Deavis,
Calm down buddy. Don't get your panties in a bunch.
Don't presume that you could get my panties in a bunch. I don't wear any, unless it is a rented tux. You can't go commando in another man's fatigues.
, more on that later.
Let's go over this very carefully...
I said there is no need for soccer moms to be transporting their snot nosed little kids around in a huge Tahoe or something that sized. I live in the Silicon Valley and the closest we come to going offroading or hauling wood is watching the Redneck games. Besides you can fit more kids and stuff in a more fuel economical Mini Van or station wagon than a gas guzzling Hummer.
1) You presume to tell another person what is appropriate for the task that they wish to accomplish even though you have no frame of reference into the reasons behind their decision.
2) You then presume to tell an entire nation what they should and should not do based on your incredibly small personal frame of reference, Silicon Valley.
3) Then you make a nonsensical comparison between two vehicles designed for completely different purposes and try to equate their usage based solely on your perception of what people should use them for. Not to mention the fact that you have no idea what the soccer mom does with her vehicle when she isn’t passing you on the freeway.
Based on you logic, let's play a little game. I'm a very athletic white guy who lives in a small town with everything in walking distance and a town drunk who is the only black man there. Therefore, based on your methodology, everyone should be able to foot-commute to work and all blacks are drunks. The fat out of shape man in Idaho with a 20 mile drive doesn't *need* a car because I can jog 5 miles to work, what is 15 more? If the one black man in my neighborhood is drunk, they must all be. After all, that is the way it is where I live, it has to be that way everywhere else.
Scary reasoning, but that is essentially what you are doing. I have chosen issues that magnify the situation, but the principle is exactly the same. You are expressing an elitist view and most firearm owners who fight for the 2A on here know the danger of elitist creep.
Just know that your choice will have an effect on others around you. So don't bitch when your paying $50 bucks a gallon.
Who is bitching? I told you to get another job if you don't want to pay market price for gas or stop driving. Competition for resources, see my post above.
As for other countries, typically they have smaller more efficient cars and their gas prices are by far more than what we pay. But the difference is they don't use cars as frequently as we do. How many here knows a family that doesn't have at least one car? Typically here we have 2-3 cars per family. More cars, more gas consumption. Higher prices.
Wrong on many counts
1) Other countries typically have much more developed public transportation systems than newer American Cities. Thus more people don't need to own a car, look at NYC for an American example
2) Other countries with older cities, Europe especially, are not very conducive to automotive traffic. Most of our cities are designed FOR automotive transport.
3) Gas prices in other countries are severely inflated due to taxation, which is why diesel fuel was so much cheaper over there for years. That is no longer the case
3) More cars != more consumption != more demand. Your statement is a blanket statement, which is only true in certain situations. I already dispelled it once.
4) The Suburban American lifestyle is highly dependent on commuting as a means to offset the price of housing. This offset is still incredibly positive, which allows for substantial increases in gas cost that would otherwise be spent on housing in the city and public transport (which isn't always cheap). People have been saving for years in housing and now they have to absorb a new cost rather than buy their 8th gas-guzzler. Another
guess that would be true if not for the fact we are maxed out at our production and processing limit. And OPEC says their maxed out at pumping out the oil. Unless you can magically bring oil out of the ground, refine it and fill up every gas station in the US on a continual basis, you're going to see gas prices continue to rise.
Thank you for reinforcing my point. To get more oil, we simply have to build more capacity. Simple as that. It isn't a zero sum game, so quit trying to frame it that way.
Maybe you have the time to sit there and factor in every freaking possibility that may arise on a global economic scale, but frankly I don't.
If you can't talk intelligibly about first order economic principles then perhaps you should consider not commenting on that aspect of a topic. I’m not demeaning you or your posts, I’m just indicating that supply and demand is an extremely easy first order concept to discuss. I have not introduced any variables into my posts that take more than 10 seconds to identify, quantify, and evaluate. Explaining that human ingenuity does not allow for a zero sum equation to exist is pretty straightforward. Don't get upset when I point out flaws in your reasoning because you are unwilling to consider simple extensions of the topic outside of a very small frame of referecen. See above for the penalties of a small frame of reference.
The reason we are seeing such a high rise in gas prices is we (the world) has only a finite limit on the oil we pull out of the ground.
Really, are you sure about that? Capacity is simple to build, especially for oil. There is a boatload of oil that has not yet been tapped due to its location/condition. For instance, many places are not being drilled due to the abundance of sand in the formation. Sand control isn't cheap, but once oil prices are high enough to offset the extra cost, people will begin to drill there. They will then come up with better sand control methods, just as they came up with great chemical leaching methods to extend the life of older formations. Once that happens, prices will again drop and the cycle will start over again. Perhaps you can also comment on the theories and evidence that oil may not be a finite resource as once believed. Also, we should discuss the huge untapped resources in the ocean.
"NOT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD" That's what's stopping us from going this route.
Everyone wants cheap gas, but no one wants a refinery in their back yard.
Economic issue that can be solved with money. Pay for the right to build it and have lawmakers quash outlandish environmental laws. This will happen make no mistake about it. You simply have to provide the right economic incentives with the proper political method. The only thing that is keeping us from increasing capacity is our own choice to limit ourselves. You will see many bogus environmental laws biting the dust in the future as the nature worshippers, who have many times filled the spiritual void of atheism with an inanimate object, lose their hold on the publics sympathies
My point is, our country cannot continue being reliant on foreign oil. It is not good for our security or world influence. There are many different alternatives out there to wean this country from cheap foreign oil and it's about time it happens.
Your solution to that issue is to take away the right of an American to choose what he wants or to force the market in a direction you want based on your belief that this is a bad thing. Rather than offer people an incentive to change their lifestyle, i.e. positive reinforcement, you choose to limit them, negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement always causes backlash because people don't like to be told what to do. If you prefaced your argument with, "If we offered each American an incentive program to drive Hybrid cars, we could cut our dependence on foreign oil." Then you have to convince a person why weaning us off foreign oil is a good idea and then get them to demand a change. The change would be completely different in its nature and you would find that people would willingly switch if you could convince them. However, with your argument, you will never, ever convince anyone with a shred of personal respect, they will fight you. Win a man’s heart and he will willingly go beyond what you ask.
And how do you know my name "50 Freak" doesn't mean I like 50 year old women? Or maybe 50 women at a time? Or I do it 50 times? Don't attack someone when you don't know squat about them.
Next time, I'll be sure to follow my puns with a
because it is obvious that I wasn't the one with my panties in a bunch or had 50 pairs of them wrapped around my head, whatever your style is.
See,
I don't get worked up over topics such as this, I just bringing up points that contradict elitist views. Notice, I’m not faulting you for your view, which I believe is elitist, I’m merely pointing our why I think it is and the negative aspects of it.
Build mroe refinerie's, and drill in Alaska and gas price's will go down. As long as we rely on hostile goverment's for our oil an refuse to build more refineries gas price's will continue to skyrocket.
aha, now that is a nice solution J
