Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_daniels
You think, "I can afford to pay more at each fill up, so who cares?" You haven't considered the massive inflation that will result as the price of everything you and everyone else buys skyrockets. Every single thing you own was transported on a truck, ship, rail car, or pipeline, and higher transportation costs equal higher prices for everything. Compound that with the fact that everything MADE from oil and gas gets dramatically more expensive. Do you use plastic? Do you buy tires? Do you use things made out of steel? (We use coke...coal, to make steel.) The cost of that stuff gets a double whammy increase, first because of the huge increase in raw material cost, then the increased transport costs.
If you'll recall, it was $ 5/gal diesel that was a large part of crashing the economy in 2008. Why do you think it was so important for the US to be energy independent? Low and stable energy prices are necessary for an economy to flourish.
Edit: As I recall, one of our members works for an aluminum company that operates smelters. Plants had to be closed when the price of natural gas skyrocketed. People lost their jobs. Tax revenue evaporated. High energy prices have real world, negative consequences to lots of Americans.
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I work for the Aluminium Smelter, we closed because we could not compete with China. Look at all the Smelters there are in China and figure how in the heck can you compete with that. London Metal Exchange, LME, prices are around 1850 a metric ton right now. Most smelters in the US are not competitive and lose money at around 1900 a ton. We bleed cash each month, but we somewhat make up for it with MISO power and supporting our rolling mill. When not my president starts trying to enact legislation to kill fossil fuels, the economy will tank and tank hard. We see the end in the near future again for our Smelter, you can't compete with the Government.
There is a lot of stuff to say about forgetful Joe, but I'm not getting into the political BS. I agree with someone else saying it will be like Jimmy Carter all over again. Hopefully we will have a strong leader rolling along in four years to help clean up the mess like the country did back in 80 with Reagan.