Lear70
JAFFO
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2003
- Posts
- 7,487
I think many of you underestimate the power of desperation.(Relax. Americans are sheep, and will do what they're told. But man, will they whine like crazy. For those of you who've read "The Long Emergency", remember the author is a survivalist and never bothered to cite a single footnote in suport of his doom-and-gloom end of the world nonsense)
Yes, most Americans will simply whine and picket and protest but, in larger cities, crime will SKYROCKET...
When you have a large population that already lives in near-poverty levels and you increase their cost for basic food items above their ability to feed their family, even if it's just rice and beans or Milk and cheese because prices go up but food stamps amounts don't, those people (who account for at least half of the crime rate in major cities) WILL retaliate.
They know perfectly well that, if crime double or triples overnight, law enforcement doesn't have the resources to combat it.
The average suburbinite isn't going to get armed and go on a Kroger's raid over $5.00 a gallon gas (although you can kiss the mega-shopping malls goodbye), but the only thing that will keep major cities from meltdown with the increased cost of food items is the availability of mass transit at the same price they pay now (which is already reaching record levels of capacity according to the WSJ), and a rollout of the National Guard to keep order and supplement local Law Enforcement when the cost of BASIC living exceeds what they are able to buy.
p.s. I agree with PCL that it's a Bubble, but I've said it before and I'll say it again, oil WILL be above $150 by the 4th of July and will go much higher than that before summer is over, with the bubble popping right after election time and receding, but likely nowhere under $100 a brl.