Neildo said:
Yes, but we use our cars more than they do driving longer distances which causes us to pay more towards our gas each month....
True, and well illustrates the
unique "suburban infrastructure" ,SI*, cheap gas has built in US. This SI and GWB’s wars are why US will collapse into chaos first when oil is $200.**
-----------------------------------
*SI includes the SUVs, lack of locally produced food, wide spread gun ownership, etc. and also includes the things not produced such as efficient publicly transport; functional, residential high-rise central apartment residences (with few exceptions such as NYC's high-cost units for CEOs and other multi millionaires); etc.
**200 oil may come much sooner than most think, thanks to GWB's stupidity (or is it his ability to reward the oil industry?) - here is how:
The completely one sided support for Israel GWB has introduced*** is unifying the two major divisions of Islam, at least in their desire to redress the wrongs US supplied Israel is now doing. Even staunch allies like Saudi Arabia, can not long resist this growing wave of hatred for the US.
There is only way for Islamic Mid East, ME, to effectively resist the US and Israel’s destruction of Lebanon:
Cease oil shipment to the US and Israel. (The F-16 that now bomb all of Lebanon will be grounded without fuel but the US supplied 155 caliper mobile artillery will still be able to pound S. Lebanon.)
Economically, stopping all sales to companies sending tankers to US or Israel would not have been feasible only 10 years ago, but now China (and recovering Japan) can buy the entire production of ME oil. (They would need to follow the US example and create a strategic oil reserved to do this. - Such a reserve
in China is more secure than mere pieces of paper (contracts they currently are buying) that give them ownership of oil in foreign lands.)
***To illustrated how much GWB has distorted the historic US / ME relationships, note that Bush the father had the logistic support of and even some troops from Syria in the first war against Saddam's Iraq. Prior US presidents, especially Clinton, were able to work for peace in the ME, but GWB is only able to make wars there and destroy the development of democracies there. (There was one in Pakistan and Lebanon prior to GWB's wars and none has been achieved. Even nations are being destroyed - Sudan etc. and Iraq will soon be split into three separate ones. Then there will be civil war in Turkey as the Kurds in the south try to join the new Kurdistan created from destroyed Iraq.) In the thread “worst President” there is no contest for the title.
The $200 oil GWB is producing and the SI created by many US presidents when combined with the "twin deficits" GWB has produced (Clinton had budget surpluses, without GWB's war costs, “reward your friends” economic policies, oil CEO government for oil industry, etc.) plus lack of local food, will be reason why US collapses into chaos of armed gangs, looking for food in suburban basements.