Gas prices fuel the recession

Just when you thought it was safe to get out of the recession – ta-da! Here comes another mighty blow to our recovery thanks to soaring prices at the gas pump. The price per gallon has vaulted past the $3 mark and is quickly advancing to $4. It’s predicted to peak at $5 this summer. So goes gas, so goes our economy. We Americans apparently suffer from a nasty case of short-term memory loss. Remember back in 2008 when gas went to $4 a gallon? What happened then? That’s when the recession hit – hard and fast. So-called experts tried to blame the downturn in the economy on the housing market, auto sales and job losses. I think you can look at those as symptoms of the high cost of fuel. The more you spend to keep your car running, the less you have to spend on anything else, including new cars. When people quit buying things, jobs go away. When jobs go away, homes are lost to foreclosure. When foreclosures go up, housing prices come down. When all of these things happen, Wall Street gets jitters and the DOW drops. The whole vicious cycle is tied to those dead dinosaurs we convert to gasoline and other fuels and lubricants. It’s time we made fossil fuel as extinct from our lives as the great beasts that provided it. Most of my life I have heard rumors of the big oil companies and car companies buying up patents to alternative fuels and super fuel-efficient cars to keep them off the market. If there is even a single iota of truth to that, now is the time for those things to surface. I don’t believe the stories, but who knows for sure. What I do know is that the cost of gas in 2008 hurt me bad. It hurt a lot of people much worse than me. That’s why I’m scared to death of what will happen this year if we get anywhere near $5 at the pump. For a couple years now I have been planning to take my family to a family reunion in California this summer. After 12 years of marriage, my wife and sons have never met my father’s side of the family. I fear gas prices and other financial concerns will force us to have to wait another two years for the next reunion. To look at it another way, there are hundreds of gallons of gas I am not going to buy. There are several motels and campgrounds I will not be staying at. There are snacks and soft drinks we will not be consuming. Somewhere out there are numerous businesses that will not benefit from me and my family. The tourist traps in my path will not be sprung. I don’t think we’re anywhere near being alone in that regard. I don’t think you’ll be hearing very much about staycations this year. They’ll just be “stays.” If someone were to ask me where I’m going on vacation this year, I’d have to say to a movie or two. If conditions permit, we might even get a day trip to Galveston. Once there, however, we’ll have to find a way to fund the trip back home. On the plus side, I no longer have to commute to the office. I can literally roll out of bed and start writing at my computer. That will save me a fortune in dino-goo at the pump, but it is really isolating at the same time. When you work in a creative field like this, it helps to have others to share and bounce ideas off of. Imagine what it would have been like for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to take down the president if they each worked online from home. No collaboration, just a text or an e-mail. Trust me; they wouldn’t have gotten very far – at least without WikiLeaks. Anyway, getting back on topic, I would sure like to hear from readers about how the soaring gas prices are affecting you. Please take a moment to either comment online or email me at jsouthern@hcnonline.com. I think our stories will paint a very real picture that the experts and politicians don’t want to see.