Ok 4 days ago I stopped to gas up. $30. would give me a quarter tank shy of full. But that day a full tank!!!! Yesterday I saw gas prices here fall to under $2. a gallon!!! One place had it for $1.89!!!
I sure hope that this falling prices spreads quicky to others, it's a releaf to us and I hope it gets to others soon. An many it stay this way for a little while!!!

I'm hoping it stays this low!  I got it the other day at 1.83.  It will be lower when I gas up tomorrow.

$1.76 here

Still i cant help but worry. I mean yeah I'm happy for low gas prices, but the lower they go, the worse the economy is going to get. I personally keep hoping for it to stay around $2.00. But yea... I guess it has gotten a lot nicer on the wallet ^^

We need to do a "group" meditation/spell for the US economy.  Does anyone know how to organize something like that? (Read)

First pick a date and time everyone can agree on. then post the items (if needed) and if someone has a chant. This way we all can get in on it.

MMMM....well lucky you guys.....gasoline was over four times that price here in NZ than it is in the states..... you just don't know how lucky you are. You have not SEEN high gas prices yet.... but you will as time goes on.
We are all going to have to change our lifestyles quite a bit in the coming years. Oil is a finite resource and we are using it up very fast. The alternatives are expensive (although in my part of the world they are getting comparable to gasoline power because oil products are getting so expensive).
Then we have the greenhouse gases that most of our gasoline ends up making in the atmosphere. This issue is one that the bigger nations of the world will have to tackle very soon. We have started the ball rolling down here, even though we know it will be painful.
We have all been living with closed eyes and minds, in a fools paradise, where fossil fuel energy is concerned.

Those of us that follow the "Old Ways" have an instinctive grasp of what it will take to live a sustainable lifestyle. Hopefully the administrations who's aim is as much to stay in power as to make the world a better place will listen when we speak of these things.
There are signs that they might.... The witches could be the salvation of our Earth...

Gas went down recently here too.... it's $1.54NZ a Litre for 91 octane at present (that's about $3.80 US a gallon)... it was getting on for twice that in July....scary....but a harbinger of things to come, I think.
Meanwhile everyone hopes that it will stay down for the Summer holiday (December/January).

What do y'all feel that your new President might do for things in the States?
It sure did get in a mess with the financial system (and we caught a lot of it too of course), but so far he seems to be making sensible noises about it. It's a shame to see hard working people lose their homes and other assets. It is all too easy to be deceived by the desire to own more than we can really afford, and to rely on an expanding market to sustain us living beyond our means....It never lasts though....
Like you, we have family homes that are now in negative equity situations. Fortunately our bank regulations have prevented some of the excesses from which you all suffer right now, but nevertheless there are people here having a rough time of it with their mortgages etc.
A lot are families with children too, and I feel for them, even though at the end of the day, their situation is of their own making......There was lots of bad advice about a year or two back.


You are all in my thoughts and prayers.
Take care now....

Bennath,

I understand your feelings Kathryn.  We here in the US have had it alot easier with gas prices, but it's all relative you know.  Lots of people in my town live beyond their means (and feel they have to to keep up their social status).  It's sad really but like you said, it is their own making, and for those of us who don't live beyond our means it's maddening.  I have no social status and it's so liberating!  Anyway, I hope gas prices stay down for the holidays as well.    Most people on my list are getting home-baked goodies cause I just don't have the expendable income needed for a commercial holiday.  I think Americans have this reputation of being kind of "piggy" and perhaps there are alot who are, but not all of us.  There are alot of us who live within our means, do without, and make the most of simple pleasures.

Ugh!  "Piggy" is putting it mildly.  Mr. K manages fast food and he has me convinced that American's have no common sense when it comes to excess.  

Okay, What day is good for everyone for a "group" spell for the US economy?  I thought, perhaps, either Saturday the 22nd (for the sake of banishing the bad yuck and also for the rebirth of a new economy) or Sunday the 23rd for a sort of "national healing", but, please throw in your ideas.  We also need someone who is great with chants (like Inde said) to pen us a good one.  

We are all going to have to change our lifestyles quite a bit in the coming years. Oil is a finite resource and we are using it up very fast.

bit of a thread jack here but though I don't think the situation is quite as severe as some of the environmentalists would have us believe (a lot of them are a tad alarmist) I agree we should work towards more alternative energy.  I don't think we can  quickly make the switch, things like this take years.  One change I would like to see in  coming years is bio diesel.  It is my understanding that it burns cleaner than gas and it is a renewable resource.  And a lot of the infrastructure for it is in place.  In fact  a lot of truck stops have some bio diesel.  It is usually kept separate from regular diesel rather than mixed.  I am not sure why, they both work the same.  I am thinking that they don't mix well though.  Sort of like both conventional oil and synthetic oil both do the same thing but you don't want to use both in one engine.

One thing we should work towards is nuclear energy.  Yes, I said that evil nuclear energy.  It is a clean source of energy.  It releases no pollution into the air, is cheap, and reliable. And its actually very safe.  New plants use a  pebble bed reactor, it is designed in such a way that if it gets to hot it stops working.  it would take an act of God for one of those to meltdown.  

And there are very strict guidelines for dealing with nuclear waste.  They are extremely careful about how they dispose of it.  Also the use of breeder reactors would allow us to produce almost no waste and that which was produced would have a significantly shorter half life.  Its my understanding that the only reason we don't use them is because of outdated treaties with Russia, one of the stages is weapons grade.

Here are a couple of links if you are now interested in nuclear energy.  Always do your research before letting any one tell you something is good or bad.  (Especially if they are a bit alarmist.)

pebblebed

breeder

End of thread jack.

MMM...people in New Zealand fly into a panic about nuclear energy....I have never been unable to understand why.
They usually point to Chernobyl as the reason we ought not to use it, but of course the reactors at Chernobyl were of a rather unreliable type that have not been used in the West for many a year. We learned our lesson about that type from Three Mile Island and Windscale, fortunately without too serious consequences.
The latest designs are very safe, and I believe that you could not melt one down if you tried.
The only concern here in the "shaky isles" (as the Aussies call us) is earthquakes, but the Japanese have worked out how to take care of that.
All we need to do now is get the population over their paranoia, which is now in its second generation.
The anti-nuke set just cannot be swayed by facts.... "nukes are bad" is an article of faith for them.
Fortunately, so far, we live in a country with a small population (4.23 million) and a huge capacity for renewable energy via hydro, wind, geothermal and tidal power, so we are not really hurting yet. Our few thermal stations are mostly used for peak loads in the winter, and spend the rest of the time switched off...... We are lucky, but those that want millions more people in the country will have to accept that if we want electric power at the present rate, then the odd nuclear power station is inevitable until the day that cold fusion is mastered (if it ever is).

Personally, I think that the world is in far more danger from CO2 and Nitric emissions than it is from nuclear sources, but I am a voice in the wilderness here I'm afraid.

The other alternative when the oil runs out is that we all change our lifestyles to suit, but that will entail having a billion or two less people on the planet.......Anyone care to suggest which billion or so????....And why?

Bennath,

.Anyone care to suggest which billion or so????....And why?


I vote for the IRS as a start. �Because we have fleas and ticks to suck blood so we have no need for them.

mmmm.. a bit like Gilbert and Sullivan in the "Mikado".... we need a "little list".... lol