Fuel costs

[Stan]

Lin: An interesting concept, but the waist size is more related to the fact that many people aren't aware that their house has a kitchen. Eating healthy foods at home is not the cause of obesity.

[HighTechRedneck]

Just to pick up that comment about bigger houses.  My wife talked about needing a bigger kitchen.  I told her that I believed that kitchen growth and waistline growth may be related since, I think, that if you plotted kitchen size in America and obesity in America on a graph, the curves would run pretty close.  Some of us could even do a self survey on this.  How does the growth of your kitchen and waist compare?  Actually, I have since seen curves done on house size and waist size and they were the same.

Having:

• grown up in a very poor part of town
• lived on extremely low income a couple times in my life
• lived in Los Angeles
• spent time in the poor parts of several major cities
• personally known a few elite rich with kitchens bigger than some of the entire homes I have lived in

No offense intended, but I would question the validity of the data for such a graph.  My observation has been that obesity and poverty often are related, probably due to culture and the types of food typically eaten.  While a trim waistline is more common to those with healthy eating habits and excercise regimens, which are more prevalent among the middle class and upwards, as are larger kitchens.

[Lin]

Well this would be an amazing phenomena.  As the more affluent get bigger kitchens, the poor get fatter.  So I will have to convince my wife that she should avoid a bigger kitchen not merely for our own health, but because it is the socially responsible thing to do.  After all, we don't want to cause more underclass obesity.

[HighTechRedneck]

Well this would be an amazing phenomena.  As the more affluent get bigger kitchens, the poor get fatter.  So I will have to convince my wife that she should avoid a bigger kitchen not merely for our own health, but because it is the socially responsible thing to do.  After all, we don't want to cause more underclass obesity.

Sorry, I'm not saying that if you get a bigger kitchen, some poor person will gain weight.  I'm just saying that if you can afford a big kitchen and she has a desire for it, the odds are in your favor that you already eat healthier foods and will continue to do so.  On the other hand, people in poorer neighborhoods with over glorified closets as kitchens tend to eat high fat, high starch diets resulting in weight gain.

Best advice I can give:  If she wants a bigger kitchen, get one for her.  They say money can't buy happiness.  But it can buy a bigger kitchen.  It she wants it, she will be happier with it.  If she is happier, your bus budget will have a better approval rating, making you happier.  Hence, in this case, money just might buy happiness for both of you - a pretty good investment in my opinion. 

[paulcjhastings]

Hightech is correct, people below the poverty line in the US are more likely to be overweight than underweight.

In the rest of the world it is a whole different story. On another note if you live at the poverty line in the US you are better off than the vast majority of the peoples of the world.

[JohnEd]

Paul,

I am a patriot too.  Really!  I am always disappointed, however,  when i hear that there are places in the world that are "worse" than our great nation.  Infant mortality is something that sickens me as a stat. in particular.  A few short years ago we were WORSE than Bulgaria.  BULGARIA!  That is a third world nation that sucked hind teat in the Soviet union.  We have come up a notch or two but not much.  I know without a shadow of a doubt that there were some that said, when they heard that part about Bulgaria, "well look here, we are better than the SUDAN or Nigeria."  That someone is lower should never be our defense.  That we are not number one is a travesty.  We are the United States of America and we have no excuse given the degree to which we have been blessed and our history of pride and achievement.

That Bulgaria stat put us in the 80th place or some revolting/shamefull position.  Our life span is many years shorter than Europe as a whole and the French in particular.  I think the number is that 1 in four children go to bed hungry.  People will actually start talking about "why" we can't do better.  How can this be?  One way we can PREVENT improvement is to flat deny the numbers or their validity.

This denial also happens in the FUEL COST subject.  All sorts of discussions about why we can't do anything.  Gas is 11 cents a gallon in Venezuela and no I don't want to move there....just understand why that is.  There are other places with cheaper fuel and why is my question there also and of course WHY CAN"T WE DO THAT....whatever that is.

Thanks guy,  This isn't a rant though it might read like one.  This is a FLAT MEDIUM and subject to gross misunderstanding.

John

[Stan]

Infant mortality went into decline when the sexual revolution of the 60s started. Teenage girls having babies with no idea who the father might be and in some cases only eleven or twelve years old. In many cases they keep the pregnancy hidden from their parents as long as possible so they get no pre-natal medical care.  The use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs during pregnancy makes the situation worse. The numbers are made worse by all the illegal women who are reluctant to seek medical care, during pregnancy, because they might get deported.

In your research on infant mortality, did you get the numbers for babies born into stable marriages, maybe with a comparison between rich, middle class and poor?

[buddydawg]

Hey guys the Fair Tax is not the Flat Tax.  The Fair Tax is a national retail sales tax where the Flat Tax is an Income Tax.  Two different things. 

[HighTechRedneck]

This denial also happens in the FUEL COST subject.  All sorts of discussions about why we can't do anything.  Gas is 11 cents a gallon in Venezuela and no I don't want to move there....just understand why that is.  There are other places with cheaper fuel and why is my question there also and of course WHY CAN"T WE DO THAT....whatever that is.

There are three reasons that come to mind. 

First is that in Venezuela the oil is state owned and refined.  They don't pay the market price.  They only have the cost of getting it out of the ground, storing it, refining it and distributing it. 

Second, as someone else pointed out earlier, the value of 11¢ there is vastly different than 11¢ here.  Incomes are much lower and 11¢ is a LOT higher percentage of somebodies income there than here. Googling it reveals that the per capita income in Venezuela is less than $5000, with some sources saying $4000.

Third, since the state is selling it to the citizens, do they tax it?  I don't know, but it wouldn't make much sense.

[NJT5047]

.  There are other places with cheaper fuel and why is my question there also and of course WHY CAN"T WE DO THAT....whatever that is.

John

Well, the quick and dirty answer is that the environmentals don't want any folk but themselves spoiling the view.  And air.   
The greens and democrats have effectively limited energy production in this county.   They don't want to burn or liquify coal, don't want drilling, many don't want wind farms in their backyards (Kennedys), don't want to build additional refinery capacity.  And they really don't want nuclear energy production.   
A better question would be what do the greens want us to do for energy?  What is the "Green" view of a modern world?
I believe that their is plenty of oil.  The oceans are awash with the stuff.  It's everywhere.  We just so lucky to have a political system that makes it legal, to pander to green groups such as the Sierra Club for votes.   
Anwar is a classic loss of opportunity...as is the lack of refinery capacity.   
May I suggest that the quality of life is directly tied to the cost of energy.  And we are on a slippery slope.   
Our Democrats and their green supporters are quite happy having us bend over for OPEC. 
Oh well.  A good world financial contraction will loosen up some oil.   
Technology will resolve our oil dependence given time.  Nothing drives new energy technology like high priced energy.   And I hope the Arabs and Chavez can survive on 25 dollar a barrel oil. 
Maybe that's the plan and I misjudge our fool congres?  Maybe they plan to push OPEC beyond their peak oil source and then we'll dig our oil up?  Homey don't think so.     
Still, one must consider that hidden in this oil price mess is the fact that our pols are allowing the dollar to slide against other world currencies.  That makes the adjusted cost of a barrel of oil about $75 bucks.  Our idiots in Washington are directly responsible for a good bit of our energy pain. I know there's a plan....
JR

     

[cody]

Ok guys now you got me all corn fused again, I thinking on the statement that when a rich person makes a bigger kitchen, a poor person gets fat, now we built a small kitchen in the bus, does that mean I made a rich person fat? lol

[Slow Rider]

Well Cody, since we all know how rich you are, we will just have to watch your waistline and see.

Frank

[JohnEd]

JR,

Democrats?   Don't go there!  We will get locked up sure.  No more posts will be allowed if this devolves to a political rant and I agree with them, the moderators.  This must be the longest thread ever tolerated on this loosely restrained of a topic and we all show up well for it.  Its the economics of fuel costs that make a palatable subject.  The political as is OH SO VERY valid and makes up a really long discussion all by itself.  Not here though.  Actually, I don't seek this discussion, with you in particular as an individual, anywhere.  I value your input here and i know I and many others profit from your knowledge shared and your hunches are way better than mine on matters bus.  It is a relationship I value and hope to keep.

I will sign off this topic with a loose biblical quote:  "And Satan's GREATEST TRICK was to convince them that he himself didn't exist."  Sojourner can keep me honest on this.

With respect,

John

[Lin]

Yes Cody,
     Haven't you noticed that Chenny has put on weight?

[DrivingMissLazy]

Well, here in WV we have generally the lowest average income and the highest number of obese people in the country. A trip to the local Wal*Mart on the day the welfare checks come in will display the most god-awful group of grossly obese people, with belles belly's hanging down almost to their knees, that you would ever want to see.

Richard