by jbrovont » Thu 22 May 2008, 15:06:39
Good point. I used to work for a guy who bought and refurbished red-tagged houses. There was an inside joke at the company that the surest way to spot a forclosure was a direct-tv dish on the side of the house.
The other side of this is of course people who work minimum wage jobs or are on fixed incomes. If you figure out the average drive to work and figure out how much it costs a fixed income earner on average to go to work, when the price of gas gets high enough, there's going to be a breaking point where it doesn't pay to go to work anymore. At that point I'm guessing we'll start seeing waves of abrupt economic reorganization where people will either start taking busses, changing jobs, moving etc. to be able to keep working.
Where that is I'm not sure - but we're probably close, since people on minimum wage jobs probably won't be drivngthe newest fuel efficient cars. With prices climbing so quickly, it's easy to see a scenario where it's proftable to go to work one month, and not the next.
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We will never see sub $100 oil again?
Why should we ? My income and home value has tripled in the last 8 years, why shouldn't the cost of living increase as well ?
I do not understand why $135 oil is such a big deal. Everything has gone up, including salaries. Want to pay your fuel bill ? Turn off the cable TV, nix the cell phone, quit eating out 15 times a month, and cut your discretionary driving. Those things alone will save you at least $500 a month to spend on energy.