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People are now starting to get scared. You can see it in their eyes at the pump. They're saddled with this huge, gas guzzling SUV, and they're financial situation is such that they can't trade it in for a smaller, more fuel efficient vehicle. Here it is, a month before Memorial Day, and gas is already hovering in the $3.00/range. Prices are going up overnight, and the news is filled with stories of rising prices, both at the wholesale and retail level.
These people are starting to be squeezed, and don't know what to do. SUVs and other gas guzzling vehicles are just sitting on the lots, quietly rusting away. We had a huge hailstorm a few weeks back, and even with the deep discounts that hail sales have, the SUVs still sit in all their pock-marked glory.
However there is still that die-hard group of folks who are going to spend, spend, spend, no matter what the price. A co-worker of mine illustrates this mindset well. Quite conservative, he feels that it is his patriotic duty to spend whatever it takes, to consume as much as he cans, and if the price of a gallon of gas goes to five dollars a gallon, he will be happy to pay it to fill his pickup truck. After all, it's his patriotic duty:eyes:
But most folks aren't going to blindly, foolishly go against their self interests. But many of them simply can't afford not to. Drowning in a sea of debt, they simply can't afford purchase a more fuel efficient vehicle. So they do what they can, they carpool, they limit their driving, they drag their bikes out from the back of the garage.
But it's going to get ugly in this country this summer. People were freaked last year when the price went above three dollars a gallon last summer, just think what these same people are going to do when it hits four, five dollars a gallon this summer. This could very well be a tipping point in our history.
So buckle up and return your trays to the upright and secure position. Things are going to get rough. If you can, buy a more fuel efficient vehicle. If you can't, change your driving habits to save cash. Make sure that your car is in proper shape, your tires at the proper inflation. I know, I know, I'm preaching to the choir here, but it doesn't hurt to remind people. Oh, and for those of you who have to mow the yard, I would suggest that you buy your gas for the summer mowing season now, while it's still relatively cheap. You can store it for the summer, and that way when you have to mow in Sept. it won't cost you and arm and a leg.
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