Thursday, April 21, 2011

Gas Prices

Blessings, Darlings!

You might not have noticed - but since y'all are brilliant enough to read my blog you almost certainly HAVE noticed - that gas prices have been going up incredibly.  As in the prices are up almost $1.00 over the past year.  As in a 33% increase in one year.  How's THAT for an inflation rate?

So, one of the people I follow shares an article about this on Facebook.  And someone - Gods, may it be a troll and not a supposedly thinking individual - responds "You know, if $6/gallon gas would make people decide to own fewer cars, drive less and give up the gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs, I think I could find a way to live with it."  It's the first time I've seen the bumper-sticker stereotype "Democrats think high gas prices are a good thing" actually from a supposed liberal.  Because, of course, it's not like high gas prices are actually going HURT anyone, ya know.  They aren't going to make anyone have to choose between travel to work and food.  They won't cause food prices to rise.  It's not like the people who have the least ability to HANDLE gas prices - and they aren't the stereotype SUV/Hummer drivers - are going to suffer.  No, no, the rise in prices will just affect people who can afford new cars.  And, of course, manufacturing new cars takes NO oil products, no fossil fuels at all, let alone more fossil fuels than using them saves.  Oh, wait, manufacturing them takes MORE Energy than they save, and MORE petroleum products than using up existing cars.  Who'd have thought that?  Not the writer, clearly.  Or she doesn't think that the poor suffering is too much for THEM to pay for HER goal of getting 'the rich SUV owners' to buy different cars.  The poor, especially the rural poor, are either invisible to her or don't matter to her.  Or both.


I hope, the everyone's sake, that the writer is a troll, not a fucking moron.


Fern

3 comments:

  1. Lessee, drive less. I'll challenge your troll to make my once-a-week 200 mile combined business/grocery trip on her bicycle, traversing dirt (not gravel) roads.

    HUGE gas-guzzling SUV. Uh-huh. My Rav-4 gets better gas mileage than a friend's older Porsche 911 with more than twice the hauling capacity. Same comparison to another friend's older sedan. Neither can afford a new car.

    Food prices are already going up. Right now we're OK but if gas keeps going up, we *will* have to go back to the days of Ramen noodles. Oh wait. Those have to be transported, too. They'll probably skyrocket in price, as well.

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  2. Not to mention the complete lack of useful public transit in most of the country. Even Atlanta, big and busy as it is, has inadequate public transit.

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  3. No kidding, Star. I'm COUNTRY - a few miles outside of a town of 900 people. No bus service. No train service. I can walk to town, two miles one way, even with the torn meniscus in my knee. Three miles one way to the only grocer in town (an expensive one). But to ship products or get to our bank - that's 30 miles one way.

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