by Gary Gagne

Created on: April 30, 2008   Last Updated: September 18, 2011

To many of us it seems the world is ending and for many of us it really is. The old world is passing away, and ready or not, a new world is coming. The price of gas is continually going up, as is the price of food, and will continue to go up for the next two years at least. 600,000 have lost their job this year and one million people have gone into foreclosure. An article on MSN's website today said that Craig's list has grown tremendously because people are trying to sell things to make ends meet. Our financial institutions are either being bought or bailed out by the government because of bad debts equaling hundreds of billions of dollars. The stock market appears to be crashing. Even Susie Orman considers this the worst economic situation since the 1930s.

We're fighting guerrilla wars (and paying billions of dollars) in two countries and we are not winning either. Yet the threat of terrorism looms as large as ever! Will we have to lose a city to terrorists before we mobilize as we did in World War II? China is still growing leaps and bounds every day, Russia is back and is once again presenting challenges, Iran is still arming

While we are rotating over the drain, many other of our fellow Americans are doing pretty well maintaining the status quo (they're the ones voting Republican of course). That is probably why our leaders aren't acting more decisively on our behalf, they are all doing very well!

It would help us if the government were to drop the federal tax on gasoline, but not much. In the long run a decrease in federal taxes on gas would also prevent us from maintaining our deteriorating road system. The amount of money you could save, if federal taxes were eliminated from the purchase of gasoline (if you spend $50 a week) would be about $18 a month. Personally I'm grateful for any savings I can get, but I don't think that will save us.

Of course, the big reason for the increase in the price of oil and food is that a larger portion of the world has more money, is now able to eat better, and that there is a corresponding increase in competition for food and resources. That is not the full explanation however, any disaster could cause oil prices to spike, there are experts who also believe that commodities in general are higher because of a speculative bubble created by investment. Now, after all the trouble that we've had with speculative investments in the housing and stock markets, you would think that the government would do something to stop or

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