gas & food & $

[sway2sway]

I got an email with a suggestion about how to get gas prices lowered. It said that the one day gas boycotts were useless, except symoblically, because the gas companies knew everyone would be back the next day.

This one suggested a boycott of the 2 largest gas companies, shell & esso, maybe. It said they were the ones driving the prices, so this would cause them to lower their rates, to which the smaller outfits would follow suit.

I didn't finish reading it all, before I replied back that I thought the rising prices were a good thing, in that this might be the only thing that might make people actually consider what they do - day to day, and how they can make changes in their micro-world. A little off cuff, considering there are people more impoverished than I, that do not even own cars, yet will feel the increase in almost every other area of life as well- then again these areas need to examined also right? food choices, products, etc.

Anyway, the person wrote back that the increase wouldn't make much difference to consumption, that people continue to purchase despite cost and the oil conglomerates and everyone in their pockets reap the benefits (well monetary anyway, lord knows we're all in the same environmental boat- though even there, some parts of the world feel it harder and first, poor bangladesh and the hermaphrodite polar bears).

On to food. I've read some things about the oil prices possibly driving people to buy more local food, grow more in their backyard, things flown in will be cost prohibitive (unless heavily subsidized), and processed foods will also become more costly by the same mechanism. So my thinking was the same thing, good - let the prices rise and people will have to make changes which will be better for them overall.

But, then I read another article, in which it said that with food costs rising this would not spur most people to run to the farmers market with their cloth bag for potatoes, or grow tomotoes in a planter on their balcony, or learn how to make bread. It said likely that fast food and convenience foods might play an even greater part of life, with those companies being so huge that they could get all the food ingredients, not to mention labor and oil at reduced prices. This in turn might make this food seem an even more attractive option to many, especially with the potential for people to be working even more hours trying to tread water in the declining economy.

I know which side I'm hoping on. I feel like we're so close to getting it all together, it's all there, just waiting for us to rearrange the pieces.

What do you guys think?

[maestro]

Don't know what the answer is but here in oz our dollar is really strong compared with yours $1aus gets 95centsU.S i thought this was agood thing but it kind of isn't cause our prices are going through the roof, bread and rice have risen drastically bananas which are plentiful in this country went up to $20 a kilo last year now they range from $2 to $5 a kilo. and all our lemons are from california no offense but we have heeps of them here. And petrol........boy oh boy! $1.60/litre I think that equates to approximately $6/gallon is that correct because i thought you were paying close to $3/gallon. The biggest killer is mortgage rates here they have gone from 4% to 10%, one in three people are losing their houses every day what are your rates like?

Peace and love from downunder

[Miss Shark]

That's ggod point sway, and I really do think it all depends on who you are as a person, just like you said some people will grow veggies or go to the farmers market, some will fatten up with McDs.

Mortgage rates here are pretty low. Hovering around 6% or less. The problem is so many people bought more of a house than they could afford with an adjustable rate and those have gone up leaving them unable to make their payments. Renters are getting ousted and it goes on and on. It would seem we are in the same boat there. Unfortunately I don't see much help coming down the pike, unless you want a tax break for buying up homes that have been forclosed on.

http://www.firstfocus.net/pages/3401/


That's a report focusing on how this will affect children.

When foreclosures force children from their homes, their
education is disrupted, their peer relationships crumble, and
the social networks that support them are fractured. Indeed,
their physical health, as well as their emotional health and
well-being, is placed at risk. As a result, our attention must
turn to the unintended and often unnoticed impact of the
credit crunch on our nation’s children and their education.

The Center for Responsible Lending projects that one out of
every five subprime mortgages that has originated in the last
two years will go into foreclosure. The silent sufferers of
these foreclosures are the 1.95 million children and youth
who are losing their homes, ranging from 1,000 children in
North Dakota to 311,900 children in California (see textbox
on page two). Our estimate is based on projected foreclosures
of 2.26 million single-family homes, and is likely to be low
because it does not include those children being evicted from
rental units that are going into default, nor does it include
children whose parents default on conventional loans.



* Due to the increasing number of foreclosures, school districts across the country are experiencing increases in the number of homeless children entering their classrooms;

* Children impacted by the mortgage crisis are likely to experience excessive mobility and as a result are only half as likely to be proficient in reading as their peers. Moreover, they are much more likely to be held back and eventually drop out of school;

* Children forced from their homes experience behavioral problems, such as increases in violence;

* The physical and mental health of displaced children can be severely compromised, as families losing their homes are less likely to have money available for items such as health care and health insurance.

[angischy]

. . . with food costs rising this would not spur most people to run to the farmers market with their cloth bag for potatoes, or grow tomotoes in a planter on their balcony, or learn how to make bread. It said likely that fast food and convenience foods might play an even greater part of life, with those companies being so huge that they could get all the food ingredients, not to mention labor and oil at reduced prices. This in turn might make this food seem an even more attractive option to many, especially with the potential for people to be working even more hours trying to tread water in the declining economy.

Gee, I should probably start cooking at home/packing a lunch but that's not as convenient, so I'll just go to McDonald's and order off the Dollar Menu. I mean, geez, it's cheap and it's right there. I work 60 hours a week at my job(s) (To what end-Do we ever get ahead?) and "I don't have time" or "I'm too tired" to go to the Farmer's Market/cook/eat healthy/exercise...have a life.

This has been going on for a long time with the average American. Average is the right word, too. Ugh. s i g h.

Fatter Americans, Fatter McDonald's, et cetera.
We pick our poison willingly.

It's far from impossible but people are so accustomed to the convenience factor built into every aspect of life. Major change has to happen on every level to see dramatic effect.

The best (only?) way to fix this would be to simplify the hell out of things. But where's the reset button for society?

Personally, I'd really like to move to the country (probably another one entirely), plant a little garden, live really simply and be self-reliant. All that time and energy would come rushing back into life, too.

[sway2sway]

Mortgage rates here are pretty low. Hovering around 6% or less. The problem is so many people bought more of a house than they could afford with an adjustable rate and those have gone up leaving them unable to make their payments.

But why did the banks lend at subprime, lend to people that normally would not have qualified? I wonder if there was pressure to come up with $ to finance a certain super expensive war.

I wonder if people jumped at the bait because housing prices have increased at such a rate, far beyond any wage increases over time, that this was the only way they could get into such a market. People are responsible, but so is the government. Then Bush is borrowing more $ for these stimulus payments, really though that is a pittance compared the the iraq war pit.


I was reading an article about the rice, money thing going on-
check these bits-

The global food crisis is a monetary phenomenon, an unintended consequence of America's attempt to inflate its way out of a market failure. There are long-term reasons for food prices to rise, but the unprecedented spike in grain prices during the past year stems from the weakness of the American dollar. Washington's economic misery now threatens to become a geopolitical catastrophe.

...

Never before in history has hunger become a global threat in a period of plentiful harvests. Global rice production will hit a record of 423 million tons in the 2007-2008 crop year, enough to satisfy global demand. The trouble is that only 7% of the world's rice supply is exported, because local demand is met by local production. Any significant increase in rice stockpiles cuts deeply into available supply for export, leading to a spike in prices. Because such a small proportion of the global rice supply trades, the monetary shock from the weak dollar was sufficient to more than double its price.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/83345/?page=entire


Basically it is asserted that some countries are stockpiling rice/grains as the surest form of currency, the US dollar is being exchanged.

I don't know what the hell to believe.

[Miss Shark]

I finally got around to reading that article. I like the Jackass analogy.

It is not only rice, of course, that the cash-rich countries of the world are buying as a store of value; the price of wheat, soy and other grains has risen almost as fast. This might deal the death-blow to America's hapless efforts to stabilize the Middle East, where a higher proportion of impoverished people eat off state subsidies than in any other part of the world. Egypt has been the anchor for American diplomacy in the Arab world since the Jimmy Carter administration (1977 to 1981), and is most susceptible to hunger. Food prices have risen by 145% in Lebanon and by 20% in Syria this year. Iraqis depend on food subsidies financed by American aid.

Reduced to essentials, America's foreign policy sought two unattainable objectives: to stabilize the Middle East and destabilize China. That is an exaggeration, of course, for Washington hoped not to sow instability, but only to put China in its place over the Tibetan affair.

The George W. Bush administration might as well have used the State Department as a set for the Jackass reality show. American arrogance has eroded the ground under many of the governments on which its foreign policy depends. It is hard to characterize what will come next, except, like the stunts on Jackass, that it is going to hurt.

[the duke]

I hear ya Maestro...i'm feeling the petrol prices that's for sure...being a student, i live off very little...and the only way to uni is by car, so there it all goes...

I feel very sad for all the people who can't find somewhere to live. I'm lucky, I most likely won't be in a situation where I will be without, however, one day it might all just fall apart...

sad state of afairs, right?