Please excuse the bad html and large pictures, I don't know how to do html.
Let’s take a look at Jerome a Paris plan for gas.
With really big pictures cause I don't get this html stuff. And I apologize for my table not fitting just right.
He states
Gas is cheaper than it was 25 years ago
Adjusted for inflation, it is not
He states
Gas is not taxed
It is. Maybe not as vigorously as he would like, but it is taxed.
Not only that, but only 47% is used for consumer driving. The rest is used for heating in the winter, electricity, industry, air travel etc.
He thinks we all live like something out of HGTV with McMansions on every street.
But don't you see that the two are linked? Living in your own home, with a garden and plenty of space is a LUXURY, made possible by cheap oil. ... It is artificially cheap oil that has made you structure your country around the economically absurd idea of building housing flying distances from work places. You do not need to live 25 miles from work. It's a luxury. It's a choice, made possible by cheap oil, to live in bigger homes than what you can really afford.
We don’t.
Here is the average breakdown for the average American.
Median household income:
Average America makes approx $44,389 a year. In a 2-earner household, that’s 2 people making $11.5 an hour.
Here’s breakdown by wealth:
Government Poverty Threshold not adjusted for inflation:
25% of American households are below the poverty line. That does not include the homeless who live on the street or in their cars. Those figures are the lucky ones who get to live in run down homes and apartments in the drug and crime infested neighborhoods.
Here’s how much the average home costs. Note: this is not a McMansion (whatever that is) but a normal average 1,100 sq foot home
Housing costs are up 1.07% wages are down –1.1%
.
Average cost of sustaining a household?
Average Family Monthly Bills |
Mortgage or rent |
$1,000-$1200 |
Car payments ( x 2)
(Car averages $15,000 to buy used) |
$700 |
Car Insurance (x2) |
$700 |
Groceries |
$600 |
Utilities ( electric, cable, telephone etc.) |
$300 |
Credit Cards
(x2 with $5,000 balance on each) |
$350 |
Total bills out |
$3650 |
Total Income in
(Based on $44389 or $11.50 an hour for 2 earners) |
$3699 |
Note: This does not include daycare or gas or allowances or health insurance
for lunches or clothing for children. |
People do not get to pick where they work in today’s hostile economy. One must go wherever the jobs are.
You say” sell your house and move into the city”
Who would buy this house? The house would not sell for the same reason it is being sold. Too far away from jobs and industry. (over 77% of the population are hourly wage slaves, meaning factory, manufacturing or service jobs. No telecommuting for you!)
You do not need to live 25 miles from work. It's a luxury. It's a choice
Wanting to raise your child away from gang crime, pollution and drug use is now a luxury?
Wanting a better education for your child because schools are underfunded, understaffed and falling in disrepair is a luxury?
Living in between two jobs and on the mainland so one can evacuate safely in hurricane season is a luxury?
Having 2 cars because the two wage household earners work different shifts because that’s all they could get is a luxury?
With over 40% of the population at median wage or below, a gas increase in times where employees cannot even get a cost of living raise is suicide, and would create a new depression. Over 50% of the population now cannot afford insurance, gas increases would break them.
Small businesses that are barely hanging on now would not be able to afford both the cost increase on shipping items and inventory and wage increases for employees along with skyrocketing health premiums from insurance companies.
Take the windfall tax and use it to generate a new transportation network, like the Hoover dam. It would get our unemployed and under employed working again, and it would benefit the country.
Overhaul insurance to control the skyrocketing rates to something a bit more manageable.
In southern states along each highway and working railroads, I would place windmills.
Yes, windmills. Not the windmills of Dutch origin, but sleek 4-foot high slender windmills along every major interstate and along some rural roads and train tracks. There would be friction brakes to keep them at the correct speeds, also generating more electricity.
Cars passing along these roads would generate the wind power to turn the blades and generate electricity to power the grid.
All electrical wires would be buried underground, encased in pvp pipelines to protect from storm damage, and keep the power on in cases of hurricanes and flooding.
Northern states could possibly use these in combination with hydro electrical damns and solar panel trees. Windmills in states that have snow, which could possibly bury them, could be placed in subway tunnels.
Give incentives for small farmers to have wind farms.
All streetlights, signs and stoplights would be solar powered. With the little batteries like we have in calculators to help out on those not so sunny days.
Remove the luxury tax on motorcycles so more people can use them as primary transportation without having to pay the extra tax and costs.
Tax SUV’s and other gas guzzlers at a higher rate at the car lot. Industries that actually need heavy equipment like construction could get a tax rebate of sorts- details could be worked out but make them more fuel efficient and earth friendly.
Do anything, but do not create the next depression.
Sources:
http://www.census.gov/...
http://www.census.gov/...
http://www.census.gov/...
http://www.census.gov
http://howstuffworks.com
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...