Some of these just look down right painful - get some sun tan lotion fools!

It should concern a lot of people that, while the prices of gasoline and food continually rise, the prices of other things, such as consumer goods, are going down. High definition TV’s, computers, video game consoles, iPods, iPhones, toys, furniture, “designer” clothes; all of the shit that we don’t need is continually becoming more and more of an option while travel is becoming less and less of one.

I recently travelled five hours to go see a concert with some friends. I didn’t even have to buy the ticket, it was a spare one that was offered to me. I graciously accepted the offer, and embarked upon my journey to see said show. Now, I don’t drive a very fuel efficient vehicle; as a matter of fact, I drive a gas-guzzling SUV that would make Rex Tillerson proud. (If things get worse, trust me, it’s gone) Before I even get one mile down the road, I have to fill up my gas tank. I believe my tank can hold about 20 gallons, and at $3.93 a gallon, that comes out to around $77 to fill up (and note, I was below empty when I filled up). My trip was a total of 754.3 miles around trip, so mathematically that equals, at about 18 mpg (which is generous for my guzzler), approximately $165 round trip for gas. So about $200 out the door just as fixed cost for getting there and back.
If this shit continues, imagine where we will be in another year?

Airlines are just as bad. They’re cutting back services and charging $15 just to check a bag because they’re feeling the pinch as well. Sure, they went through a phase of low ticket prices to put asses in seats and rely on volume to make up the difference, but that tactic slowly revealed itself to be about as unavailing as George Carlin performing at Lakewood Church. In order to turn a buck, they have now cut-back on the number of available flights and increased ticket prices. (Not to mention numerous surcharges)

Yada, yada, yada. I know you’ve all heard this before, but it begs the question: What effects will this constriction of a person’s ability to travel have on society as a whole?

Well it’s really quite simple.
We will continue to buy shit we don’t need, eat food that makes us fat, and travel less.
We will stay home more, associate with the same people, and never experience anything more than the vacay to OBX. We will depend on opinion machines to feed us information and tell us what to think in crystal-clear 1080i.

Or maybe I’m just paranoid because I’ve barely traveled outside the continental U.S. myself.

And I’m starting to feel the pinch.