i know we are all painfully aware of the cost of fuel, to power the car, and to fuel the home fires this winter, consider the following
i was listening to the financial talking heads today, and having followed the discussion on "peak oil" something else was added to the mixing bowl today that i guess i didn't realize fully the extent of until today.
they were discussing china today with its 1.6 billion people as opposed to our .29 billion people here in the states, kind of boggles the mind. while i knew they had us outnumbered all along what i didnt recognize was the impending demand that country has and will have in the very near future.
it is projected that within the next 10 years there will be an additional 200 million people with automobiles in china!
while i am not sure how many we have on the road today, i think it is a safe estimate that we likely don't have much more than that today, and likely not that many on the road on any given day.
china has been working hard to get contracts for oil from russia, the ukrain, a 70 billion dollar deal with Iran, and are working on Venezula for more.
it surely seems to me the impact will be severe, and will be much sooner than later.
i remember what it was like in sw kansas in 1985 when the oil fields collapsed and literally 50% of the homes in the town of 16,000 were for sale, no jobs , no nothing.
while this was a regional and severe problem then, consider what much higher fuel prices will bring to bear on a national scope.
i am glad i don't own an suv, or a huge and inefficient home with a fat mortgage. i can only see some real earth shaking realignment, and those that are stuck on the wrong side of the correction are going to be quite uncomfortable.
if all comes to pass as bad as it seems it must i suspect this board will grow by a factor of 10 if not by 1000 between here and there.
that is if they can afford or get enough power to log on.
all of this, and then consider the global impact, forget any accords reguarding global warming, does anyone think that china is going to care much about emmisions and there impacts.
well at least the dirty americans, will be the least of the problem!
i think everyone should take a good look around and inform those that are in the rut and haven't taken a look outside the furrow long enough to see where this thing is heading.
those that are off grid, and provide for themselves should fare far better than those that are not.
considering that so much of our economy depends so heavily on oil, food production, delivery systems etc, will take some pretty large upward ticks.
has anyone noticed the increases in costs of goods that have to be transported because of the latest round of fuel cost increases, or is it just a regional thing here in the seattle area.
food prices are markedly up, steel prices are up substantially, fuel surcharges are the norm now for delivery.
so much of our public goes on living like there is no tomorrow, heavily in debt, living paycheck to paycheck, maxed out on credit cards, suv payments, college expences, and refinanced homes to get equity out to pay down debt, or worse to buy more stuff.
it will end, and it will certainly be ugly.
any thoughts
bob g