flipstress
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2004
- Messages
- 538
I have no idea, though, what any politician is actually going to be able to do about it.
What I do see is that people here have addressed $12 gas in terms of their personal mobility and community transportation and planning. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Look around you, and try to identify any object or service in your life that is not petroleum/fossil-fuel-dependent. There are few. In my cluttered office with tons of stuff I can't find a single item, except a clamshell and a piece of driftwood.
Lately, I have been reading a lot about peak oil, and it's been a black cloud at the back of my mind as it pertains to retirement. With less and less oil, how will the economy grow? I think life will be harder just when I am getting older.
Personally, I will keep saving for retirement, but I will also try to learn new skills with things that are shall I say, not high on the attraction list to me, like gardening for food (permaculture, etc.) and canning and food preservation. I even thought I would "intern" in some CSA farm close by someday to learn the food-growing skills. When I get better at it, I will hook up with other food gardeners and try to be involved with community planning that promotes a healthy local food supply system.
We live in the city close to where we work, and we don't drive very much. (We get free bus passes from my city employment and BF bikes almost everywhere or does a bus-bike combo.) So, the big price increase of gasoline has not affected us much. But as ladelfina says, everything in our industrialized society is dependent on oil, so as it gets scarcer, prices will go up--food, clothing, transportation, medicine, etc.
I am also worried about my relatives abroad because life will be even harder for them. I hope the time does not come when I feel that I can't give them any more financial help.