Tuesday, May 8, 2007

The shock is hitting home

A couple of years ago I was at an Admirals game (local minor league hockey team) and I made a bet with a friend that he wouldn't be able to find gas for less than $8/gallon on January 1, 2011. Who would have believed that I wasn't pessimistic enough?

Six dollars a gallon. Somehow putting it in writing like that makes it seem even scarier. It's impossible to fill the tank on my truck without hitting the credit card limit anymore, I have to run the card twice just to top it off. Of course, I've been topping it off with a gallon or two every day on the way to work - usually right before the price-increase of the day™ (Milwaukee has a law limiting stations to one price change per 24 hours. Lately that means 20-30 cents right around the morning rush hour.)

Speaking of rush hour, there still is one (surprisingly enough.) I am finally starting to see cars on the freeway with more than one person in them, though. I need to find someone who lives/works near me to carpool with, if prices stay this high my commuting will cost as much as my rent. At least I still have somewhere to commute to (good part of doing some contract work for the government.) Miller Brewing is deadlocked with the Teamsters over shipping surcharges and I'm sure layoffs are coming. I thought for sure Harley-Davidson would be cutting jobs too, but they switched production from some of their big bikes to the little single-cylinder Buells; I guess those are becoming a hot item.

The central city is really getting scary. The chief of police has advised citizens to get tamper-proof gas caps for their cars if they park outside at night. A gas station night clerk shot someone who was trying to carjack a customer (with a freshly filled tank of course.) And I hear someone got pretty beat up over a moped just a few blocks from my house. What's left of the white-middle-class is torn between running for the suburbs and staying near jobs. I call them a bunch of closet racists, but with unemployment topping 50% in the lower-income urban areas everyone is afraid what summer is going to bring. (We had an outbreak of violence that lasted through most of last summer, and I can't help but feel that this year will be worse.)

3 comments:

YuckyMuck said...

Hey Demon, stay safe out there.

Can you get some pictures of what's happening at the stations at rush hour, sounds pretty dcary to me.

-YuckyMuck

EthrDemon said...

Hi elmer,
During the days it hasn't actually been that bad, only in the last week or so have people really started to get desperate. Of course, most of the gas stations I see are during the day in the suburbs where other than the price things are normal. But you couldn't pay me enough to go into the inner city at night...

Mister Roboto said...

Closet racists, in Milwaukee?? I don't believe it, don't believe it, I tell you! :-D