The topic of this forum is that the poor are getting poorer - and optimists know there can be good things in bad ones and here's the good thing:
when the inevitable Depression hits, those like us will manage better than the Coras above, because we already know how to live on nothing.

Sorry I got your name wrong above, shogun shaun.

I absolutely hate the fact that, even with strong economic growth, we are seeing an increasing gap between the rich and the poor. But of course, who doesn’t. So what do you think is going to happen when the first critical resource problem hits us and economic growth falters?

This resource will be oil and the problem won’t be supply at least not in the first instance, it will be price. Plerdsus writes (17/1); “This will accentuate the gap between the rich and the poor. Of course it will, big time.

This is THE issue that we should be concerned about, not only in relation to the poor becoming poorer, but as I have said many times now on OLO, in relation to the very fabric of our society. But amongst the 37 posts on this thread, Plerdsus was the only one to mention it. Even Steve Madden in direct response, missed it entirely (but still a good posting).

The effect of oil prices rising to the point of causing massive disruption looms ominously close…. and yet, even amongst all the good thinkers on this forum, there seems to be stuff-all concern.

I have posted many comments about peak oil on OLO. I have received a few comments in support and absolutely none in any way opposed. Yet it remains out of most peoples’ consideration when they are discussing things that are directly related to it and let’s face it, just about everything to do with Australian sociology and politics (the entire scope of OLO) is strongly related to it. It does not compute.

Brownie, wouldn’t it be nice if the poor had an advantage when peak oil strikes, “because we already know how to live on nothing”. But tis very wishful thinking I fear.

Ludwig, I have read your many posts that outline concerns regarding oil prices. The points you raise are of great concern and I have supported (in my mind) all of those concerns. I am sorry it appears they are being ignored and unsupported within the forum. However I know myself that I simply have not have any worthwhile contribution to make on the subject over and above what you have so aptly said. Nor does my brain expand to being able to offer any resolutions. You are correct that having experience at being poor won't help when the crunch comes. I know only too well what poverty is, having grown up in what would be termed in Australian standards absolute poverty. Never mind about not hiring a videotape Brownie - how about not even having electricity connected!. However, I would never suggest for one minute that it will give me any advantage in the event of an essential supply shortage.

Ludwig,

Thanks for noticing my post on oil prices, which I consider to be the most important item for us all this decade.

Before embarking on any more doom and gloom, I think we should appreciate the four vital things that Australia has, and which no other country has, and which will help to shield the ordinary people here from much of the trauma to come:

1. We have a surplus of food.

2. We have a surplus of energy.

3. We have a surplus of minerals.

4. Most important of all, we have a sea boundary.

The downside is that it is obvious that the next major terrorist target will be the middle eastern oilfields. If they can render them unuseable, they will bring the western world to its knees. I am sure this is recognised by the countries in the middle east, as well as the major powers, and we can only hope that they can defeat any terrorist attack.

Whether is comes slowly, or suddenly as the result of some attack, our adjustment to the new world of very expensive energy will be traumatic, as it will be without precedent. I believe that the only rational response, (much derided at present) is to live a simply as possible, so that habits learned now will come in good stead when they become essential for survival.

Cheers Coraliz and Plerdsus.

We do have some real advantages as Plerdsus states, but they won’t prevent a very large upheaval and reorientation of our whole society when liquid fossil fuels become too expensive for the average person or transport companies, or when the follow-on effects of price-hikes and/or lack of availability of food and basic commodities start to bite.

We are so absolutely dependent on liquid fossil fuels for the maintenance of our whole way of life. We really do have very little room to move with supply, distribution and price. I cannot see how we could avoid large-scale inflation, unemployment and blowouts of inequalities and civil strife in the fairly short-term future if prices continue to rise as they have for the last year or so.

These four advantages are really only going to come into play after we have come to terms with the new post-cheap-liquid-fossil-fuel reality.

We should also be aware that in a highly stressed world, having a lot of resources may not necessarily be an advantage; it might be a real cause for concern regarding our much larger and more powerful resource-hungry northern neighbours.

At any rate, as it concerns the subject of this thread, continuously rising fuels prices are very likely to cause a massive chasm to open up between the rich and poor