The economics of Californian metropolitan areas assume cheap gasoline. In the Santa Clara county (southern San Francisco bay area) a 50 year old, 3 bedroom, one bathroom house with a small backyard that is within walking distance of employment will cost about $650,000. Most people (wisely) refuse to pay this and instead do long commutes to work. They will spend 2-4 hours commuting to work by car every day. This is not uncommon in the San Francisco Bay Area. When gasoline gets up to $5/gallon, will people still do this? My guess is they will throw in the towel and move somewhere else. Higher gas price means higher labor price to support the higher real estate cost. Many long established companies are leaving the Bay Area because it is too expensive to do business here, e.g. Intel will leave within 5 years. The Bay Area maybe in a death spiral driven by real estate speculation and high gasoline cost. Lots of scary stuff is happening around here. The Bay Area is still suffering from the consequences of the Dot Com with lots of large modern office buildings that have been empty for almost 5 years. Ironically, residential real estate prices are going up in a speculative bubble due to slying disguised usurious mortgages, i.e. the sucker buys a home with a no down payment, interest only mortgage having an interest rate that becomes adjustable in 3 years. In three years, there will be mass bankruptcies because the suckers won't be able to pay their 11% mortgage. With no equity in their homes, the suckers will quit claim their mortgages and the local real estate market will collapse. This sequence of events is as predictable as the sun rising in the morning. I don't understand why this is legally possible? This triple whammy of the Dot Com residue, high gasoline cost and unethical home financing is going to wreck the San Francisco Bay Area.
Our life style is definitely going to change but it will not be for the better.
Gary
Space/Science » in reply to People will move and lifestyles will change if oil runs out.
Californian metropolitan areas assume cheap gasoline
The whole thread (63 posts)
- Another vote for nuclear power
- And some more votes...
- Forget Yucca Mountain: use the former nuke test sites for radioactive waste storage!
- re: advanatge nuclear power
- Sierra Club
- I'm not convinced that nuclear fusion will reduce the amount of radioactive waste produced versus conventional fission powerplants
- Even a deuterium-tritium fusion reaction produces much less radioactive material than fission
- add: when the oil runs out, nuclear power won't keep your car running
- I had a similair voew toward Greenpeace at one time.
- I'm not convinced that nuclear fusion will reduce the amount of radioactive waste produced versus conventional fission powerplants
- Sierra Club
- We must have it...
- I'm not convinced that carbon emissions will lead to global warming
- Nuclear will still be a good idea, global warming or not.
- I'm not convinced that nuclear is a good idea
- Bio-fuels need to be pushed but the greens hate them because they still emit CO2
- re: Bio-fuels need to be pushed but the greens hate them because they still emit CO2
- Throw away your technology and return to nature!
- re: population culling.......
- Most sensible environmentalists know the difference.
- Bio-fuels need to be pushed but the greens hate them because they still emit CO2
- I'm not convinced that nuclear is a good idea
- Nuclear will still be a good idea, global warming or not.