Wow.
My mom is always telling people "Remember, you live on the same world as everybody else." I guess this oil spike is just another reminder of how interconnected we all are. I got into class today and my professor just waited until everybody settled down and then said "I told you so." Last week, he bet us $20 that we'd see gas prices go over $4 here before the summer vacation season started and nobody would take him up on it. I guess we just didn't want to believe it was possible. But here we are.
I guess $4.12 isn't as much of an increase here as it is in other places--we had $3.30/gallon gas here last week. But it isn't like anyone could really afford that either. I'm lucky we have such good public transit here, but I can't help thinking that even buses mostly run off oil. They've converted some to be hybrids, but I don't know how long they can afford to pay so much for fuel. And, of course, they'll raise the price for tickets, which is already higher than most people can afford.
What happens when we can't drive anymore? Our economy is basically built off of the ability to get from one place to another. I don't know. And I'm not taking my professor's bets either.
About Me
- bothendsburning
- I'm a grad student studying Resource Politics and Conflict Resolution out here in the Pacific Northwest, and trying to hang on to what's left of the good life. I'm sort of obsessed with the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay because my name is almost the same as hers. I won't tell you what the E.S. stand for, but at least my name isn't Edna. Of course, I can't write beautiful poetry the way she could, either.