So...my fellow North Americans -- what do we do now?

Mellow Chaos

Mellow Chaos

Joined
Feb 2, 2002
Messages
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So we pray for the humanity on the Gulf Coast, open our wallets and hearts, and get some people and cities on the road to recovery. What do we do in the mean time and beyond? We are considering taking in a single mother and her baby who can't return to Gulfport.

This is a cold, hard, shot to the gut on the order of 9/11. Certainly, the death count may approach that level (let's pray not, but it doesn't look good). We have a top 20 city effectively destroyed and abandoned, and the country's largest port and energy operations just sitting there, dead in the water. We are watching gasoline prices go up 50 cents a day, and also looking at a potentially bleak Christmas; deciding do we have our usual wonderful and lavish gifts, or do we keep driving? Gas is now at an all time high...even worse inflation adjusted than the Arab embargo of 1973 and the 1979 crisis.

In my view, it's time to get off our fat American butts and put the ingenuity and stick-to-it-tive-ness that made us great to work. For now, I don't have any solutions other than to cut way back on my 80 mile one-way trips to the shop, and maybe promote my clerk to manager if she wants it and can handle it. By next week, it will cost me $32 each way to travel to my store. I have gone from spending $70 a week in gas at this time last year, to $210 a week now. I guess I'll just camp out at wireless Internet cafes and run my shop from there. I have full access to my desktop in Fredericksburg, and my clerk can pack orders like a mad machine.

I'm anxious to hear, what plans do you all have to help the displaced people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and help keep this continent on track through a crippling rise in energy prices.
 
I was talking it over the the wife last night. I work at a hospital, which usually organizes a fund for donations to such things. In addition, we usually send at least one team for disaster relief. So I will probably offer my services for a time if I fit into the plan.......
 
Sit back and observe if any of the many countries we have given disaster relief offers a crackers' worth of help to us.
 
In fact whenever there's a disaster in the US all of the countries we've given disaster relief offer to help us. We always decline with thanks.
 
I think life in America is going to have to change. We don't have a choice now. We will have to live a more careful existance. No more jumping in the 14 mile per gallon suv everytime you need a bottle of milk from the store. Gas is going to get expencive, and it's not going to go down much. Small cars and motorcycles and motorscooters are going to get popular.

It's not a question anymore as to the price of gas- I think it's going to be a matter of getting it. Thanks to the E.P.A. there has not been a new refinery built in the U.S. for a long time. All the oil in the world don't help if you can't refine it. There is going to be shortages like I remember from the '73 crisis.

As a result I think in the next couple of years the kind of car you drive is going to become very important to you-You'll need every single mile out of each gallon you can get. This is going to change the face of America.

There is nothing we use that is not transported to the store in trucks. Are the truckers going to absorb some of this- I think not. They too are just hardworking guys with familys that have to eat. Everything we consume from a can of Cambell soup to a bar of soap, to a pair of socks is going to get more expencive.

As far as Christmas this year- it's about time something kicked our "fat American butts" into reality. Maybe it's time to go back to teaching these spoiled kids that Christmas is NOT about getting a new Game Boy, but being with family and loved ones and being damm thankful for what you have, and
cellibrating the birth of Christ. It's long past due for a toning down of the crass over commercialized crap that has become Christmas.

We are in for a time of big change friends, and we have to adapt or shrivel up and blow away.
 
Cougar Allen said:
In fact whenever there's a disaster in the US all of the countries we've given disaster relief offer to help us. We always decline with thanks.
Click to expand...

The offers are already coming from several countries. The US has but to decide whether to accept, formulate what types of aid are needed, and determine how other countries will best work with the US efforts.

French Embassy press release
 
If we were to stop buying every little plastic dispasable item which it made of oil, made with erergy from oil transported, by ships and trucks fueled by oil, used, then disposed of by oil fueled trucks instead of, say, washing a fork instesad of using a plastic one or maybe (gasp ) using cloth diapers or using a refiilable anything or .. well I will stop here as I think everybody gets the idea,il we might be on the right track. Amazing thing is a hundred years ago one could live a fulfilling life without using whatever obsene amount of enery we do today.
 
Fix the price on gas at 3 per gallon, and make sure it falls to 1.50 after this so called crisis is over. Bash the oil companies on the head and get them to fall in line. Make cars more economical and refine the oil refining process.

Oh, you mean right now? Find an old hatchback Ford Colt, and go armed.
 
"Fix the price on gas at 3 per gallon, and make sure it falls to 1.50 after this so called crisis is over."

The surest way of guaranteeing shortages is to fix prices. Unless you can fix prices world-wide, the oil companies will simply sell to areas that pay market value, rather than to areas that restrict how much they can get.

What portion of your local gas price is taxes?
 
I'm doing what I can. Earlier this year we traded my wife's '65 Plymouth in for an '03 Civic. As soon as we can afford to I want to trade my '65 Baja Bug in for a little 4cyl Toyota truck or a CRV. For a 1.6 the bug doesn't get the best mileage (it's tall and blunt with a big scoop on the roof and the single carb get worse mpg than dual carbs- they can be run leaner).

I don't have money to donate (the Mrs. has some health problems that has us strapped for cash) but I set up an appointment for this Sat. to donate blood. Unless the Red Cross is run by vampires I know my contribution will help people in need and not get lost to beauracracy (like money might).

I walk, instead of drive, to the local Ma-N-Pa liquor store. It's not much but I figure every little bit helps. If you take all the little bits and add 'em up...

Frank
 
We're all going to pay for this through higher taxes already. The fed' will give billions to the affected regions (congress just votes on $10B, and you can be sure that's just the beginning), for rebuilding, relief, re-assurance, etc.

I'm not sure how much it's going to cost on a per person basis. The gvt will try to hide those costs as much as possible. For example, they are going to fund the $10B mentionned above via deficit spending, so it will not affect your taxes ... this year, but at some point or another we'll pay for this.
 
Investigate what other kind of vehicle you could use?

For last couple of years the Mrs. and I have used Vespa motorscooters for local trasport. 75-80 miles per gallon and fun to boot. If you live in a urban or suburban area take note of how often you do more than 50 miles per hour. Or use a small motorcycle. Leave the car parked exept for bad weather and reduce your gas bill to a couple bucks a week.
 
I wish I could bike to work, as it is only 15 miles or so one way, however in order for me to get to work I must use the freeway, and with the wind factor (usually 30+ mph) the trip would take me a couple hours in the dark (wich I am not prepared to ride in) so what I have done, is to stay vigilant, walk the mile to the grocery store if I need small amounts that I can carry, bike to the stores within a 5 mile radius of my house, and start using the vehicle that gets the best mileage of the ones we own to go to and from work. prior to this and me getting put on the shift I am on I was carpooling, one week they drive and one week I drive, it was nice but sadly the people that work where I work that live in this area are on a different shift than I.
 
We have a small group of friends & have a forum-like thing going. Evidently I am the instigator of most threads. This went out today:

Having lived my entire life on the Southeastern coast ,we have coped with hurricanes for 3/4 of a century. I am not putting the ARC down but have learned the Salvation Army has no executive pyramid,they live on pitifully small salaries. They have no PR set-up and the BULK of their services are "hands on ".
Some of we ex-servicemen are not too fond of having had to buy coffee & doughnuts overseas either.


Whatever charity you prefer,please send them a donation.
Uncle Alan :D
 
What do we do now? Probably start paying similar prices for energy as the rest of the world. After years of ignoring lectures from elected officials and environmentalists about energy issues, the market price will force us to make some changes. One change will be a reduction in the total of miles driven for getting to or from work. Living in the country 25 miles from the workplace will be a very expensive luxery. Driving 2 miles to get a 25 cent o ring will turn out to be a poor choice. The changes go on and on.
 
My wife and sister in law were saying tonight after watching 20/20 that if we had a spare room and if we weren't so far in Canada, we would put someone up for 6 months. In times like this you have do do what you can, so in our case I guess it will be money to the Red Cross.

It is right what they said on 20/20 it is the black population that make New Orleans what it is 'famous' for and yet it seems that the fact they are black causes a slow and indecisive response to help.

You are actually 'lucky' with the price of petrol (gas). in the UK we were paying over 5.00 pounds a gallon (9.21 USD) and to fill my 2.3 litre Rover saloon car (sedan) cost me 50.00 pounds ($92.00).
 
I've been riding my motorcycle every chance I get. No more A/C in the car either, unless its over 100 degrees.


Flinx
 
I can't vouch for the accuracy of the following article but it does list the racial makeup of New Orleans amongst other things. It does seem like a third world country in some ways. The crime rate is astonishing.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205R.shtml

One thing to remember is that the hurricane season is just getting underway and this year is expected to be one of the worst ever.

I wouldn't want to live in a city built below sea level and subject to hurricanes.
 
Cougar Allen said:
In fact whenever there's a disaster in the US all of the countries we've given disaster relief offer to help us. We always decline with thanks.
Click to expand...

Not always. I remember as few years ago when you guys were having your big, out of control bush fires quite a few Oz firefighters, (who are very very good at this sort of thing), went over there to help.
 
might be to make a small pledge.
Go over to the Schrade Collectors Forum (Manufacturers) and go to the "Gulf Coast Assistance" thread and make a pledge.
The top 6 pledges will get a free NIB EDC (old -as in 'Made in USA' Schrades). There are 3 Old Timer 8OT and 3 Uncle Henry 879UH knives to be given to the top pledges to either the Red Cross or Salvation Army.
 
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