict there will be a run on heavy sweaters and longjohns when people feel the cost of heating their homes this winter.

And, they'll feel hunger in their bellies when they can no longer afford adequate food. That too will jump due to transporting it.

And, there will be the higher cost of water to bathe, because no doubt it will cost the water companies more to run their repair and maintenance fleet.

Not to mention increases in telephone, cable and many other items for the same or similar reasons.

Ahh, I get it! That's what they mean by "trickle down."

I am not afraid to wear the indignant liberal hat here. This was a thread on gas prices.

The fact is that gas prices in the US are ridiculously low. Furthermore, most Americans abuse gasoline. It does anger me to see giant SUVs occupied by one person.

It angers me that even in urban areas, public transportation is underfunded and underutilized.

It is a problem that Americans want to over-consume and then complain about the cost.

I am fully in favor of helping people with the cost of heating oil. I don't believe for a second that the cost of food for consumers will be that dramatically effected.

There are personal and public policy issues here.

As individuals, Americans are wasteful and willfully ignorant of the consequences. As a public society, we continually support policies that favor waste and excess (i.e. SUVs) over reasonable conservation and savings.

We have been saying this since the 70's (and those older than me for much longer).

You don't hear me complaining about gas prices.

Natural disasters happen. If our society isn't too close to the edge of excess, we will manage just fine. But more importantly, problems with disruptions to the supply of petrolium aren't going to get any better as time goes on.


In the long run, high gas prices may bless us with a bit of sanity.

ebrown, I think you might be my new best friend :wink:

Aw, brown ain't afraid a nuthing; never has been.

I see the good side of the higher prices. Some pain now, to avoid the greater pain later. I am feeling the pinch, though, and would feel much better knowing just how high that stuff is going to go.

DEATH OF A (TRAVELING) SALESMAN
I am realjohboy and hi. I see many names here I haven't encountered before.
I think, e brown, that while the thread may be about gas prices, the comments about how those prices will trickle through the economy are pertinent.
Gas in the US was too cheap and may (at $3.29 in my town) still be too cheap. There are still a lot of cars on Rt 29, the main N-S highway, and the city buses are largely empty.
Some of us, perhaps johnboy included, need a hefty dope-slap. But I, of course, have an "excuse." I can drive to work, alone in my van, in 12 minutes and can park for free. The bus that goes right by the front of my house takes a circuitous route and takes 50 minutes. Maybe the public transportation people need to do a better job of making public transportation efficient.
(the title of this comes from a salesman who calls on me six times a year. He is rethinking how he does and has done business in the 20 years I have known him. What can be done via fax, phone, email, mail. Do we really need to to see him so often?)

Ah, trust ebrown to say it right.

I'd started variations of that but thought of people like Shewolf and Montana who are genuinely hurting financially because of gas prices and paused. I do feel badly for them, and for people in similar straits. But overall, I think gas should be much higher than it's been, though I think the extra should be in the form of a tax, not going straight to oil suppliers. That was one of the things Kerry was pilloried for during the campaign, that in the past (I don't think it was part of his campaign platform) he wanted to raise the price of gas. Well, yeah. Lots of good reasons for it.

Agree, agree, and agree. On ebrown, it's skeery I often I agree with him. I suppose not always, but I'd have to research that.

Realjohnboy, I'm right with you on public transportation.
In Eureka, the bus, such as it is, seems to take all day to get around town, though of course it isn't all day. It taking all day keeps at least some people off of it, but unless ridership warrants, whoever the transport gods are won't fund more buses - not just here, anywhere in the US that I know of.

One thing about Eureka and Arcata is that some fair number of people bicycle around. Not at all like the people of Parma, Italy, bicycle around, but more than some other places I've seen. In Los Angeles, people do it for sport/exercise (not to generalize, but generalizing, at least for the west side).

Of course, the reason many don't drive here is they've lost their licenses from DUI's.

I tried to bicycle to work/grocery store from Venice to Santa Monica, and was afeared for my life re sideswiping. No guts, m'lady.

There was, once upon a time in the early 1900's, a bridge from Pasadena to LA, that is, a raised bicycle path, called Dobbin's railway (or something like that.)

It kills me to hear when there is talk of cutting amtrak.
For me it was so cool to zip all around italy by train, no sweat except for my own stupidity in where the hell to punch my tickets.

I know that is a much smaller country, geographically... rather similar to California by itself. But then, compare the transportation system to California's.

Re: Conservation of available gasoline supplies

You already have such a system: It's called "high prices". And while it has its problems, I find it much less bad than administrative systems of rationing, which in practice favors the people well-connected to the rationer.