Nurturing your little introvert

Now, I don't want to panic anyone - but... http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/31/news/gas_prices/index.htm?cnn=yes $4 a gallon gas. Soon Let's break this down - almost a year ago, people were complaining about $2.25 fuel. Now, it's $4 due to the hurricane. No doubt there're some greedy bastards who are profiting from price gouging. And anyone who bitches about having to fuel up their SUV's because of this storm and turn on the news to view the devastation. You still have a house, a-hole. Shut up and donate to the Red Cross. Yes - if you were to adjust to inflation, fuel would be about the same price as it was in the '70s. But wages have not increased enough to match inflation for a long time. And It's our own damn fault. If milk were still fifty cents a gallon last year, then all of a sudden, the price jumped to $3.00 a gallon, you would have people freaking out as they are now. If it were a gradual increase, say 25 cents a gallon for the past few years, we most likely wouldn't blink an eye at this $4 a gallon tag. But now... like it or not - our lives are changing faster than we can prepare. They are changing because people are starting to factor in fuel as a cost. It used to be that a lot of people would take a trip to a city 50 miles away to try a restaurant or even drive across town to see a movie at a better theatre and not bat an eye about filling up their car. Now... fuel is a factor in that decision. "Am I willing to spend $20 on gas for a 110 - mile round-trip trek from Lincoln to Omaha?" As you can see, this is going to likely result in more and more people staying indoors or closer to home. Thank god for the Internet - at least that tool has a bit of human interaction tied to it. But otherwise, you're going to find more and more people opting to stay in and watch TV. I'm hoping this price shock will result in cities going into crisis modes and devising far better public transportation systems, but we'll see. I'm also hoping this will result in more people walking and biking places. But we'll see. The thing that we will definitely see is more and more people are going to become introverted as a result of this spike. Subscribe to Netflix, start reading more books and get a few buds online, because this gas crisis isn't going to go away anytime soon.