THE END IS NEAR

The end is near. Well, maybe not literally, but at least life as we know it. Tired of these high oil prices? Cant wait until they go back down? Im betting they wont, I think this year and next year they will remain at this price and I think they will go up a lot more this spring. But I also think its going to get a lot worse sooner before or if it gets better. Some people have said that we already have peaked as a world in oil production. Others say we will in the next few years. What this means is that we will continue to take oil out of the earth, but never as fast as we are right now or were previously. Think back a couple years ago, I know I remember when I went overseas in 2004 that gas was about 1.89 and sometimes eclipsed 2.00 a gallon for a short period of time. Then just a year and a half later I come home and see it at about 2.89 and now its consistently over $3 a gallon. The reason its gone up so much so fast and hasnt come back down only has a little to do with the oil companies getting their pockets fatter. It mainly is due to the world running out of oil reserves because more and more people in the world are relying on it than ever before. This is certainly true in America where we still have people denying global warming even exists at all. They have the attitude that they are going to treat the planet anyway they want and get back at it for all the trouble the planet caused us, i.e. Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc. While that is a funny but stupid idea, it is happening right now.

Many years ago when economists and the like predicted the world would peak about this time they also offered some predictions that would take place right before and around the same time it happened. Some said that the middle class would basically shrink to the point where it almost vanished, something we see today where most of the middle class is now the lower class because of the ever expanding gap between the rich and the poor. Others predicted that as gas prices rose higher and higher people would blame it on oil companies and so forth and just wait until the prices went back down, this is an attitude most of us have today. People predicted a recession, something we are fighting off at this very moment. Many politicians and the media like to tell us in order to improve our economy we need to spend more money. Buy more cars, and needless products. Go right ahead if you are reading this and have endless amounts of money. But my guess is anyone reading this has a limit to what they can spend. And spending more money on cars and material possessions will only make the problem for oil depletion worse since almost everything you buy requires oil, natural gas electricity, etc in some form or another! It truly is a double edged sword.

The reason this is important is because it is nearly impossible to think of a way to reverse the course we are on now without having major problems. What are we going to use to power our lives once we can no longer afford oil, its not that it will be completely gone, the problem is that so many people will be using it at such high levels that as the supply decreases the costs will go so high most people will be unable to afford it. If they have no choice, as most of us will not since we need to have electricity and drive to work, we will have to make sacrifices. But multiply that by the world and you will see the type of dire situation we will all be in. As China and India rapidly advance their lives and consume more and more natural resources we will get lower and lower at a faster rate. We cant switch to coal power because of the damage to the environment, we cant switch to nuclear because its dangerous and not everyone throughout the world has the money to afford such technology. Some people say we can just tap the Alaskan slopes, drill in previously protected areas and that will give us more oil. That is completely true. That is also why we are peaking right now though. We are already doing that all over the world, so what if America discovers some more oil somewhere else or taps Alaska? All that will do is increase the demand. The problem is that right now our demand is exceeding the supply. That is why process for heating in the winter, gas prices, electricity bills, and anything else connected to oil in one way or another have gone up. The more we produce, the more we will consume-period. So what will we do?

If you havent heard these dire predictions anywhere else don't be surprised. If you don't believe me I wont be surprised by that either. Because all im giving you is bad news. I really cant come up with anything positive about this other than Wal-Mart going down and all those corporations who were laughing all the way to the bank coming back to us with their hats in their hands looking for a handout from you and I the way they have gotten it from the government. But by and large there isnt any upside to this that I can think of-which is probably why its not all over the news. After all, someone has to pay for the airtime, those someones are usually advertisers who want you to buy their products which will make it worse. Environmentalists unfortunately don't rake in the cash the way they should. Note I havent even mentioned the main reason we went in and are still in Iraq-but you knew that already.

You will likely see corporations close down, the Wal-Marts of the world will have to increase their prices because of the increase they will see in production costs, transportation costs, etc. This will drive people away from the Wal-Marts of the world. People may not be able to live 40 or more minutes from work anymore. They will have to move back into the city. But what about all of the poverty stricken people already residing there now? Where will they go? With Wal-Mart gone, what will the shoppers of this country do? These are all questions we will be faced with, this I truly believe. The most important question is what will we do about it? And that is something I truly don't know.

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