Gasolinelessness the new homelessness?

[Truth2Tell]

Saw this great ironic analogy in my local Real Change paper today...

kinda fun...

http://drwesb.blogspot.com/

by Dr. Wes Browning

"...Here's an instructive analogy: Living on the street out of a cardboard box even though you are able-bodied, is to being homeless, as being unable to drive to work even though you have a functioning car is to being gasolineless.

In ten years, as the price of gasoline continues to rise, I expect there will be thousands of the gasolineless walking 5, 10, or 15 miles to work every day. People who can still afford gasoline will look down upon the gasolineless. They'll say, if only the gasolineless applied themselves and worked extra jobs in other cities, they could afford gasoline like decent people. Boneheaded compassionate conservatives will lament the downward spiral that results from gasolinelessness. Because many of the gasolineless won't be able to get to work at all, their rents and mortgages will go unpaid, causing them to become homeless, too, after which it will be minutes before they start begging and using their change to buy Thunderbird. Boneheaded compassionate Liberals will speak of the ennobling effects of gasolinelessness.

High School kids will go gasolineless for a weekend to learn how hard it is, then write term papers on how it felt. The ones who weren't disposed to be sympathetic from the start will write about how it wasn't so bad having to walk to the neighborhood McDonald's for a change, and how the gasolineless are all whiners and losers.

After another ten or fifteen years, the gasolineless will be visible everywhere, bringing down property values and bumming decent people out. People will bitch and moan about how they can't drive two blocks without having to ignore a dozen or more dirty aggressive hitchhikers. So a Ten Year Plan to End Gasolinelessness will be developed by a Committee to End Gasolinelessness in King County. The committee will have numerous subcommittees, because the gasolineless come in so many different kinds. There's the Single Adult Gasolineless, the Families With Children Gasolineless, and the Senior Citizen & Physically Disabled Gasolineless..."

[DS1]

1. My first thought of after reading this

Bush's Healthcare Plan = Make gasoline so expensive that those who can't afford insurance can't afford gas either, and get themselves in shape by walking to work.

Yeah, I'm a cynic

[billbuckhead]

3. There has been a rash of cars out of gas along the side of the road

according to highway authorities in Georgia.

[Truth2Tell]

4. I've actually thought for some time

that $20/gallon gasoline would be just what the doctor ordered for America. More cycling, more walking, less flying, less buying, etc..

It'd be like a housing crash.. bummer for many, but just the smack across the head that so many middle-class Murkins could use to help them (us) wake up. Or not.

[pitohui]

8. many cruel people who don't have to work have this idea

people who hate the middle class and the working class need to look around, there are plenty of other web forums where they would be happier

$20 a gallon gas will destroy the remaining working/middle class, but that's what is wanted by the elites -- the clearer the line between the elite who can afford to go by limo and the stinky worker who must spend hours a day walking or biking before even getting to the job, the less likely we are to somehow stumble into the wrong party or college and marry their brats -- our sweat itself will mark us as human garbage of the lower classes, after all, it is so tacky to have to work

[Matsubara]

12. I don't agree with $20/gal gas, but...

At present, the markup on gas, IE the profit going to the Oil Companies is at a record high. The congress is talking about gouging, but only at a retail level. It is NOT the gas stations who are gouging. The OIL COMPANIES are GOUGING the gas stations, who are in turn forced to sell gas at a high price just to break even. Gas stations have been struggling for decades now as the oil companies reap higher and higher profits.

I would propose forcing a cap on the per gallon markup on gas charged at the wholesale level, which would probably bring the retail price back down to about $2.00/gal for regular, but then increase the gas tax by about .50 per gallon to fund alternative energy sources to get the fossil fuel monkey off our back. The gouging must be stopped. The rise in gas prices is going to be an inevitable result of scarcity, but the drastic jumps we are seeing are just opportunistic gouging by big oil and do not represent the actual supply/demand situation. The oil companies should be FORCED to keep the increases in gas prices slow and gradual so as to minimize the impact on working people and give them time to transition to more fuel-efficient cars.

I haven't driven a car that got less than 35 mpg highway in the last 20 years. The fact that everyone started buying gas-guzzlers always boggled my mind. A part of me says "serves you right. I still spend less than $20 a week on gas", but the bleeding-heart side of me says that we should not let oil companies put the screws to working people just because they can.

So - caps on per gallon markup, new gas tax to fund renewable energy, and how about new tax breaks for cars that get better than 40 mpg highway?


My 1990 Mazda microvan gets 38 mpg highway, by the way, and I can fit tons of stuff in it.



This is a newer model than mine, but you get the picture.

Why are cars like these not available for sale in the US? There are tons of them everywhere here in Japan, for less than $10K new.

[Truth2Tell]

18. Not meant to be a cruel suggestion..

I just get sick of seeing so much overconsumption by so many who already have so much.

I'd love to see real transportation solutions for struggling middle class workers. I just don't happen to think driving a giant SUV 100 miles per day counts. Call me an elitest if you like.

[whistle]

2. I've been able to reduce my personal and work commuting driving

....to 35 gallons of gasoline per month for the past 12 months. Now I am looking for ways to reduce this even more and am setting a goal to cut my use by 15% to under 30 gallons per month. That will mean cutting my driving by 100 miles from what I have been doing on a monthly basis.

[rwenos]

5. Style Question v. Substance

The way you've phrased it, the question is whether there will be a social stigma to the inability to afford gasoline. Others have pointed out that it's really asking a broader question -- i.e., those who can afford gas can also afford housing, health care, etc.

I suggest we turn the question around. Why isn't the gov't -- which is spending $2billion a week on this ridiculous war in Iraq -- spending half of that amount on hybrid and/or hydrogen research, so that we can drive cars around cheaper?

A fundamental change in the carbon equation, which would still allow us the physical mobility most of us need to work (I live in LA -- thus, MUST drive), would help the economy and WOULD LET US THUMB OUR NOSES AT MIDDLE-EASTERN TERRORISTS!

Thus, that fundamental change in the carbon equation makes both economic sense, and strategic security sense. Why is this not being discussed in Congress???

On edit: My premise is that the terrorists have us over an oil barrel. Remove that lever-point on the US economy, making us truly energy self-sufficient, and we solve the terrorist problem.

[Truth2Tell]

7. might take a bit more than that to

"solve the terrorist problem". Maybe some additional national behavior changes.

[dave_p]

6. ... or they could just pay the $6

... like their poorer western European counterparts have been doing for years without collapsing into despair.

Just make sure most of it goes into public transportation rather than to the Admin's pals, and life may still be livable.

[pitohui]

9. european counterparts have free health care, child care, 6 weeks vacation

working class people in america have nothing, these days MAYBE 2 weeks vacation if they've been at the same job a good long while, health care? ha, with co-pays so high you're afraid to go to the doctor even if you DO have health insurance

there is no extra money left to be stolen from working americans, grok?

[Erika]

10. W and his bushbots have reduced our standard of living big time

We grok.

[Redstone]

11. Yes, there's a broken equation here. Europeans pay REALLY high taxes, but they GET SOMETHING

from their governments in return.

Our taxes are not so high in comparison, but we get JACK SHIT in return.

I wouldn't mind seeing my taxes increased, if there were some BENEFITS retuned to the people of this country, instead of seing all pissed away into the sands of Iraq.

Universal healthcare? I'll pay those increased taxes with a smile.

Universal child care? I'll pay those increased taxes with a smile.

Rebuild New Orleans? I'll pay those increased taxes with a smile.

Go ahead, raise my taxes. I don't mind. As long as that money is spent on helping the people of this country, instead of making sure that Boeing pays no federal taxes whatsoever. Nor on "bridges to nowhere" in Alaska, an on and on.

I've worked and paid taxes for 40 years. I've never received a CENT of government help, not even unemployment, not even once. Why isn't all that money I've paid in taxes being used to HELP people? (Yes, it's a rhetorical question.)

Redstone

[1620rock]

13. Europeans also get subsidized first rate public transportation

from their relatively high gasoline taxes too.

[Redstone]

14. And public transportation MUST be subsidized. It will NEVER pay for itself from fares.

The sooner we realize that in this country, the sooner we'll have decent public transport.

Redstone

[rwenos]

15. Public Transport v. Cars

You're absolutely right about public transportation -- it's a completely appropriate subject for increased and continued subsidy.

But normal human Americans want and need private cars. (As I said, I live in LA and have no choice about getting behind the wheel.)

Study after study says we Yanks would buy non-polluting electric cars in a heartbeat, if they were price-competitive with gas-powered cars.

And I worked it out today -- the difference between driving a 60-mpg Prius ($900 per year) and a 20 mpg sedan ($2,600 per year), assuming 15,000 driving miles, is pretty substantial.

[Redstone]

16. I'll not argue the fact that many americans need cars, especially where you live.

But I will say that in MUCH of America, people can make the choice to "live where they work" or "work where they live," one or the other.

That may not be a choice that you can make, and I certainly understand how that happens.

But we were fortunate enough to be able to make the decision to "live in town" so our driving could be limited. Many other Americans cold do that if they wanted to. And it would be a start.

Redstone

[Manifestor_of_Light]

17. Houston will come to a screeching halt.