$5 per gallon gas price?
CNN is reporting that gas prices after Rita could spike to over $4 maybe $5 I will have to get a picture of it. I have a picture of the $3+ gas price from here in Pittsburgh I don’t drive but I know this will even hurt me, because the companies that deliver the food to the stores from where I buy my food will just pass the cost on to the store, and the store will pass that cost onto the consumers. I am not saying that the companies that pass the cost on are evil, they have to so they can stay in business, and I want them to stay in business because I like to be able to go to the store and get food (even if it is going to cost me 2x as much) But it could be interesting to see gas prices this high. I don’t know if the American population is ready for gas prices this high. One thing is for sure I will be in a much better position then most people since I don’t own a car and don’t have to buy gas. This just might be the breaking point were people will stop driving their cars for frivolous things and start to either walking that 1 mile or taking PT, or do I dare dream it, bike to get from point A to point B. I have seen an upshot in the bikers I see on the road, maybe I will see more people on bikes on the road.
I think it’ll be good overall. Quick progress happens when an entire country is enraged, look at 9/11, a whole slew of illegal things made legal. With high gas prices, the poor and middle class (i.e. poor in denial) are going to revolt. It’s not looking terribly good for the Republicans, especially when midterm elections are coming up. I know the average attention span of people is a few seconds, but they’ll remember the high prices. Not that it’s necessarily ALL Republicans fault, but they’ll say “you were in charge, you messed up, lets see if these democratic losers can do better”. We’ll see, I bet New Orleans, what’s left of it, will vote mostly Democratic. Don’t forget that during the election, Alabama (I think) had a relatively close race – 35 or 40% of the vote went to Kerry. The democrats may need a foothold and it may spread from there. We’ll see, but either way the rich will continue to screw the poor. This is why I’m trying my hardest to become rich, you don’t get screwed as much.