Well recent events have certainly changed the  Peak Oil timeframe.  At today’s price of $46.80 it is at it’s lowest since May of 2005.  So we’re back to cheap oil.  For now.  As I write this I am watching the SUVs cruising past my store on Fourth Avenue.  The same SUVs Detroit will continue to crank out if only the government will give them about $34Billion as an incentive.

Now, let me get this straight.  Detroit builds machines that use huge amounts of gasoline and oil but has been unable for years now to make a decent profit from the sales of said machines.  They wish to continue building these machines  for which they cannot seem to make any money and require the government to pay them to do so.                                                                                                                                                                                             Ah, what a long strange trip it’s been.

I have been in business for 30 years now and have never once  even dreamed of such a self-serving scheme.

But then, I don’t employ thousands.

Perhaps we need to rethink the internal combustion engine idea in total.  Perhaps this economic downturn is a golden opportunity to revisit  our support of an industry gone hopelessly wrong.

If the automakers cannot make a profit selling their oil-devouring monsters maybe that is a sign that the automobile as we have known it is obsolete.  Maybe it’s a sign that we need to find other ways of getting around.  Maybe it’s a sign that autoworkers, parts manufacturers and suppliers and all of the other detroit hangers- on need to find other ways of making a living.  And maybe it’s a sign that we need to revisit all of our oil-fuelled and wasteful lifestyle.