Five Bux A Gallon is here ..... for diesel. Where are the torches and pitchforks?

[Stinky The Clown]

Five bux a gallon.

Say that a few times.

It was just reported on the teevee.

Five bux a gallon.

And yet the country isn't pissed off. The Xanax they have been feeding us is working. We're complacent, compliant, well behaved, manipulable, willfully ignorant.

We're fucking stupid, is what we are.

Five Bux a Gallon.

And Nobody - NOBODY - gives a fat shit.

I never thought we'd roll over this easily.




Thank you, Sir. May I have another?

[CoffeeCat]

1. I have a torch...

...but I can't afford the fuel to light it.

How about flashlights and pitchforks?

[Javaman]

15. Flashlights really would be better for the environment lol nt

[rurallib]

2. Bushco and friends will rob us blind for the next 8 months!

[BlueJac]

3. The silence is deafening over the fuel prices.

Where is the outrage?

[Tesha]

29. TV still on? Beer still cold? If so, Americans won't get off their asses to do anything. (NT)

[SpiralHawk]

4. "Aaarrrrgggghhhhh!" - Americans bilked by republicon oil cronies

[raccoon]

5. Well, your post makes me think this:

If people don't protest/object to high gas prices, which impacts them directly, why should I be so idealistic as to suppose they would protest/object to the US invading another country, which did NOTHING to us, is half a world away, and :sarcasm: since its citizens are a different ethnicity, it's not as if AMERICANS were the collateral damage? :sarcasm:

[Skink]

6. Can the truckers strike because of this?

because that would open the strategic reserves real fast.

[Frustratedlady]

7. Don't farmers use diesel, too, or is it a different type?

Farmers are hitting the fields in our area, and an increase in cost is going to be passed on.

I see George was "real effective" with the Saudis, last week. Once the cameraman left, I'm sure they all had a good laugh at our expense.

Eight months?

[Tesha]

30. Farmer's diesel doesn't have road taxes imposed and is dyed red to indicate that...

...but it's otherwise the same, nearly-as-expensive stuff.

Tesha

[Pab Sungenis]

9. The only thing saving us from a trucker's strike

is the fact that most of them can't afford to be off the road for the couple of weeks it would take for everyone to feel the pinch.

[izquierdista]

8. A little late for outrage

In the 1950s, people who cautioned against replacing the railroads with interstate highways were ignored.
In the 1960s, people who said we shouldn't let city centers decay were laughed at.
In the 1970s, a President who wore a sweater and said to turn down the thermostat was ridiculed.
In the 1980s, when domestic oil production was declining, no one would fund alternative fuels, for it wouldn't cut taxes.
In the 1990s, transportation technology was passe, and the superhighway to build was the one for information.
In the 2000s, when there are no railroads, and the people live far out in the suburbs, and people don't conserve, but still use more energy than they can produce locally, they are outraged that they are S-O-L? How can they be outraged when they did it to themselves?

[Warpy]

10. Bag the torches, too expensive to light them

and pitchforks went the way of buggy whips.

Employers are already sacking employees who can't afford the gas to come in and work four hours a day at a retail job that barely pays for the gas.

Eventually we'll get to a tipping point, but expect things to be pretty desperate by then.

This is just the early stuff, the shock and disbelief stage. Anger comes later.

[JDPriestly]

23. 2008 Ford Explorer -- 13 miles city driving 20 highway

http://www.mpgomatic.com/2008/02/05/ford-explorer-gas-mileage/

So, if a person drives a Ford Explorer 15 miles each way to work each day, and pays $4.00 per gallon, he or she pays about $8.00 per day just for gas. If that person earns $10 per hour, after Social Security and other such deductions, he or she works almost an hour a day just to pay for gas. And that does not include car insurance and upkeep on the car. It's still worth driving and working, but the worker has to cut back somewhere. And if his or her car needs a big repair all of the sudden he or she can't get to work because he or she can't afford the repair.

40 hours a week times 50 weeks (not counting holidays and a couple of sick days per year) is about 2000 hours and at $10 per hour. If that is your pay rate, you are earning about $20,000 per year. Social Security, etc. take about 8% or slightly more. Then you have housing costs, heat, telephone and food plus health care. This is the reality for people who do ordinary jobs like restaurant, retail, maintenance -- at least in entry level positions. Does this sound about right?

At some point, the system breaks. If gas prices rise, food costs go up, retail prices go up, and low wage earners can't make it. The question is where is the breaking point? Those low wage jobs are the backbone of our nation.

In the past wages eventually rose, but the international pressure to lower wages is so great that raising wages does not look very likely. I wonder where this will lead.

Just a few month ago, when I went into stores, I could not find anyone to help me find things. Now it seems the staff is milling around. I went into a retail store the other day and was approached by 2 employees offering to help me, asking me if I was finding what I wanted. Unthinkable not so long ago. This is not good.

[Warpy]

26. First, try $7.00/hour

which is what people earn outside the big cities. Then figure in the fact that the jobs are multiple part time jobs and are rarely close to each other or close to the worker's home. Since low wage workers are the ones who get sent home early when business is slow, cut those hours down even more.

$10.00/hour for 40 hours/week is a dream for a lot of low wage workers who have a patchwork of retail, food service, caregiver, and low level maintenance jobs just to pay the bills.

Those are the people who are going to be stuck with all the gas guzzlers on used car lots as we're about to see the price inversion we saw in the 70s, with efficient cars increasing their resale value and land barges going for a song.

My guess is that we've reached the breaking point, but it's still one person at a time. We'll get to the tipping point soon, when people stop suffering in silence and blaming themselves and start to talk with each other.

[JDPriestly]

33. You are so right. I'm in L.A. Wages are higher here, but

so are housing costs. Our public transportation is pitiful, and the poor people mostly live in the eastern and southern portions of the county far from the rich people for whom they work in the western and northern portions of the county.

[old mark]

11. By Thanksgiving, I expect

it will be at least $6/gallon, and maybe $7 to $8 next year.
It will never come down.
From what I read, cost of producing a barrel of oil in Saudi Arabia is a big $2.
We invaded the wrong country.(But you already knew that.)

mark

[Virginia Dare]

12. Big SUV's will form the new "tent cities"...

so I guess they'll be good for something. A whole family could probably live in a Hummer.

[madokie]

13. Out in the shop right by the door, matches are at the ready

I'm standing at parade rest waiting for orders, Sir.

[Javaman]

14. Since so most of the really pissed people are SUV owners...

they didn't have enough left over after filling their behemoths to buy pitchforks and torches...

:rofl:

[graycem]

16. The oil men are on

a shark like feeding frenzy. That was the point of Iraq after all is said and done. Shame those people who voted for Bush couldn't see this coming as Cheney sat behind him and smirked all the way to Iraq.

[jaksavage]

17. It should have been $5

10 years ago.
We wouldn't be in this mess now.

[End Of The Road]

18. Me & my pitchfork against 5 cops with tasers... hmmm... nt

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

19. Well Sparky, I'm pissed off about it and so is my husband.

He has a F350 diesel van that he uses for work. He's self-employed BTW. He has been complaining about the rising diesel prices for at least 2 years.

The biggest problem, I think, is that diesel never really caught on in the USA for the car buying public. I know that his family in Ireland all have diesel cars.

The one thing that makes no sense is that diesel is a by-product of gasoline and therefore should be cheaper than gasoline.

[Barack_America]

20. Here?

[lonestarnot]

32. Not the hang'n chadder!

[rucky]

21. It won't be noisy, but it'll hurt...

the sound of independent truckers - not going anywhere. we're about to see how much of our economy depends on them.

[Indenturedebtor]

22. We can't just consume forever...

This hurts and it sucks but when does it end? When the planet ends it for us?

[KansDem]

24. I'd run to the hardware store and pick them up, but can't afford the gas...

Guess I'm SOL all around...:(

[Winterblues]

25. You sound like you don't like Exxon making a NET PROFIT of OVER

One Hundred a Ten Million dollars every single day of the year..They have to put food on their family too don't they?

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

27. well if the media would stop blaming this on the democrats

and tell the truth, that diesel prices are rising because of supply and demand, and the biggest demand is the occupation of Iraq, and as far as gas, the oil companies themselves bought out all the independent refineries and shut them down, strictly for the purpose of increasing gas prices, maybe you will see the pitchforks. or maybe the public will wise up and vote D in Nov.

[Eurobabe]

28. US is still not paying European prices, yet...

about 3.79L in a US (liquid) gallon.

At 1,50 euros per liter for regular unleaded, we are paying with the exchange rate approx. 8.83USD per gallon for gas across the pond.

You've still got a bargain. :hi:

[MiniMe]

31. So what will the final breaking point be? When a gallon of gas costs the same as the minimum wage?

This is getting ridiculous.