[ReJoyce]

As I was filling up my subcompact (for $20), I decided to go to the Wendy's next door for one of their chicken salads. I hadn't eaten out or taken home anything all week. I entered that Wendy's at 6 pm on the dot. Other than the employees, there was only ONE other person there and no one was at the drive up. While I was there, one other person came in and I think someone may have been through the drive up.

We were bewildered and couldn't stop talking about how empty the place was. I said I thought it was because people were spending their discretionary income on gas and had nothing left for entertainment.

Has anyone else noticed a downturn in their local economy and attributed it to having to pay more for gas? This is a mostly retirement community with an average age of around 62, so we may be feeling more of an impact than anyone else.

[MrBill]

Seems to be the opposite where I am? More and more autos on the roads at almost anytime during the day, and it seems more traffic congestion at key intersections and round abouts. We are in the middle of a construction boom with houses going-up literally everywhere! I cannot imagine where the people are going to come from to pay for them all?

If this is Peak Oil then I would define it as that brief moment in time when there seems like no end in sight for our current prosperity.

High gasoline prices are just a badge of honor. The locals are doing so well that they have new clothes, a new car, a new home, are out at the café with their friends to see and be seen, AND they can afford to fill their tank and cruise around just for leisure!

If this was a movie, it would be about 30-minutes into the film when everyone is laughing and enjoying themselves (the wedding scene), but the audience knows the plot is going to change everything for the worse. Only the characters are still blissfully unaware of what is coming?

[Jack]

It may be that the impact is segmented in some way or other. For example, I went by my auto dealership and the repair area was slow. In fact, almost empty - which is unusual. I haven't seen it so dead in decades...

There's a fellow I know who is in the pawn shop business. He tells me of people who are employed in responsible jobs with good compaines coming in to pawn their DVD collections - at $2.00 per DVD - just to buy gasoline. He also tells me of small bars that don't have any business to speak of - the customers are purchasing a 12-pack and inviting friends over to watch television.

That said, I see gigantic trucks (F-350), Hummers, and Escalades all over, driving well above the speed limit, with a single passenger. The parking lots at the shopping centers are full. The lines at the grocery store are long.

My intuition is that we're about to see some interesting effects, with the bottom one or two quintiles (in terrms of income) being at the breaking point and the top one or two quintiles still able to absorb the costs. If we stay where we are, individuals and the economy will cope. But if we advance sharply to $4 gasoline and stay there - then I think we'll start experiencing some of the symptoms we're looking for.

The tourism and hospitality industry is vulnerable here - and if it fails, unemployment will go up substantially as tax revenues at the local level (sales tax, hotel/motel tax, car rental tax) will decline. But whether the unemployment numbers will be reported as going up is a question...

[mark]

Chicago has been in a building and rehab boom since the end of the ’91 recession. Despite high gas prices, that continues. Every area of the city is renovating and upgrading. Formerly poor and gang infested areas are gentrifying. New condo towers and construction cranes dot the skyline, emphasizing a strong and vibrant city.

Even the old and wise have succumbed. My elderly friend who recently got into real estate as an agent and investor just told me that he thinks we are entering an era of sustained and perpetual prosperity. Nothing but good times ahead. He can’t even imagine the world I’ve tried to suggest is coming.

I have concluded that this is what it’s like to live in the midst of a paradigm shift. Some see, most don’t. The fascinating thing is to watch the level of denial ratchet ever higher in the face of what, at one time, would be irrefutable evidence of changing circumstances.

One wonders how it will all end.

[killJOY]

An old house was recently dismantled and moved in our pathetic little town to make way for a HUGE NEW GAS STATION AND "PITSTOP!"

Most people here think "it's so nice!"

The great big farmhouse next door, with large hayfields, is up for sale. A large developer is currently salivating after it.

A new "subdivision" is going in down the road, named after the brook it will pollute.

Everything is fine.

"Peak oil:" that moment when you've completely obliterated the old, and you suddenly find there's no more of the new to go around.

[Ludi]

Damn, Killjoy, I'm sorry to hear that.

We still seem to be getting "development" around here, thankfully not too close (nearest subdivision five miles away, I think) - don't know how those folks will afford to commute. But they all seem rich to me, so maybe they'll be fine....

[killJOY]

Actually, "nextdoor" is misleading. I meant nextdoor to the new gas station, which about 2&1/2 miles from our house. The nearest development to us is about 3/4 mile away. Our little corner is still preserved. But for how long?

[o2ny]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mark', 'E')ven the old and wise have succumbed. My elderly friend who recently got into real estate as an agent and investor just told me that he thinks we are entering an era of sustained and perpetual prosperity. Nothing but good times ahead. He can’t even imagine the world I’ve tried to suggest is coming.

[jdumars]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('killJOY', 'A')ctually, "nextdoor" is misleading. I meant nextdoor to the new gas station, which about 2&1/2 miles from our house. The nearest development to us is about 3/4 mile away. Our little corner is still preserved. But for how long?

[perdition79]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReJoyce', 'W')e were bewildered and couldn't stop talking about how empty the place was. I said I thought it was because people were spending their discretionary income on gas and had nothing left for entertainment.

Has anyone else noticed a downturn in their local economy and attributed it to having to pay more for gas? This is a mostly retirement community with an average age of around 62, so we may be feeling more of an impact than anyone else.

[ohanian]

The worse is yet to come.

[TheTurtle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mark', 'I') have concluded that this is what it’s like to live in the midst of a paradigm shift. Some see, most don’t. The fascinating thing is to watch the level of denial ratchet ever higher in the face of what, at one time, would be irrefutable evidence of changing circumstances.

[skeptic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReJoyce', '
')
Has anyone else noticed a downturn in their local economy and attributed it to having to pay more for gas? This is a mostly retirement community with an average age of around 62, so we may be feeling more of an impact than anyone else.

[oilfreeandhappy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReJoyce', 'A')s I was filling up my subcompact (for $20), I decided to go to the Wendy's next door for one of their chicken salads. I hadn't eaten out or taken home anything all week. I entered that Wendy's at 6 pm on the dot. Other than the employees, there was only ONE other person there and no one was at the drive up. While I was there, one other person came in and I think someone may have been through the drive up.

We were bewildered and couldn't stop talking about how empty the place was. I said I thought it was because people were spending their discretionary income on gas and had nothing left for entertainment.

Has anyone else noticed a downturn in their local economy and attributed it to having to pay more for gas? This is a mostly retirement community with an average age of around 62, so we may be feeling more of an impact than anyone else.

[jupiters_release]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jdumars', '
')I'm so glad our post-PO retreat is a hundred miles from any kind of sprawl.

[Zardoz]

I've seen several posts on these boards mentioning that it seemed that drivers of very large SUVs and pickups are driving even faster and more aggressively than ever these days.

Seems like it to me, too, but are we peakers just imagining this? Are we looking for it now, and recognizing behavior that didn't cause us to take notice before?

Or are people who drive those damned things really getting pissed about what's happening, and are reacting in a typically perverse and counter-productive American yuppie way?

[MrBill]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jupiters_release', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jdumars', '
')I'm so glad our post-PO retreat is a hundred miles from any kind of sprawl.

[DigitalCubano]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')his oil-driven sprawlomania is like a giant bulldozer coming straight at your house... and you hope and pray that it runs out of gasoline before it mangles you beneath its tracks.

[MacG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', 'I')'ve seen several posts on these boards mentioning that it seemed that drivers of very large SUVs and pickups are driving even faster and more aggressively than ever these days.

Seems like it to me, too, but are we peakers just imagining this? Are we looking for it now, and recognizing behavior that didn't cause us to take notice before?

Or are people who drive those damned things really getting pissed about what's happening, and are reacting in a typically perverse and counter-productive American yuppie way?