NPR said there is a chance it could happen in 2009 if oil hits $200. At the least, they expect oil to hit $150 and gas $4.50.
But at $7, it would cost me over a $100 to fill up. I can't imagine how the US economy could handle that.
There are probably many articles on the Net that discuss that sort of thing. One or two might even be worth a damn! 🙂
I guess prices go up in a chain reaction,. . .pay rates eventually goes up, but not nearly fast enough. . .more money going out and less coming in, I guess another downturn in the economy.
It would necessarily adjust. It would be painful, and will require a significant shift, but it would happen. This is actually a big topic of discussion at my work as we are looking to model how traffic patterns and volumes change with different development patterns. While a year or two ago any pattern that wasn't in line with the sprawling suburbanization that has been happening was almost unheard of. However, if the high fuel prices continue, and they continue to drive up the cost of everything else, you will start to see people make different choices about where they live and work. Already, those areas most impacted by the implosion of the housing market are those who bought big houses in suburban developments (sorry if any of you are one of them). We'd already started seeing the trend of people moving back to urban areas (seniors especially), but it is starting to spread and a lot of developers are taking interest. In short, we need to make our development pattern more like Europe to survive this. They regularly pay $7.00 or $8.00 per gallon and seem to be doing alright. Of course they drive a lot less than we do too 😀
This is an interesting interview with an Urban Planning professor and the guy that is the Director of Smart Growth America. It's about 7 minutes but talks about what might happen and how we can change things for the better. The player for this shows up in my RSS feed, but not in the article for me.
Gas costs keep going up just means that the cost of everything goes up...
The more it costs for our truck drivers and any other means of cargo transport to get the products out means that we have to pay more for those products...
With that, cost of living goes up...
With that... Talk to your bosses about getting a raise to support the new cost of living...
Also... Talk to them about working from home now as it is cheaper 🙂
Atomm wrote:Maybe I need to find a Telecommuter job... That's like getting a $500/month raise, right? :-)
No joke. You'd save on the gas you used, wear & tear on the vehicle, money spent eating out. . .and a real biggie - you'd save all of your travel time, so that time is now yours!
That's all a considerable benefit. Nice work if you can get it.
DocJon wrote:That's all a considerable benefit. Nice work if you can get it.
Not to jack the thread here, but I will tell you that working from home also has a downside... If you are a social person at work, all of that is gone...
Work was about the only place I had to hang out and talk to friends... Now I just drive my wife nuts... 🙂
ephil wrote:Not to jack the thread here, but I will tell you that working from home also has a downside... If you are a social person at work, all of that is gone...
Work was about the only place I had to hang out and talk to friends... Now I just drive my wife nuts... 🙂
Yeah, I could definitely see that as a problem. Ppl are social by nature. If you have a good social circle, that might help. If not, well, you could end up being that guy who has a conversation with ppl everywhere he goes. . .the grocery store, the bank, the gas station, standing at the urinal 😱
I am fairly certain I could go through life without any other human interaction, expecially given my current day to day experience. But I do have trouble working from home.. too many distractions
Bubbaspanky wrote:I am fairly certain I could go through life without any other human interaction, expecially given my current day to day experience. But I do have trouble working from home.. too many distractions
As can I most of the time, but I lack the discipline to properly work from home. A few years back I left one illustrator job to do the same thing at home. Just started sleeping in, taking long lunch breaks, and then had to cram 3 or 4 days work into a couple of overnight sessions to turn in on Fridays. Ack.
Wife and kids are too much distraction too, but yah, I could do without any other people 🙂