[fixerdave]

What will I do when...

Not much, that I've not already done. Basically, I'm debt-free, even my credit cards owe me money, and I've just bought a used small car, to offset the cost of my big old van. I rent an apartment and a shop, but the rent could double and it would still be affordable - or I could live just about anywhere (spent 10 years in an RV). I have a good job, but I have the skills to work at just about anything. In other words, I'm pretty flexible.

Other than that, over the last 10 years, I've bought every cheap-ass-but-good-enough Chinese tool I could fit in my shop (metalworking, woodworking, automotive, etc.) and am fairly handy with them when something needs doing. Most of my discretionary income has gone into my tools for quite some time. I've not done so as some kind of survivalist, I just like tools. So, when I start to belt-tighten, the first to feel the pinch will be factories in China.

Basically, I could be happy with half my current income; this gives me a whole lot of options if things get shaky. If my purchasing power drops below 1/2 it's current level, then I'd have to start making adjustments, beyond not buying any more tools, but by then the paycheck-to-paycheck people will be screwed and the pickings should be pretty good.

I figured out a long time ago that the secret to being happy is to make way more money than your lifestyle requires. I live well below my means. And, honestly, the real problem is about expectations. People in North America (I'm Canadian) are stupidly wealthy by any real measure, even the so-called poor ones. When we start measuring the poverty line in calories of food per day, as they did (do?) in India, then I'll start to get concerned.

David...

[Mircea]

2006 was the worst year ever at the box office, at least in the US it was, so I think it answers the poll quite well as to what the majority of Americans will give up first.

I suppose if the US Congress had the moral courage to investigate the monopolistic practice of owning the film company, and the distribution network, including the cinemas, the gigantic movie theatre complexes wouldn't exist.

Of the 8 gargantuan cinema complexes in my area, only 3 have access to public transit.

That left people in a quandry. If they fill up the SUV, they have no money to see the film, if they don't fill up the SUV, they have no way to get to the cinema complex.

It so happens I do have access to public transit to a humongous cinema complex, but because of limited service, I could only go on Saturdays, matinee only (12:00 PM to 3:PM start times), and it would be a 9 1/2 hour affair.

Other than that, I find the poll highly ethnocentric. It only applies to 1/5 of the people on the planet, and to a lesser extent, another 1/5 of the people in 2nd world countries like eastern Europe and southeast Asia.

The other 3/5 of the people on the planet don't have any of those things now.

[lys3rg0]

The evolution of movie marketshare in the entertainment industry is mainly affected by other factors, not because people are cutting back on their movie watching to save money. In the last few years, the place of movies has become very different from the past. For many decades they virtually had a monopoly an audio-visual storytelling, but the rise of videogames and HDTV made them somehow obsolete. You can expand much more on the characters in a series such as Prison Break than you can in a 2-3 hour movie. So the movies have been reduced to a very narrow niche in the market.

[devllen05]

Come vote on this poll! Predict what is going to happen to the prices of oil!

With the price of oil nearing $70 per barrel, what direction do you predict the price is going to head in the near future?

[Blacksmith]

Cut back, don't do it.
This is the best its going to get, so spend until it hurts. Use gasoline as if it were going out of style. Travel to Europe, Asia, South America, Canada.
You'll always have the memories.

[Nicholai]

I'm not sure what I'll do in the soon-to-be world of PO. I just graduated from high school and have meager financial savings (UNDER 5,000). I'm going into college in the fall and i hope for a masters in economics but i see little point when i consider the massive changes looming ahead. What would you recommend to someone in my position, a response from MonteQuest would be most pleasing. I have to go and get surgery on my hand now, wish me luck (i've typed this entire message using my two fingers on my left hand)

[Revi]

The near term effect on the coast of Maine is that lobstermen can't afford to go out at $3 a gallon for diesel. The price of bait has gone up as well, and the price per pound that they are paid has gone down to less than $4. They are going on strike for higher prices from the lobster dealers. It's tough for them now.

[Revi]

The near term effect on the coast of Maine is that lobstermen can't afford to go out at $3 a gallon for diesel. The price of bait has gone up as well, and the price per pound that they are paid has gone down to less than $4. They are going on strike for higher prices from the lobster dealers. It's tough for them now.

[ekaggata]

I chose transport.

I've just committed to 2 years renting a location where I can *walk* to work, shopping and even entertainments. I expect to be able to go for weeks at a time without using any form of mechanised transport, even a taxi or a bus. For now, this is the best I can do with limited options. I still use prodigious amounts of electricity.

Of course, I had to pay a high price for that rental. But I expect it will be worth it. Only sad thing is that I can't buy property.
But maybe it will cheaper (outside the cities) in a few years. Maybe.

[Waterthrush]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ekaggata', 'I') chose transport.

I've just committed to 2 years renting a location where I can *walk* to work, shopping and even entertainments. I expect to be able to go for weeks at a time without using any form of mechanised transport, even a taxi or a bus. ... But maybe it will cheaper (outside the cities) in a few years. Maybe.

[FoolYap]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Waterthrush', 'T')he near term effects of Peak Oil are here; this week the business press is full of stories about the "dismal" fall season shopping, with clothing stores particularly hard hit.

[Waterthrush]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FoolYap', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Waterthrush', 'T')he near term effects of Peak Oil are here; this week the business press is full of stories about the "dismal" fall season shopping, with clothing stores particularly hard hit.

[MrBill]

Apparently, especially if you were planning on buying Crocs for the family? ;- )

[cube]

Speaking from a perspective of a single man:

If things got bad what would I do?
I would move into a really cheap place to save money.
1) bad area of the city
2) ridiculously small place
3) ugly and dirty
Hey I'm a single man, I can handle it. Unfortunately in America there's actually a shortage of apartments thanks to governments encouraging the construction of single family homes instead. I think a lot of home "owners" in America will do what was once "unthinkable"........... they will be renting out parts of their home, because they need the money.

Yes I know the idea of letting strangers into your house isn't comforting but desperate times call for desperate measures.

[thuja]

If things got really dire economically, I would...

get rid of the cell phone, car insurance, life insurance, stop buying assets with additional money, drive only when necessary (already doing that), use even less hot water (nat gas), cook from scratch always (do that most of the time), no gifts, no mainstream entertainment, no eating out, rent out one of our rooms.

For us, mortgage is fixed and cheap, we get rainwater catchment, and have a solid place to get wood. We could get by on next to nothing if we had to. The limiting factor is food prices- if these soar- I can do little about it except try and beef up my garden plot. I've befriended farmers so maybe they'll throw me some potatoes once in a while....

[cube]

Some people like to envision a massive "restructuring" program after PO where cities are rebuilt to emphasize a low energy lifestyle. For example building railroads and high density housing to encourage public transit use.

I see a different scenario.

There will be no "rebuilding" program (at least not on a large scale and not within the near term) simply because there will be NO money. For better or worse society will be forced to make do with the pre-existing infrastructure and that means lots of freeways, big box stores, and McMansions in suburbia.

here's some ideas:
1) As people's disposable income dries up, there will be an excess supply of retail space. I don't know about Europe, but in America we have lots of retail space. Shopping malls can be converted to office buildings so people do not have to commute all the way to the city to work.

2) Homeownership will be difficult to obtain in a world where cheap credit is no longer available. I think there will be more renters in the future. There is no shortage of "housing space" IMHO. A home owner can place partitions in their living room to rent out extra space. The "McMansions" of today will become mini apartment complexes of the future.

Yes I know, this is like putting a band aid on a severed arm.....however I think that's what most of the post PO "solutions" are going to look like.

[LoneSnark]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 's')imply because there will be NO money

[denverdave]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', 'S')ome people like to envision a massive "restructuring" program after PO where cities are rebuilt to emphasize a low energy lifestyle. For example building railroads and high density housing to encourage public transit use.

I see a different scenario.

There will be no "rebuilding" program (at least not on a large scale and not within the near term) simply because there will be NO money. For better or worse society will be forced to make do with the pre-existing infrastructure and that means lots of freeways, big box stores, and McMansions in suburbia.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('LoneSnark', '.')..
Where are you suggesting all the money will go? If there is a monetary collapse in progress then the central bank will simply print money to replace it. So, I ask again, where are you suggesting it will all go?

[LoneSnark]

I don't suppose just telling you that you are mistaken would do any good, would it?

Look, let me try to reason you through. The money that people carry in the form of checkbooks and withdraw slips are substitutes for money, as you said, nothing more than trust that someone will pay. But PO by itself does not negate someone’s ability to pay; all it does mean is that when they do pay that money will afford less oil.

What I suspect is you have not been apprised of the history of the past 80 years. As of the late 70's the human race knows how to create a stable money supply, even if you do not. In 1987 a savings & loan crisis brought about the downfall of the banking system. I do not say it "almost" brought it down or came close, I literally mean to say the whole house of cards collapsed. The New York stock market collapsed 23% in one day, stock exchanges around the world fell further, and U.S. banks failed in great numbers (over a bank a day during the worst of it). But, since 1987 was after 1978, the money supply did not collapse. As fake 'debt' money disappeared with the banks, the Federal Reserve ran the presses replacing it with real cash it loaned out. When the banks refused to borrow any more, it began loaning directly to corporations. If it ran out of corporations to loan to, it is within the law to begin loaning to individuals, collateral is at the regulator's whim. As such, thanks to the stable money supply the real economy was able to adjust without any money shortages. Within a short period of time the economy was back on track, new banks grew to replace the old ones, and as the fake 'debt' money grew back to old levels, the Federal Reserve took the real repaid from its loans to be shredded (interest is always returned to the national treasury to avoid unintended deflation).

This is why we created the Federal Reserve: to regulate the money supply, come hail or high water. Come prosperity or depression, money will never again be scarce as it was during the 1930s; at least, not until the Treasury runs out of ink and paper, which they do stockpile for just such occasions.