having lived through the GFC, it's always been in the back of my mind that shit could go tits up and gas could spike to $12USD/gal for some prolonged period. and i wanted to be able to survive that, job and grocery wise.

but i see and know all these people my age and older, with way more money and options than me, straight up choosing to form a suicide pact with cheap fuel. a guy i went to high school with, meaning he lived through this last time, guy literally lives 40 miles from his work. said he drops $15/day just on fuel. another guy i know from high school drives, on average, 85 miles per day including days off. hours in the car, in traffic, every day.

i made some flip comment about "shit's gonna be weird if it ever goes to $8 or $10/gal" and one refused to believe that the government would let that happen. i grant that no political leader wants that to happen suddenly, but would they really change the rules of our social order to stop it, especially if it just kind of crept up slowly? as far as i can tell, they're happy to let us all fork over our money so long as most of us keep showing up to work and paying our bills.