I'm still alive...
 

So, whatever happened to this huge oil crisis that was supposed to hit us?

By now we were supposed to have gas prices in the $10/gallon area, right?

By next year we're going to be on our knees, worse than the stock crash, right?

Should I go find Whitecrab's underground bunker and inform him that everything is a-okay?

Last I checked, Diesel Prices were above $4/gallon on the East Cost and $3.75 here in Michigan. Rising Diesel prices are infinitely worse than rising gas prices because they affect the price of everything. It's still a huge problem.

Running out of oil & being unable to afford oil are pretty much the same thing. The only difference is the scam being perpetuated that claims oil is a very limited resource (thanks to peak oil) makes it easier to just price gouge on a huge scale. Although inflation surely isn't helping out prices.

Oh yeah, having a problem affording gas (or anything else for that matter?) These guys aren't.

It's non-renewable and we've already tapped all the easy reserves. That counts as 'very limited' to me.

Sure, sure.

And here we are in the midst of this horrible depression.

By this time next year, the United States will look like the movie Mad Max, right? According to Whitecrab's ten billion charts and graphs, we were supposed to have been fucked pretty hard already. Something like $9 a gallon for gas, I don't know.

"It could be worse, so it's not bad". That's so many logical fallacies rolled into one I don't know where to begin.

Actually it's not the same thing, because if the prices of oil were to artificially become so high that no one could afford it, companies would be forced to lower the price or forfeit profits. That's how free market economy works. If you believe that oil resources aren't actually scarce, then simply find an independent oil supplier not involved in this scam and offering fair prices. Shouldn't be hard to do, what with oil wells on every street corner.

Also, thanks for that article. Very baleful. ''During this time when oil resources are being rapidly depleted, oil corporations are making profit. Surely a sign of global conspiracy...''

Divest: Did you literally think that the world was going to become a wasteland in a couple of years after the peaking of oil production? Do you even vaguely understand what you're talking about, or is peak oil something you read about in a MySpace chain letter?

Actually I read about it in a GFF chain letter about a year or so back.

OPEC isn't great, but they ain't De Beers.

As incompetent as our government seems, I think they'd probably start doing something about any sort of energy crisis, if it were actually a crisis.

The problem as it is now is that people are still willing to spend and waste money on fuel. If it's truly too expensive to buy gas for your car, there are alternatives. Like riding a bike. Taking the bus. Walking. Or how about getting a fuel efficient car?

But everyone seems content to pay $80 to fill up their Expeditions, Enclaves and Hummers once a week so they can haul some heavy cargo around the neighborhood. Right?

Unfortunately it's not that easy thanks to our horribly ineffective public transportation system and hundreds of thousands, if not more, of Americans have to commute quite a distance to work. Some people live nearly an hour away from their job for a variety of reasons. Some even more than that.

People are not content to pay $80, I've read that people are pissed off about it but again it's still cheaper to pay that amount than invest in an alternative fuel car which is not readily available at this point. We still have no real alternative for oil, but it's coming along.

And Divest, just wait a few more years. It'll happen. It may not be immediate but it'll happen. Gas and oil prices have steadily increased, oil has past the $100, with no signs of going down. Sure there are spurts of it coming down in brief cent points here and there but it always goes back up and often at a much higher rate than that brief down turn.