A Stern Warning To The West

[lovejoy]

This Memorial Day weekend marked the beginning of decline of American empire. It would be one of the shortest empire in human civilization. It started the rise after WWII in late 1940 and will truly end in next 25 years.

This Memorial Day weekend saw the drastic decline in American driving, drastic cut in spending money and what celebrating. Instead, a drastic change in behaviour of cutting short our long distance driving, stay at home instead of going out to watch baseball game, eating in instead of out and cut down on shopping habits.

This spiral economic change truly pointed to the real recession is here and there is NO WAY OUT. We are addicted to "gasoline", SUV and the freedom of driving. But we can not afford to do these anymore. We are choked by the big oil companies and OPEC countries and our economy is interdependent on China, EU and other developing countries.

Eventually the price of oil will finally choke us off and our economy will be second rated and America and the West will no longer be the developed nations with high living standard, freedom and much more.

No matter who will become the next President, he or she has to stand up to big oil companies and OPEC and develop alternate energy to replace fossil fuels and make our earth greener.

Do you know how much is the price of oil in Venezuela ? 35 cents a gallon.

What if Hugo and other OPEC countries decide to pump less oil but increase the price of a barrel of oil to 250 dollars, then 300 dollars.

What will our society will be? We are at the mercy of crazy mad man of Venezuela, and also in the hand of those so called progressive Muslim countries producing oil. Well good luck to all of us.

Unless we make drastic change to cut consumption of gasoline, heating oil, dissel fuel, we will be decimated by the high price of oil !

 

[L3ggy]

The U.S Will be undone by them self.

 

[Rattrap]

Ironically, I went to Eugene some 100 miles away this weekend, which I don't do often.

But to the point: it isn't just up to the next President to stand up to Big Oil, it's up to us. Get rid of your car. Get a bike. Get a bus pass. Don't wait for change, make it!

 

[JiDoKwan]

I say we threaten military action and other harsh sanctions if oil prices aren't lowered.

 

[negator]

dear: the west
you have been pwned

 

[calpoon]

They already canceled the West Wing...

I think that we should lower the cost of oil to 1 cent a gallon, so that we can just burn it all up and get rid of the shit once and for all. it's nothing but a pain in the ass.

yeah, it's gonna suck for the environment. but it doesn't make a difference, it's going to happen anyway. We all know that people are never going to stop driving until they don't have any other choice.

 

[senob44]

I'm tired of all this bullshit. Every day someone comes up with a new way to say America is doomed. Even if it is, then why do we have to constantly hear about it? In your self-decreed "25 years" if the US is no longer an empire, then it will at least still exist, much the same as other "non-empires". So what is the big deal?

This Memorial Day weekend saw the drastic decline in American driving, drastic cut in spending money and what celebrating. Instead, a drastic change in behaviour of cutting short our long distance driving, stay at home instead of going out to watch baseball game, eating in instead of out and cut down on shopping habits.

Depending on how you look at it, this quote could put a rosy face on the outlook for the US. People are now more than ever, conscious of their gasoline consumption and they are taking steps to use less. If this continues, maybe we are not doomed.

Overall, sure there is reason to be concerned, but do we really have to re-hash the same shit over and over every day on this board. Just because of Memorial Day doesn't mean you have to come out with a Memorial Day Special Edition prediction of gloom and doom tying the holiday in with the begin of the collapse of an empire. Are you really sure the collapse started on Memorial Day, or are you perhaps pulling that out of your ass trying to come up with some significance?

 

[lovejoy]

Everything in your house has to be transported by a truck, car etc. to move from Point A to Point B. Trucks have to run on dissel or gasoline.

Food price will go up. Everything will go up but the most obvious is booking an airline ticket. You will be asked to pay extra for the luggages. If you think I am here to bullshit, a family of four with 2 pieces of luggages have to pay $320.00 extra. Some airlines add on fuel surcharges as well as courier companies, trucking companies, etc.

Why did I mention the Government only ? Brazilian Government does not import 1 drop of oil. They did intensive research on sugar cane to make sugar cane ethanol 85% mix with 15% mix gasoline to solve the oil crisis which actually started in 1973-1974. Brazilian researchers studies hundreds and hundreds of different subspecies of sugar cane and able to pick around 40 sugar cane and can use the field (soil) 8 times to generate more sugar cane and process to form sugar cane ethanol.

The argument is there are less than 1% of gas stations provide corn generated ethanol/gasoline mix products across the nation and the the price is not cheap at all.

If Hugo can provide its citizen 35 cents a gallon of gasoline and Suadia Arabia citizens pay only 85 cents a gallon of gasoline and there are many other countries are paying 1 buck for gas, we are taken for a big ride !

We only need 10-15% of American in the middle-class to cut back and spend less and the economy will be doomed. Good night !

P.S. The Memorial Day weekend signals the beginning of summer driving and American are cutting back on their driving across the country.

 

[Friday on my mind]

Everything in your house has to be transported by a truck, car etc. to move from Point A to Point B. Trucks have to run on dissel or gasoline.

Food price will go up. Everything will go up but the most obvious is booking an airline ticket. You will be asked to pay extra for the luggages. If you think I am here to bullshit, a family of four with 2 pieces of luggages have to pay $320.00 extra. Some airlines add on fuel surcharges as well as courier companies, trucking companies, etc.

Why did I mention the Government only ? Brazilian Government does not import 1 drop of oil. They did intensive research on sugar cane to make sugar cane ethanol 85% mix with 15% mix gasoline to solve the oil crisis which actually started in 1973-1974. Brazilian researchers studies hundreds and hundreds of different subspecies of sugar cane and able to pick around 40 sugar cane and can use the field (soil) 8 times to generate more sugar cane and process to form sugar cane ethanol.

The argument is there are less than 1% of gas stations provide corn generated ethanol/gasoline mix products across the nation and the the price is not cheap at all.

If Hugo can provide its citizen 35 cents a gallon of gasoline and Suadia Arabia citizens pay only 85 cents a gallon of gasoline and there are many other countries are paying 1 buck for gas, we are taken for a big ride !

We only need 10-15% of American in the middle-class to cut back and spend less and the economy will be doomed. Good night !

P.S. The Memorial Day weekend signals the beginning of summer driving and American are cutting back on their driving across the country.

Actually the brazilans still import oil.

"However, the effect on the country's overall oil use was much smaller than that: domestic oil consumption still far outweighs ethanol consumption. In 2005, Brazil consumed 2,000,000 barrels of oil per day, versus 280,000 barrels of ethanol.[34] Although Brazil is a major oil producer and now exports gasoline (19,000 m³/day), it still must import oil because of internal demand for other oil byproducts, chiefly diesel fuel (which cannot be easily replaced by ethanol)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil

And their experience with using Sugar Kane to make ethanol would not really be feasible in the US.We don't have a climate that is very good for growing such a crop.People like Cuba do ,but we don't trade with them.
And the oil producing countries you mention with the low prices on gas are because they subsidize it and actually lose money on it.
The price of oil worlwide is due to demand for it.It's worth whatever people are willing to pay for it.
But the rest of what you say about the ripple effects of rising oil prices is of course correct.The age of cheeap plentiful oil is passed and nothing beyond something radical will ever bring it back.Something like 1/2 the people in the world disapear somehow,but barring that it will be rising in price.
Lastly I agree our economy has been based on growth fueled by cheap energy and a vast middle class with ever increasing consumption.They start not being able to do that and the ripple effect will be a depression with no easy way out.

 

[meesterperfect]

When I read these kind of threads the first thing I think is " the power of the media".
They have done an awesome job in spreading the doom and gloom thinking process, especially in the last 5 years.

The sheep says

 

[lovejoy]

American cuts back 11 billions miles in just three long Memorial Day weekend.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/27/lifestyle.change.irpt/index.html

This spiral, ripple effect will cut retail business by over 11 x 100 billion dollars=1,100 billion dolllars. This money would have spent on retail giant Walmart, gas stations, restaurants, movies, airlines companies etc.

Couples will sell off their extra car, reduce insurance payment and massive impact on insurance, banking business. Stay-home moms no longer make daily trips to supermarkets/ visiting grandparents or running errands.

Our freedom of driving of doing anything we do will be curtailed.

Factories will cut jobs and eventually retail and service sectors will feel the pinch. We are in the same boats and I don't wish we go down like this.

I do not want to change my lifestyle to have the freedom to drive to work and go home but I have no choice but change my lifestyle. It means wasting 5 hours a day in the mass transit system to save that 8 bucks a days.

I am not writing something spreading the gloom and doom thinking process. It is here already and we are spiral downwards without knowing it !

 

[sputnikgirl]

 

[Legzman]

I simply don't give a fuck anymore.

 

[Becks...poamr]

Funny. The title of this thread is "A Stern Warning To The West" but it focuses on America.

What about other Western countries?






Personally, I'm glad people are finally getting a clue and stopping a lot of the unnecessary driving.

 

[meesterperfect]

American cuts back 11 billions miles in just three long Memorial Day weekend.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/27/lifestyle.change.irpt/index.html

This spiral, ripple effect will cut retail business by over 11 x 100 billion dollars=1,100 billion dolllars. This money would have spent on retail giant Walmart, gas stations, restaurants, movies, airlines companies etc.

Couples will sell off their extra car, reduce insurance payment and massive impact on insurance, banking business. Stay-home moms no longer make daily trips to supermarkets/ visiting grandparents or running errands.

Our freedom of driving of doing anything we do will be curtailed.

Factories will cut jobs and eventually retail and service sectors will feel the pinch. We are in the same boats and I don't wish we go down like this.

I do not want to change my lifestyle to have the freedom to drive to work and go home but I have no choice but change my lifestyle. It means wasting 5 hours a day in the mass transit system to save that 8 bucks a days.

I am not writing something spreading the gloom and doom thinking process. It is here already and we are spiral downwards without knowing it !

yes lovejoy, there is no question that high gas prices is one of the most harmful things for an economy,especially the U.S., and for many of the reasons you stated.
it puts people out of business, causes inflation,unemployment, higher taxes ,the more you spend on gas the less you spend on goods and services.
but lets hope for the best.

 

[Friday on my mind]

Funny. The title of this thread is "A Stern Warning To The West" but it focuses on America.

What about other Western countries?






Personally, I'm glad people are finally getting a clue and stopping a lot of the unnecessary driving.

Similar problems are I'm sure happening almost anywhere that buys oil.I know the brit truck drivers are hurting from the high cost of diesel just like ameircan ones.The one advantage the other countries have is since they have such high taxes on gas they have some room to adjust.The govt's would miss the revenue but could use some other method(tax) to raise it.And they also benefit from the fact that since they were already paying $6-8 bucks a gallon a jump to $8-10 is not as drastic as a jump from $2 to 4$ or more which the US is experiencing.Our gas was cheap ,theirs never was so we feel it more.

 

[mongo18]

Unless we make drastic change to cut consumption of gasoline, heating oil, dissel fuel, we will be decimated by the high price of oil !

Isn't that drastic change exactly what you spent your first 2 paragraphs describing? Seems like the behavior you described is a step in the right direction. If everyone became a little more frugal and a little less consumeristic (is that a word? It is now!) the USA might even manage to correct it's course, lower the trade deficit and stop writing checks we can't really cash. Oil may be high among the most valuable resources, but it's far from the only, and it's America's diversity of resources and the ingenuity of it's people that made it the superpower it is today. Seems to me we've still got those, and if more people would stop bitching and waiting for the sky to fall and put a little elbow grease back into this country we might even be able to weather this downturn instead of becoming the decaying third world nation that everybody seems to want.

 

[naldo]

we are fucked. i dont know what you guys do for a living but i drive a truck.watch what happens in about 3 months when this works its way to the grocery stores(it has not yet!) and everyother thing we buy.

 

[Dean Wormer]

I find it amusing that when things get a little bit tough there are so many people who think it is the end of life as they know it.

What the fuck would these people have done if they were faced with really tough times like during the great depression?

I mean they want to just give up right now. What would they have done back then; kill themselves?

I'm glad these people didn't have to face the nazis and Japanese empire. We would be speaking a combination of German and Japanese.

 

[bru_master]

Hopefully the economic recession will finally force Americans to become more reponsible for their lifestyles.

Most people in this country seem totally apathetic, as long as they've got their SUV, their central air and their swimming pool.