Is your budget able to absorb higher gas prices? CNN quick vote

[helderheid]

Is your budget able to absorb higher gas prices?

Yes, I can afford higher prices 34% 23750 votes

No, I’ve cut other items to pay for gas 66% 46140 votes
Total: 69890 votes

[wakeme2008]

1. Interesting how that is about the same percentage that support

Bush at any cost.

[helderheid]

3. any cost

yes, well said

[Stand and Fight]

2. Post a link, please....

Thanks. :evilgrin:

[helderheid]

4. CNN

www.cnn.com

[Stand and Fight]

16. Thank you, I'm at work.

Have to be careful with how many browser windows I open up to view. I figured it may have been on a different page. Thanks so much for posting.

[getmeouttahere]

5. I've cut my driving considerably....

which means fewer trips, even short ones, less shopping, more walking, more riding the train, limited service that it is in L.A.

[cynatnite]

10. If we had access to public transportation, we'd use it

Usually during the summer we take a few trips and this year we only took one. That's all there will be.

I plan my errands now and do as much in one day as possible.

[gollygee]

6. My husband and I have talked about this

I just drive less now. He has to go to work every day but it isn't far. That's the way we've dealt with costs.

At some point gas prices are going to be expensive enough that some people with low-paying jobs and long commutes will have to decide if it is financially feasible to drive to work every day.

At some point our food prices are going to get very expensive because oil is used to grow food and there are huge transportation costs associated with having cheap food.

I'm more worried about the future than current gas costs.

[newportdadde]

12. Yep you should be worried about the future.

Because this thing is just getting started. In a few years 2 buck gas will look as cheap now as 1.00 did a few years ago. Unfortunately wages will not meet the increase which means less extra spending money, so lower sales, more layoffs, less money.. so on and so forth.

Companies wonder "Why aren't people buying our junk?" Because you fired everyone or outsourced everyone making decent money! So they have to save every penny just to pay off their gas and food which is getting higher and higher.

[Deja Q]

22. The great die-off begins.

[getmeouttahere]

7. Current CNN poll is.....

are you satisfied with the tsunami rebuilding efforts...like CNN reports on it! How could the vast majority of Americans even form an opinion?

[helderheid]

8. where do you see that?

I still see the gas question

[getmeouttahere]

9. Scratch that...I log on to the International version...

but still, these CNN polls are beyond ludicrous.

[htuttle]

11. Easily -- I only spend $1.40 every two weeks on gas

Not sure I can afford the effect the cost of gas has on the price of everything else, though.

[getmeouttahere]

14. Bravo, htuttle....

just be safe out there...lots of nuts in their SUV's

[htuttle]

15. My scooter may be small...

...But it's very nimble!

:)

[helderheid]

18. size doesn't matter...

[getmeouttahere]

19. Mind my asking....

what you paid for that puppy?

[htuttle]

21. See #20 for the specs

I paid $2,000 for it brand new. Cash on the barrel. No payments, no interest, no repo.

[newportdadde]

17. Whats the MPG?

[htuttle]

20. 108 mpg average (depends on driving habits, of course)

Top speed: 55mph

150 cc, four stroke engine, 4-speed manual transmission, all steel construction.

Here's the US importer:
http://www.bajajusa.com

I paid $2,000 for one brand new in 2002. List price is something like $2,400 nowdays (but are usually discounted).

There are a couple of other decent scooters for around $2,000-3,000. Most in that price range come from India (where a scooter is considered a 'good family vehicle').

If everyone who drove less than 10 miles to work drove scooters instead of cars, we'd probably be able to make our oil supply last another 50-100 years.

[nickinSTL]

13. don't like the phrasing

The premise as stated is that everyone will either be able to afford the higher prices or cut OTHER items to pay for gas.

What? No option for cutting DRIVING? :wtf:

[GiovanniC]

23. That's Not an Option

That requires sacrifice.

You commie pinko hippie liberal -- don't you know that sacrifice is for OTHER people?

[nickinSTL]

25. I know...it's CNN

I shouldn't expect anything else.

ME? A Commie Pinko Liberal?

eh...close enough :D

[ComerPerro]

24. Even if I could afford it, I shouldn't have to

[Vinca]

26. What's got me more worried than gas for the car is heating oil

for the furnace next winter. I have a huge house in a cold place and it's going to be bad.

[getmeouttahere]

27. Speaking of heating in winter....

I was in Montreal on business a few years ago and the person I was working with was a fairly well-to-do businessman who was driving a rather modest car (Honda Accord or something like that). I asked him why I didn't see very many expensive cars on the roads of Canada. He said that the genesis for moderate living standards in Canada, as he sees it, is because the most important thing in that environment is heating yourself/your home in winter, everything else is secondary, or at least it was historically, and that mentality has carried over into the present day. Which makes me wonder, will that mentality be FORCED upon an energy-starved U.S. of Amnesia???