Gas prices on main street

[Philip T]

Originally Posted by evilnewbie

Maybe the world should start donating us money from the billions and billions of dollars we have donated to the world... hmmm... I don't think that's going to happen... and we still donate billions and billions more each year... what is wrong with our politicians...

The US being fat donor to the world is kind of myth. Our biggest "donations" go to Israel who use them for weapons to hammer on some of the poorest and most beat down people on earth.

Israel–United States relations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Internationally, the US is not the country of good people doing good things, that most folks here like to think we are. What is wrong with our people?

[evilnewbie]

Myth? Who donates more than us? We are donating over a billion for the World Food program... we donated millions to many countries as well as food and other stuff... who donates more than us?

[scottv]

Originally Posted by evilnewbie

Myth? Who donates more than us? We are donating over a billion for the World Food program... we donated millions to many countries as well as food and other stuff... who donates more than us?

Yeah, I don't buy it that any other country in the world is more giving than the US...I'm interested to see a response.

[Philip T]

You have to have some real baseline for what giving even means.

Dropping bombs on people is not generally considered giving.

Giving bombs to other people to drop on other people is not generally considered giving.

And that is just the broad measure of phoney "giving" at the Federal Govt. Level

Is "giving" expired medicines to third world countries -- to avoid disposing of them as bio-hazard / waste by US corporations "giving?"

When Illegal Aliens in the US send money back to their home country is that foreign aid or "giving" by private remits?

When grants are written to allow the purchase only of certain US corporate products is that "giving?"

And then there is the wide spread between the talk about giving and the walk of what is actually given . . . that is just scratched upon here >>>

US and Foreign Aid Assistance - Global Issues

Not saying their numbers are correct, but they list these countries above US:

Sweden
Denmark
Netherlands
Norway
France
Belgium
Switzerland
Finland
United Kingdom
Austria
Germany
Canada
Ireland
Australia
Italy
Portugal
Japan
Greece
Spain

But I would think any true numbers would have to back out military, and hinky corporate deals before you could even begin to get to the truth of the matter.

[UB50]

Originally Posted by bchris02

After Christmas the retailers are going to fall like dominoes and the malls will empty, followed by restaurants. We will be left with Wal-Mart for a while, but if prices continue to rise, even they could see problems as they are forced to raise their prices. Many people right now don't realize this is more than just an inconvenience at the pump. Its the iceberg that will sink the titanic. Bernanke should do WHATEVER it takes to get these rising prices under control. Housing is trivial compared to this.

I live in Los Angeles so I don't see it playing out like that here, mostly because we don't have Wal-Mart here. Los Angeles has a gazillion Mom & Pop shops and the port is right here so the cost to truck it from the port to the shops is minimal. I'm sure a lot of shops will close but there will be survivors too.

I see some weird things happening to food prices. Some items are going sky high (like bread) but someone mentioned paying $3 for a head of lettuce and we just bought a head of lettuce for 25 cents. I think it's gotten cost-prohibative for farms to send produce across the country by truck so they just ship it to LA and let it go cheap. Huge amounts of produce are grown in California.

There are over 15 million people living in Southern California which is more than the population of many states. It's going to be interesting to see the regional variations on this "recession" theme.

[Wild Style]

Originally Posted by UB50

I live in Los Angeles so I don't see it playing out like that here, mostly because we don't have Wal-Mart here. Los Angeles has a gazillion Mom & Pop shops and the port is right here so the cost to truck it from the port to the shops is minimal. I'm sure a lot of shops will close but there will be survivors too.

I see some weird things happening to food prices. Some items are going sky high (like bread) but someone mentioned paying $3 for a head of lettuce and we just bought a head of lettuce for 25 cents. I think it's gotten cost-prohibative for farms to send produce across the country by truck so they just ship it to LA and let it go cheap. Huge amounts of produce are grown in California.

There are over 15 million people living in Southern California which is more than the population of many states. It's going to be interesting to see the regional variations on this "recession" theme.

I see a return of mom and pop shops on the up rise in the coming years. Could be wrong but thats my opinion.