Gas Prices and close-in neighborhoods
I read the article from the Olympian with interest but I couldn't help thinking about what my wife and I have observed about this. That is, the high gas prices may not help the neighborhoods all that much, but they may help "neighborhood businesses" somewhat. I must admit that I spend more time at my local Ace Hardware and less time at the Eagle Hardware down in the valley. It could also really boost those businesses to which people can walk.
My father made the argument the other day that gas is no more expensive than it was in 1952 - in 1952 dollars - so it should be no big deal. Thing is, it was considered EXPENSIVE back then. That is one reason the average car was considered high-mileage if it had over 30,000 miles on it. People walked or combined trips a lot more, partly because if you had a car you probably had ONE car.
We have built our culture around cheap gas. We will need to make (and are making) adjustments. For starters, whenever I buy something off craigslist, I have to factor in that it will cost me $6 to $25 in gas just to go examine the item. I didn't even consider that cost as little as six months ago.
We'll see more and more fine tuning of our new transportation paradigm as some businesses faulter and others flourish. It'll be interesting if nothing else.
My father made the argument the other day that gas is no more expensive than it was in 1952 - in 1952 dollars - so it should be no big deal. Thing is, it was considered EXPENSIVE back then. That is one reason the average car was considered high-mileage if it had over 30,000 miles on it. People walked or combined trips a lot more, partly because if you had a car you probably had ONE car.
We have built our culture around cheap gas. We will need to make (and are making) adjustments. For starters, whenever I buy something off craigslist, I have to factor in that it will cost me $6 to $25 in gas just to go examine the item. I didn't even consider that cost as little as six months ago.
We'll see more and more fine tuning of our new transportation paradigm as some businesses faulter and others flourish. It'll be interesting if nothing else.
Comments
That's a good point. I have a friend that sells cheap furniture mostly using craigslist and business for him has been really slow this year compared to last. Maybe the cost of coming to inspect his wares (because people generally don't trust sellers on craigslist as much as actual retailers with a storefront) is hitting him more than the general economy (since you would think a shift to discounters would make up for the lack of buyers).
And let's be frank, people buy a lot of stuff on credit that they would never buy if there was no such thing as credit and they had to pull the money out of savings. Credit is the foundation upon which our entire western civilization now sits. And that foundation has basically vanished.
I think they're just trying to take advantage of the situation, but the tentacles of the credit "crisis" do seem to be far-reaching. I hope to take advantage of it myself eventually, via higher savings interest rates, & lower house prices of course.
?
When pendulums swing, they tend to swing too far BOTH ways. I am wondering if this thing could hit more than a 50% general drop before the pendulum comes to where it should.
Careful with your numbers. A 25% drop wipes out 33% in gains, 33% drops erase 50% in gains, and 50% drops wipe out 100% in gains. So unless you believe prices will fall back to 2000 prices (remember, we've had a lot of inflation in the last 8 years), you don't actually believe in a 50% price drop.
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