So you say gas is expensive?

[MCA]

I think gas is expensive, and life sucks with the housing crisis... but I was just looking on CNN, and everyone was blaming companies, the President, foreigners, Jesus, the Muppets... everybody but themselves.

I'm no Republican, I'm no Christian, I hate Jim Henson, and I hate Big Oil... but come on now, people. Pull your heads out of your asses for a second. Do you really need that /second/ 42" HD TV? Do you need your new Saab? Can we all step back and have a little bit of personal responsibility for a moment? What the fuck are people doing with $20,000 in credit card debt? WTF are people doing owning 3 SUVs??? Can we think like normal people for a few years, live within our means and stop all trying to be the Hilton family, or are we just going to cram our arteries full of of this fattening crap and die from an awful fiscal heart attack?

People are complaining about not being able to buy enough fast food/Pizza Hut/Applebees to feed their kids each night because gas costs too much. I have a three step solution to this problem.

1. Pick up your frying pan.

2. Open your refrigerator.

3. Beat yourself on the head with the frying pan until you pass out and stop wasting your money. Why not actually cook something healthy for your kids? I bet it costs less...

And I'm not a hypocrite on this, btw. Other than my XBOX360, I haven't bought a thing for myself over one hundred dollars for the past 6 months... but that's how I roll.

If you do feel you need to have toys, which I don't think there's anything wrong with, please don't go crazy and then blame it on the government or something when you know you're just an idiot with money and shouldn't be let out of your play pen (other than for the frying pan thing listed above).

(Please note, that this category is for rants. Don't take it personally if it sounds like I'm writing about you -- I'm just sick of people's shit (read spoiled Americans) on this issue and an obvious inability to take personal responsibility.)

 

[ManlyBanisters]

I think gas is expensive, and life sucks with the housing crisis... but I was just looking on CNN, and everyone was blaming companies, the President, foreigners, Jesus, the Muppets... everybody but themselves.

I'm no Republican, I'm no Christian, I hate Jim Henson (You must die!!), and I hate Big Oil... but come on now, people. Pull your heads out of your asses for a second. Do you really need that /second/ 42" HD TV? Do you need your new Saab? Can we all step back and have a little bit of personal responsibility for a moment? What the fuck are people doing with $20,000 in credit card debt? WTF are people doing owning 3 SUVs??? Can we think like normal people for a few years, live within our means and stop all trying to be the Hilton family, or are we just going to cram our arteries full of of this fattening crap and die from an awful fiscal heart attack?

People are complaining about not being able to buy enough fast food/Pizza Hut/Applebees to feed their kids each night because gas costs too much. I have a three step solution to this problem.

1. Pick up your frying pan.

2. Open your refrigerator.

3. Beat yourself on the head with the frying pan until you pass out and stop wasting your money. Why not actually cook something healthy for your kids? I bet it costs less... Actually - this is not necessarily true, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. It's something I do regardless of cost but often the cost of the ingrediants for a balanced meal (discounting the small outlay for the fuel/power to cook it) is higher than a frozen pizza or whatever.

And I'm not a hypocrite on this, btw. Other than my XBOX360, I haven't bought a thing for myself over one hundred dollars for the past 6 months... but that's how I roll. OK - but how many $50 items have you bought in the last month? How many $20 items - it's not always about big outlays. And how much do games for the 360 cost these days... I'm not having a go - I'm justing pointing out we all have our little luxuries.

If you do feel you need to have toys, which I don't think there's anything wrong with, please don't go crazy and then blame it on the government or something when you know you're just an idiot with money and shouldn't be let out of your play pen (other than for the frying pan thing listed above).

(Please note, that this category is for rants. Don't take it personally if it sounds like I'm writing about you -- I'm just sick of people's shit (read spoiled Americans) on this issue and an obvious inability to take personal responsibility.)

Of course.

And yes, there is a lot of unnecessary purchasing going on across the western world - trust me, it's by no means limited to spoiled Americans, you should see what the spoiled French and Irish get up to.

But this is the nature of Capitalism. Even in this predominantly Socialist country I live Cash is King. Of course people want to spend their hard-earned on treating themselves and their kids and if the credit companies are allowed to fund that habit and rake back in the repayments with interest then they are going to do so. It seems that a significant chunk of the general public can't handle that responsibility so perhaps better legislation would be adviseable.

Would you rather live in a society that didn't let you have your X-Box? Would you rather have to share a run down half working X-Box with 20 other households? And not be allowed to choose what game is played or bought?

OK - that is a way exaggerated example - but you get what I am saying?

 

[MCA]

MB, I completely agree with you. I do want to live in a society with my Xbox, mos def. I just hate how people blame the very system that has propped their fake sense of security up. I hate how people blame the company rather than themselves. I mean, there really should be an enforcement for people to take an Econ 101 class before they get a credit card... or at least sign a clause so that they can't bitch when they make stupid mistakes.

Edit:

That would be like blaming my college because I have to pay my loans back.

 

[MCA]

And as far as things I've bought, actually I really don't buy shit. I save a lot of money and I work next door (crazy, I know). I try not to drive anywhere and sponge off of my credit card-dependant roommate (he's the one who buys the 42" HD TV). Ha ha ha.

 

[MCA]

And finally, I lied about my hatred of Jim Henson. He invented Yoda, afterall, and that wise old green creature taught me much about the force and my credit line.

 

[vxie]

get over it... it's much more expensive here... it's about $5 a gallon in australia.

 

[MCA]

Exactly Vxie, it's liek $7 in the EU, the Americans who bitch don't know how nice Bush has made it for them here.

Edit:

I don't want to come off as a Bush supporter on this one... I'm sure he's killed some children to do it, mind you...

 

[swordfishME]

Ok, here in the ME we have really cheap gas.

BUT

The cost of living has gone up 42 % since Jan of 2006. If you have a wife and two kids and want to live a no-frills life you better be making over six figures a year. It costs in the proximity of USD 30,000 a year to rent a two bedroom apartment in a somewhat decent neighborhood. You are looking at paying USD 10,000 a year to send two kids to school (you have to pay to send your kids to school here-there are no public schools). Groceries for a small family of 4 can easily cost you around USD 1,000.00 a month.

ALL THIS ON

The average person earns around USD 50,000.00 a year (keep in mind that due to the culture hardly any women are in the workforce and thus most families are 1-income families).

AND WHERE I LIVE

Is still not as bad as some of the other places in the Middle East.

 

[ZOS23xy]

My wife pointed out to me that some of the salads you can buy on the east coast are shipped in--probably by airplane--from California.

Everyone is chipping into this waste of gas to make a dime's worth of profit.

I tend to do a round trip of buying and the round trip means six or seven stops in one day and one day a week where i don't go anywhere.

I'm amused by a guy who lives out here with a hummer. It's pink. He lives down the road, and is nearly 15 miles from the town. He goes in and back to pick up his movies. Spends nearly eight dollars on gas, one way. He ought to buy them on line and stay home.

 

[Deno]

first off I don't know of a single thing bush has done to make life better since he's been in office I was doing much better 8 years ago. I only got one raise in the last 8 years and was getting a raise every year before he took office.

Secondly, I have to pay 2500 dollars a year to the schools and I don't even have children in the schools. You pay taxes on your property to fund schools even if you don't have kids.

If you think theres a crisis going on right now what do you think it would be if they followed this threads lead. Stop buying fast food and theres no income for the fast food workers all the truck drivers that deliver to the fast food places and all the people that produce the foods sent to the fast food places. Stop buying suvs and cars and there goes the auto industry and all the places that sell said vehicles. Worry about 20k of credit card debit when the US gov. has a debt of 9.3 trillion dollars thats about 30,000 dollars of debt per individual. People ... don't stop buying anything, what do you think the tax rebate plan is for. To increase economic growth. To stop purchasing specific items and produce would only cause increased stress on our economy.

 

[snoozan]

Stop drinking your fucking bottled water. It's not a fucking status symbol. It's water. In many cases, it's tap water run through a purifier or filer. You want purified water? Buy a Brita or a Pur filter, or if you're really anal, buy a whole house purifier. However, these things aren't necessary. Your municipal water is fine. In fact, it may be cleaner than that $4 a bottle exclusive spring water you're drinking. If you don't like the taste of your tap water, again, get the Brita. Want portable water? Buy a fucking reusable water bottle. Nalgene makes nice polycarbonate ones for camping. Let me reiterate: YOUR TAP WATER IS FINE.

You can bitch and moan all about energy and global warming all you want, but if you're drinking one of those obnoxious bottles of water that people did fine without for centuries, shut the fuck up. It takes a lot of energy and resources to make those water bottles and it costs a lot more money to ship the water around the county, state, region, country, or world. Water is heavy. Go get a gallon of water and lift it. Imagine thousands of those in trucks all over the world and think about how much gas that's wasting.

You like Fiji water? Does it sound sweet, exotic, and tasty to you? A good many people in Fiji don't have access to potable water but you can spend $3 to get water from Fiji that is... guess what? no different from the stuff coming out of your fucking sink.

In conclusion, put your fucking money back in your pocket. turn on your sink, and drink a fucking glass of water, and shut up. Be glad you have nearly-free access to the cleanest water in the world.

 

[swordfishME]

Stop drinking your fucking bottled water. It's not a fucking status symbol. It's water. In many cases, it's tap water run through a purifier or filer. You want purified water? Buy a Brita or a Pur filter, or if you're really anal, buy a whole house purifier. However, these things aren't necessary. Your municipal water is fine. In fact, it may be cleaner than that $4 a bottle exclusive spring water you're drinking. If you don't like the taste of your tap water, again, get the Brita. Want portable water? Buy a fucking reusable water bottle. Nalgene makes nice polycarbonate ones for camping. Let me reiterate: YOUR TAP WATER IS FINE.

You can bitch and moan all about energy and global warming all you want, but if you're drinking one of those obnoxious bottles of water that people did fine without for centuries, shut the fuck up. It takes a lot of energy and resources to make those water bottles and it costs a lot more money to ship the water around the county, state, region, country, or world. Water is heavy. Go get a gallon of water and lift it. Imagine thousands of those in trucks all over the world and think about how much gas that's wasting.

You like Fiji water? Does it sound sweet, exotic, and tasty to you? A good many people in Fiji don't have access to potable water but you can spend $3 to get water from Fiji that is... guess what? no different from the stuff coming out of your fucking sink.

In conclusion, put your fucking money back in your pocket. turn on your sink, and drink a fucking glass of water, and shut up. Be glad you have nearly-free access to the cleanest water in the world.

wow! just wow!

 

[snoozan]

wow! just wow!

is that a good wow or an "i'm scared shitless" wow? or none of the above?

 

[swordfishME]

is that a good wow or an "i'm scared shitless" wow? or none of the above?

Its a none of the above wow. I was just taken aback that you choose to present good factual information in a seemingly rant form.

 

[sevencirc]

Stop drinking your fucking bottled water. It's not a fucking status symbol. It's water. In many cases, it's tap water run through a purifier or filer. You want purified water? Buy a Brita or a Pur filter, or if you're really anal, buy a whole house purifier. However, these things aren't necessary. Your municipal water is fine. In fact, it may be cleaner than that $4 a bottle exclusive spring water you're drinking. If you don't like the taste of your tap water, again, get the Brita. Want portable water? Buy a fucking reusable water bottle. Nalgene makes nice polycarbonate ones for camping. Let me reiterate: YOUR TAP WATER IS FINE.

You can bitch and moan all about energy and global warming all you want, but if you're drinking one of those obnoxious bottles of water that people did fine without for centuries, shut the fuck up. It takes a lot of energy and resources to make those water bottles and it costs a lot more money to ship the water around the county, state, region, country, or world. Water is heavy. Go get a gallon of water and lift it. Imagine thousands of those in trucks all over the world and think about how much gas that's wasting.

You like Fiji water? Does it sound sweet, exotic, and tasty to you? A good many people in Fiji don't have access to potable water but you can spend $3 to get water from Fiji that is... guess what? no different from the stuff coming out of your fucking sink.

In conclusion, put your fucking money back in your pocket. turn on your sink, and drink a fucking glass of water, and shut up. Be glad you have nearly-free access to the cleanest water in the world.

Now that is a quality rant, snoozan....I loved it! :smile:

 

[DaveyR]

Stop drinking your fucking bottled water. It's not a fucking status symbol. It's water. In many cases, it's tap water run through a purifier or filer. You want purified water? Buy a Brita or a Pur filter, or if you're really anal, buy a whole house purifier. However, these things aren't necessary. Your municipal water is fine. In fact, it may be cleaner than that $4 a bottle exclusive spring water you're drinking. If you don't like the taste of your tap water, again, get the Brita. Want portable water? Buy a fucking reusable water bottle. Nalgene makes nice polycarbonate ones for camping. Let me reiterate: YOUR TAP WATER IS FINE.

You can bitch and moan all about energy and global warming all you want, but if you're drinking one of those obnoxious bottles of water that people did fine without for centuries, shut the fuck up. It takes a lot of energy and resources to make those water bottles and it costs a lot more money to ship the water around the county, state, region, country, or world. Water is heavy. Go get a gallon of water and lift it. Imagine thousands of those in trucks all over the world and think about how much gas that's wasting.

You like Fiji water? Does it sound sweet, exotic, and tasty to you? A good many people in Fiji don't have access to potable water but you can spend $3 to get water from Fiji that is... guess what? no different from the stuff coming out of your fucking sink.

In conclusion, put your fucking money back in your pocket. turn on your sink, and drink a fucking glass of water, and shut up. Be glad you have nearly-free access to the cleanest water in the world.

Great post **z* **** :wink:

Oh to live somewhere where I could drink water from the tap again. I even have to use bottled water in the kettle to make tea and coffee and in the pots to cook. No way would I buy bottled water if I didn't have to :frown1:

 

[Qua]

Stop drinking your fucking bottled water. It's not a fucking status symbol. It's water. In many cases, it's tap water run through a purifier or filer. You want purified water? Buy a Brita or a Pur filter, or if you're really anal, buy a whole house purifier. However, these things aren't necessary. Your municipal water is fine. In fact, it may be cleaner than that $4 a bottle exclusive spring water you're drinking. If you don't like the taste of your tap water, again, get the Brita. Want portable water? Buy a fucking reusable water bottle. Nalgene makes nice polycarbonate ones for camping. Let me reiterate: YOUR TAP WATER IS FINE.

You can bitch and moan all about energy and global warming all you want, but if you're drinking one of those obnoxious bottles of water that people did fine without for centuries, shut the fuck up. It takes a lot of energy and resources to make those water bottles and it costs a lot more money to ship the water around the county, state, region, country, or world. Water is heavy. Go get a gallon of water and lift it. Imagine thousands of those in trucks all over the world and think about how much gas that's wasting.

You like Fiji water? Does it sound sweet, exotic, and tasty to you? A good many people in Fiji don't have access to potable water but you can spend $3 to get water from Fiji that is... guess what? no different from the stuff coming out of your fucking sink.

In conclusion, put your fucking money back in your pocket. turn on your sink, and drink a fucking glass of water, and shut up. Be glad you have nearly-free access to the cleanest water in the world.

THANK YOU! That's actually my standard response for anyone complaining about high gas prices (if of course, they live in an area with drinkable tap water). $1 for 20 floz of water, or $3.50 for a gallon of gas---which is more ridiculous? Same is true of bottled soft drinks for the most part, though you can't get them from your sink.

 

[MCA]

Deno, you are damned genius. You are completely correct when you say that the end of fast food is the end of the modern age. I'm no Economics major, but your points make a lot of sense.

I will try to restate/retract part of my statement. I hope it doesn't sound lame, though.

Ahem. No, we should not stop shopping at American businesses, especially not businesses which support the bottom line, i.e. Applebees, etc.

I'm not trying to make anyone's baby's mama hook for a living or something here.

If you have the cash, spend it however you wish. Buy a hamburger. Shit, buy a damned Rolls Royce if that's your deal.

All I'm saying is that if you don't have the money to live within your means, quit trying to be Paris/Bradjolina.

If you know you should be living in a $100,000 house, don't set up a loan for a $250 grand shack. Just because capitalism lets your imagination run wild, don't expect Walt Disney to save your ass when your less-than-magical shit hits the fan.

People blame the "greedy" housing/banking industries for their trouble, but no one on the news mentions the people who KNEW they couldn't afford these houses.

It's the American way... we all dream we can have it all... but we all went to elementary school, didn't we? Didn't our parents teach us right from wrong, hope from blindness?

conclusion
My main point at the beginning of this thread was that I thought the people on a certain CNN.com article were ridiculous, they were blaming everyone but themselves about their fiscal problems. I don't recall one person on the list who said anything about self-reliance or self-dignity.

This wannabe rich and famous fixation seems out of control around where I live. I bet other people feel the same across the world.

 

[Principessa]

I paid $3.22 a gallon for the premium unleaded Saturday. $26.00 gave me about 8.05 gallons.

 

[MCA]

As to the drinkable water issue, there's an interesting show on the History Channel which speaks to potential future US crises where people actually trade water for gas. Very Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome/Billy the Kid, but scary nonetheless beyond all the cheese.