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bipolarber -> RE: Where do you think we will all be in the next 5 years or so as far as issues here at home (5/24/2008 5:05:11 PM)
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Let's see... (I like projecting forward like this... I love writing science fiction...)
We'll be crippled by gas eventually going over $6.00 a gallon.
The fact that families will have to channel all their extra income into energy will kill off all but the hardiest of entertainment industries.
Local resteraunts, depending on people having spare cash to eat out, will close by the droves.
Unable to support cars that cost $20+ k, Detroit has massive layoffs and closings. The only cars selling will be hybrid and electric imports (built by the japanese, who are always several steps ahead)
MASSIVE UNEMPLOYMENT....
The expense of heating costs drive seniors on fixed incomes to live in barracks, to share the costs, to avoid freezing to death. Set up in closed down businesses, many try to heat the buildings by building makshift fireplaces... inevitably, they go out of control... thousands die.
Gardening in your front yard becomes the next "growth industry" like scrapbooking, it's a social fad. Others, not so inspired, will simply start stealing your veggies at 3:00 am.
Scooter sales go through the roof... unfortunately, sharing the road with regular vehicles, the number of fatal accidents skyrocket.
Exposed to poor weather, a large fraction of our workforce, commuting via scooters or bicycles, sickens and dies of pneumonia. Billions of dollars are lost in terms of lost man hours of effort, and the strain on the insurance industry via claims causes preminums to rise beyond the grasp of all but the top 2% of income earners.
The "American Dream" of owning your own home becomes an impossible one. Lack of regulation makes buying a house from a mortgage broker worse than playing roulette. The cost of homes themselves now reach near a million for a three bedroom double wide.
Throughout the US, there will be vast tent cities of those who have lost their homes, their jobs, and their communities to the out of control energy crisis. "Bushvilles" become a common sight on the 6:00 news, as more murders, prostitution and drug deals go on there than in any classic ghetto of the last century.
Increased stress, both economically, and spiritually, causes more fights... the number of deaths due to guns quadruples.
Dispair sets in. People looking for answers why their lives have been falling apart, turn to "fringe" groups... weird religions, the KKK and neo nazisim flourish. More violence, more death.
Eventually, we reach a tipping point, and the US either collpases due to an epidemic, or else starving people riot and set entire cities ablaze like LA in the early 1990's....
Chaos.
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