eltejano1 wrote:

Willald:

Maybe the full campgrounds are the result of more "destination" oriented trips rather than traveling every day. If so, that's positive. A lot of fuel will be saved by simply going to a campground or state park and spend the vacation there.

I never did like that. I always enjoyed keeping on the move. But that sort of thing would be prohibitive now.

I think this does indeed have the potential of being the end of OUR world as we know it, Willald.

Wing Zealot:

Sorry to see you go, but we've said about as much as we can say here. I guess I'll hang it up to. I'm starting to repeat myself. I think our point of view - that something has to be done to cut that 20.7 million barrels/day consumption -is the right approach.

Everyone here, with the possible exception of Joe :-), will eventually realize that you were right. In fact, I think they realize it now but just can't face-up it.

We are witnessing the end of an era, a major historical transition on a par with the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century - it's just that everything moves at such a rapid pace today, with modern communications and all, that people don't have time to adapt. Social and tech changes that used to take decades now happen in mere years, maybe even months.

There was a time when a strong military power - England, Rome, Japan, USSR, simply took by force of arms the resources they needed. But raw imperialism is no longer acceptable in the modern world and we are going to have to make drastic lifestyle changes to cope with much less petroleum, as the europeans already have.

We can't, as you have said, expect a private corporation to act in the public interest. That's 180 degrees away from what capitalism is all about. But, since energy really is a "public utility' in many ways, since people can't do without it, I look for massive regulation of the oil industry, possibly even involving price controls and rationing, and even a possibility of eventual nationalization - which is already a reality in most of the world. In any case, with the nearly inevitable regulation, rv'ing has no future. It's going to be a dinosaur that will be cited for a century as an example of wasteful affluence - with about the same social status as smoking.

It is already true that when we buy recreational fuel at these prices we are driving-up prices and hurting everyone. The govt will address that - probably after the election. This will likely develop as the #1 issue in the fall campaign, and the sides will line up traditionally, with Obama pushing FDR style intervention and McCain insisting on leaving it up to free market forces. It should be interesting - perhaps the hottest campaign since 1932 - and most likely a Democrat landslide.

It's over, folks.

Jack