you all whine about $4? try $8. this is what we have to pay where i am. and if you think that is bad, just wait until Israel will attack Iran's nuclear sites. the price of oil will double or even triple over night. it will get a whole lot worse before it will get better.

I agree, in so far, that the US has been very lucky with the price of gas. I know my parents live outside the US and they've been paying $8/gallon even several years ago. I think the problem with us is that this is a shock to us. (We are definitely spoiled, no doubt about it ) BUT, we also don't have the type of transportation structures that other countries have. Only the big cities have alot of metro and bus routes, in the smaller ones, they are lucky if they even have a bus. To often in the US, you HAVE to have a vehicle to even get your groceries, because the nearest grocery store is at least 10 miles off. Of course, that could all be easily rectified in closer mom and pop grocery stores or kiosks, more of a public transportation infrastructure, but unfortunately it takes national "crises" like the gas price hikes, to have any kind of effect and even then most people just complain....

I just don't know how the average person survives.

I agree. My husband makes what the "average" person calls a "good" living. And I own my own business, and still we have to cut back and conserve and all these other little things that add up to savings. (And forget actually adding to our savings account!) I just don't know how people survive making the pitiful minimum wage and have to pay $4 for a gallon of gas AND $4 for a gallon of milk! Something definitely has to give.....

It's such a morbid thought, but it's times like these that has me thinking of WHY? or HOW? the advanced ancient civilizations disappeared.

you all whine about $4? try $8. this is what we have to pay where i am. and if you think that is bad, just wait until Israel will attack Iran's nuclear sites. the price of oil will double or even triple over night. it will get a whole lot worse before it will get better.

LMFAO

Umm much of your oil comes from Canada. According to his very very little comes from Iran.
Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries)
(Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country Mar-08 Feb-08 YTD 2008 Mar-07 YTD 2007
CANADA 1,795 1,920 1,886 1,780 1,825
SAUDI ARABIA 1,535 1,614 1,541 1,216 1,325
MEXICO 1,232 1,231 1,220 1,621 1,475
NIGERIA 1,154 982 1,102 1,290 1,156
VENEZUELA 858 945 980 1,036 1,033
IRAQ 773 780 697 523 464
ANGOLA 384 341 433 696 570
ALGERIA 247 191 269 501 484
ECUADOR 231 169 217 191 214
KUWAIT 199 261 232 288 208
BRAZIL 188 169 175 209 174
COLOMBIA 135 220 174 108 107
RUSSIA 108 80 68 193 92
CONGO 105 97 98 79 58
CHAD 101 89 103 66 74


And most of Canada oil comes from Alberta, and most of that from the Oil Sands. And if you need jobs we got em . No I am not kidding, we have a horrible workers shortage in pretty much every sector.

Unfortunately, the price of oil is set globally. A trouble with one supplier or one region would affect the price worldwide. So even if the US gets most of its oil elsewhere, they still pay the same global price per barrel no matter where it comes from. So I would not be LMFAO if I were you.

No you are right, and the things that have caused the price of oil to raise thus far are linked to what you already mentioned. And the price of oil has already risen just because of the threat, but it is FAR from the only reason for the rising prices. Iran being taken out is not going to send us to the dark ages, it will cause the prices to rise, but so will many other factors. World oil producers are also stepping up production to help deal with these factors. They were expecting prices to go over $100 2 years ago, but that conflict was avoided and prices fell back down, so it is possible for prices to go down some, but I doubt they will ever fall below $100 again.

Sealis, or whatever your name is, not quite where you even got your definition from. I think it may take an entire Economics course to learn you on this, and I don't have that kind of time. I'd let you borrow my Econ book, but I do actually still refer to it from time to time.

I did however, find this nice little sum up of a recession, spoken in terms for young teenagers to understand...

"RECESSION: A significant decline in economic growth that lasts six months or longer. It is usually marked by job layoffs, high unemployment, reductions in retail sales, and the slowing of housing and car markets. A recession is milder than a depression. An arduous or extremely long recession is referred to as an economic depression."


As far as your assumption about SF faring better if Macy's corporate moves there. Not true. Macy's was once my biggest customer. Macy's has regions. Each region has its own corporate office. I believe there are 8 regions (but could be totally wrong on that). Anyway, the Pacific NW Region (Seattle Area) is basically merging their corporate office with San Francisco corporate offices (I am not sure if was the entire corporate office, but it is a good portion of it, and all of my contacts there were let go). The jobs in Seattle, are not being replaced in San Francisco. Rather, the HR person here is laid off, and the current HR person in SF simply takes over this territory ON TOP of their current duties. So no, it doesn't do SF much good if any. Their people now do two people's work for the same pay. The Macy's layoffs affected everyone from cashiers to corporate. So, many cashiers were laid off...that doesn't help SF at all either. They have taken out many of the cashier stands in the Macy's stores here. This means we get slower service and less lines to choose from. This does not mean that when one line gets too long, we go to San Francisco to check out. No! The same amount of work gets done with less people. BTW, I've been to San Francisco....its way more expensive to run business there than in Seattle.