|
|
Posted by D. Sherman on Friday, February 22, 2008 at 12:29:58 :
In Reply to: What is your limit? posted by Igor on Friday, February 22, 2008 at 11:21:55 :
When I moved from Everett to Wallace, which took probably a dozen trips in my M35, 400 miles each way at 6 mpg, I was paying $1.20 to $1.50/gal for diesel. I have to do that trip one more time pretty soon to pick up some machinery in Arlington, and I'm not liking having to pay $3.50 for fuel. After that, I can just stay here the rest of my life if I have to. Maybe I can tap the pine trees and make "biofuel" out of turpentine.
The interesting thing is that when fuel was $1.20, an ounce of gold would buy you about 250 gallons of fuel. Today, an ounce of gold will buy you about 250 gallons of fuel. 100 years ago, a month's pay for an average laborer was about 2 ounces of gold. Today, a month's pay for an average laborer is about 2 ounces of gold.
What's really happened is that they've devalued our dollar, just like how Mexico used to devalue their peso, only the US was more subtle about it. Or another way of looking at it is that over the past 10 years or so, they've stolen half of your savings via devaluation of the dollar. Sure, not everything has gone up in price as much as fuel has, but some things have gone up more, like copper and iron ore.
And yeah, if things keep going like they're going, I might be pitching hay in another 10 years. I wouldn't mind. I'm settled here and I like horses. I just don't know where I'd keep them with 4' of snow on the ground all winter.
Follow Ups: