While not a case of Divine justice if you will, a new New York Times story looks at how the areas of the country that have mindlessly supported the Chimperator and the GOP's economic policies (often because they have foolishly taken the GOP bait on "family values" issues) are now reaping the worse pain from rapidly increasing gasoline and food prices. Perhaps if the voters in these areas (highlighted on a larger copy of the map at left found here) had looked beyond the anti-gay and anti-liberal sound bites of the GOP, the country would be on a sounder road towards a rational energy policy to reduce dependence on imported oil. Likewise, we might not be relying largely on a policy of mandated use of enthanol which is creating sky rocketing food prices as also commented upon by the NYT here. Perhaps I am terrible, but candidly, I am having a hard time feeling sorry for many of these folks since they are ultimately reaping the results of their own ignorance, intolerance and actions in supporting the Chimperator and his failed policies. I know that it's not a nice reaction on my part, but it's hatred towards people like me that motivated many of these people in how they voted. Once again, bigotry and intolerance can often turn out to have an unexpected price. Here are some highlights on the economy pain from rising gas prices:*
TCHULA, Miss. — Gasoline prices reached a national average of $4 a gallon for the first time over the weekend, adding more strain to motorists across the country. But the pain is not being felt uniformly. Across broad swaths of the South, Southwest and the upper Great Plains, the combination of low incomes, high gas prices and heavy dependence on pickup trucks and vans is putting an even tighter squeeze on family budgets.
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The disparity between rural America and the rest of the country is a matter of simple home economics. Nationwide, Americans are now spending about 4 percent of their take-home income on gasoline. By contrast, in some counties in the Mississippi Delta, that figure has surpassed 13 percent. As a result, gasoline expenses are rivaling what families spend on food and housing.
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Taking a break under some cottonwood trees beside a drainage ditch filled with buzzing mosquitoes, Mr. Clark and members of his work crew spoke of the big and little changes that higher gas prices have brought. The extra dollars spent at the pump mean electric bills are going unpaid and macaroni is replacing meat at supper. Donations to church are being put off, and video rentals are now unaffordable.
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Sociologists and economists who study rural poverty say the gasoline crisis in the rural South, if it persists, could accelerate population loss and decrease the tax base in some areas as more people move closer to urban manufacturing jobs. They warn that the high cost of driving makes low-wage labor even less attractive to workers, especially those who also have to pay for child care and can live off welfare and food stamps.
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In terms of what the forced use of ethanol is doing to food costs (something the bumbling idiot Chimperator refuses to acknowledge), the New York Times summed it up as follows:
*Over the past year, the prices of grains and vegetable oils have nearly doubled. Rice has jumped by about half. The causes include soaring energy costs, drought in big agricultural producers, like Australia, and rising demand by a burgeoning middle class in China and India. But misguided mandates and subsidies in the United States and Europe to produce energy from crops are also playing an important role.
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The International Monetary Fund estimated that biofuels — mainly American corn ethanol — accounted for almost half the growth in worldwide demand for major food crops last year. About a third of this country’s corn crop will go to ethanol this year. Yet at the summit meeting in Rome, the Bush administration insisted that ethanol is playing a very small role in rising food prices and resisted calls to limit the drive to convert food into fuel.
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One of the most useful things industrialized countries could do would be to deliver on their promise and end the fat subsidies they provide their farmers no matter how high prices go. These subsidies depressed food prices for years and discouraged investment in agriculture across much of the developing world.
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