There is a major difference between being inconsiderate and downright disrespectful and rude. As I read the news and associated blog sites online, I am overwhelmed by the complete lack of civility people have with their online personas. I call them personas because if their actions and words are anything like their online gibberish, they would most likely be instigating fights every time their mouth utters a spoken syllable.

People have used the “anonymity” of online to disguise who they really are and with this disguise, they are continually revealing their distinct lack of maturity and respect for others around them. What really bothers me is that the “normal” people that frequent sites rarely speak their minds because they have become afraid to speak up in fear of a public flame war. It appears that the vast majority of online conversationalists is decidedly liberal and of the mind that they can do whatever they want without any ramifications.

I’ll admit that I frequent several sites and read news stories and posts but I don’t join in. In the midst of 300 posts, a rational statement is thrown under the weight of such ignorance that it simply fails to dent the careening momentum of the massive stupidity. At times, I will read something so disgraceful that I am left speechless. I can’t believe people think a certain way let alone write it for everyone to see. Sometimes, I think people post online just to push the limits of what we will accept.

If we don’t respond, these people will continue to think that their actions are acceptable because they haven’t been reprimanded. Eventually, their online persona will infect their real life persona. I believe our society is currently at this stage. After a generation of young adults has grown up with the Internet in their life, they cannot distinguish real life, from online life. They act the same and they allow their mouth to speak anything that comes to mind without fear of retribution.

What we are really missing are the mentors of our lives. There is a distinct lack of mentors in our real lives and there are zero mentors online to direct people and keep people in line. Online is a place where anything goes and everything is acceptable it seems. Our real lives have been infected by this way of thinking and we are paying a social price for that.

My online persona is the exact same as my real life persona. I treat people online the same way I treat them physically. What I think we need to do is return correctness to our online communities. Sure, it is exactly like trying to move a mountain, but we can all do our part to inject a little bit of rationality, respect, and civility in the sites we visit. When you read something that offends you, post a rational response to it and let them know what has been said is disrespectful, hurtful, or just plain wrong.

Don’t fear the online flame wars, they will happen. But, if other normal people see the fight being taken, they will be more comfortable joining in rather than diving in by their lonesome and simply giving up. We need to do something because the longer we allow the online community become so acceptable to outrageous behavior, the worse our real world will become. Our younger generation already has no idea how to discern online life from real life. Their facebook or myspace is more important to them than their grades are…

Recently some stores have increased the costs of cigarettes due to a governmental increase of the cigarette tax. It actually starts on April 1^st but some are already passing along the new taxes to smoking consumers. How much of an increase? Try a 155% increase on for size… It effectively makes a pack of cigarettes cost $1 more and a carton $10 more. The taxes are a way to increase the revenue of the various government entities in an effort to offset the losses in tax revenue received through the gas taxes. No, gas taxes did not lower, the amount of miles being driven has, thus less gas being bought and taxed.

Back to my threat… My primary reason for even saying such a thing revolves around the various “days off” associated with smoking and the ensuing breaks to feed this harmful addiction. Let’s just say a smoker takes an extended break each morning and afternoon… we’ll just throw 15 total extra minutes a day into the equation. 15 extra minutes devoted to smoke breaks that your normal non-smoker doesn’t utilize. Bathroom breaks and all that other stuff are effectively cancelled out in this simple equation. The bottom line is the smoker takes an extra 15 minutes a day off in this example. 15 minutes per day comes out to 75 minutes per week, 5 hours per month, and 60 hours per year… all devoted to smoking… while at work.

Let’s say we all get 2 weeks of vacation (80 hours) each year. We have just almost doubled it by simply smoking each day. And, we get paid to do it. Sounds great doesn’t it? Well, it does with all things being equal. But, smoking isn’t exactly an equal thing… we all know how harmful they are and over time, can dramatically affect the standard of life. Smokers are known to become more susceptible to various respiratory illnesses among other sicknesses caused by a damaged immune system. We can actually throw in a multitude of sick days taken by your average smoker per year that immediately decreases the hours worked even more. If we just throw in say 3 extra sick days per year as a direct result of smoking ailments, we are now up to an extra 2 weeks per year off.

You may not think that sounds like much, but multiply those numbers out over a 30 year career. That comes out to 2400 hours less work as compared to a non-smoker… 300 less work days… well over a year of actual work. That’s the smoker’s vacation.

But, at what cost does the smoker actually pay for this vacation? Various studies have tried to put a number to the amount of time you sacrifice of your life per cigarette you smoke. Searching the internet for a few minutes gave me an average of about 10 minutes of lost life per smoke. So, a smoker who smokes on average of 5 cigarettes each day is costing 50 minutes of their life. Just using the 5 day smoking workweek, this comes out to a little over 4 hours of lost life per week. Multiplied over that same 30 year period, we have now lost about 200 hours of our life each year because of smoking, or 6,000 total hours for a grand total of over 250 full 24 hour days of our life.

These are small estimates in my opinion. I believe I am underestimating the amounts of cigarettes smoked and the amount of time associated with doing so. But, given this simplistic example, a smoker has traded almost a year of the end of their life for almost a year and a half of extra vacation time over their 30 year work career.

I’m not quite sure the tradeoff is worth it given that the last remaining years of a smoker usually aren’t the most fabulous and of a healthy lifestyle. The tradeoff is probably closer to a 5 or 10 to 1 ratio. Smoke and yes, you get extra vacation time, but the last 5 to 10 years of your life is going to be very poor. Is the vacation time worth sacrificing your last years of life? Quality of life is important and it will be dramatically lower for a smoker in the waning stages of existence. I’ve seen this first hand. So while I threaten to become a smoker to generate more vacation time for myself, I am rational enough to know that is not the right, or sane, choice. Purposefully sacrificing my health for such nonsense is irrational… not to mention more expensive these days. Receive the vacation time, but you are costing yourself more money and pain in the end hands down.

Now, being a full grown adult, I haven’t bought a pack of cards in about 25 years. But, that almost changed the other day as my wife and I went down the aisle I didn’t even know existed at our local Wal-Mart… the ultimate kid’s dream, an aisle filled with cards of all shapes, sizes, and type. I stared at the various boxes and thought to myself how much money I had wasted through the years on these simple little pieces of cardboard. Even knowing that, I almost bought a pack of cards. Not baseball cards mind you, but Barack Obama cards. Yes, our new President has his own special edition inauguration card set.

I picked up the pack intent on buying them… not because I’m a fan, more of a joke kind of thing. However, my rationale soon kicked in and I placed the pack back in its box and laughed at myself for even coming so close to spending money on such a trivial item. The package of cards was priced at $1.98 and came with 6 cards and a special sticker. Of course, there is a set to collect and the entire collection consists of 90 cards and 18 stickers. Sounds fabulous for the card buying public doesn’t it?

Looking online, I can find many places selling these small “moments of history.” I am simply amazed by the fact that there are trading cards available of Barack Obama. I know he’s become one of the most widely recognized political figures of all times, but are “baseball” cards really necessary? To me, these cards are nothing more than political propaganda created to spread the ideology of the Liberal Democratic movement. The more these types of things are constantly placed in our daily lives, the more we as a society come to accept it.

Winning the hearts and minds of a society has long been an avenue to win a war. While our country is not exactly at war with each other, we are definitely separated by a clear division between ideologies… Liberal versus Conservative. Over the last generation, both sides have had their chance at power and they’ve each done their best to destroy the “losing” side. However, as all things do, their power ebbs and flows as society eventually becomes disenchanted with the policies of each after tasting them for too long.

Conservatism was in power for quite a long run earlier this decade, but over the last few years, Liberalism has retaken the political landscape. This time, unlike any in the past, they are using their vast coffers of cash in an effort to control the media and publicity for their cause. They are focusing on winning the hearts and minds of everyone who doesn’t investigate and decide on their own what they believe in. The general public is being force-fed the liberal agenda and many of them are willingly falling in line as the promises of government handouts entice their votes.

Obama baseball cards may appear to be innocuous, but political propaganda is never harmless. As Hitler arose to power in pre WWII Germany, political propaganda was utilized to sway the hearts and minds of its citizens so that his political policies would be readily accepted. I’m not saying Obama is the second coming of Hitler by any means, but the tactics he and his party are utilizing are straight out of the textbooks utilized by the tyrants of our past.

While writing this article, I was given the pleasure of watching a commercial for The Tonight Show telling me that our President will be a guest on Thursday night. Maybe it’s me, but I don’t see the point of our sitting President being a guest on a late night talk show. There are more important things to utilize his time for. The only thing this type of appearance can be used for is the furthering of his agenda and giving us more political propaganda. He is always in our face, always in our news, always in our ear… the more he is around us, the more we accept him… at least that’s the hope of his Party and his Liberal friends pushing their agendas. Be aware, don’t succumb to complacency and miss what the true story is… always question authority when power and money are to be gained.

Now, we have passed the initial 50 days of Obama’s term and the DJIA stands at 6,595.16 as we prepare to enter an even more tumultuous economic period. As of right now, the DJIA has had nearly 32% of its value sheared off. Since November, over 2.5 million workers have lost their job… since the beginning of the recession (officially started December 2007) 4.4 million jobs have been lost. It’s fairly obvious that electing our “saving grace” did nothing to cure the confidence in our markets.

These declines have occurred even with Obama pushing massive spending bills through Congress in an effort to stimulate our economy. Bush injected over $750 billion into the economy before he left office along with untold billions of dollars in ancillary stimulus money. Obama has trumped that bill by handing out nearly $800 billion and writing into the federal budget, another $750 billion for 2009. On top of that, Obama has agreed to spend over $400 billion in “health care reform.” Obama’s stimulus plan was pushed upon society as the great job saving machine that would generate 3.5 million jobs… over the next 2 years.

Looking at the analyst’s forecast for the next 2 years, they predict that unemployment will reach 9% this year… it’s at 8.1% as of this article. Next year, they are predicting well over 10% unemployment. These are estimates that were made AFTER Obama’s stimulus plans… wrap your mind around that, or better yet, your wallet… People are unrealistically focused on the unemployment rate when they should be watching the under-employment rate. The under-employment rate takes into account people who have completely given up looking for work and also includes people who are working part time jobs who need full time jobs but cannot find one. This number represents the true state of our job market.

So where does that number stand at today? Try 14.8% on for size. 8.1% unemployment supposedly equals 12.5 million people according to the government stats. 14.8% equals nearly 23 million people either out of work, given up on finding work, or involuntarily working part time jobs. These numbers are based on the idea that 155 million or so Americans work for a living.

Right now, let’s just round off the spending that we know of to $3 trillion. That means that our government has spent almost $20,000 per working American in an effort to stop the bleeding. Have you seen this 20k in your bank account? Have you seen your taxes reduced by 20k this year? Have you seen your house value go up 20k or lose multiple times that in value? Has your stock portfolio increased by 20k or dropped even more? Where is this money going? If the money was going to those who “create” jobs, then why is the economy shedding our jobs at a much faster pace since the money was injected than before?

Common sense would make you think that the injection of these massive amounts of money should have at least given us a plateau in job losses. I understand that the Democrats in the house say that the current economic hardships are the results of the Bush administration’s legacy. Let’s put some rationale to that ideology. The Democrats were in charge of both the House and Senate and also controlled almost 75% of state governorships since 2006. The recession started in December 2007. The Bush administration’s legacy from 2000-2006 was far from a recession. In those years, the Republican Party controlled the majority of political power seats. Sure, the effects of everything takes time to truly pan out, but the turning point was the date the Democrats took control of our country and their inability to curtail their partisanship and hatred of Bush. They allowed their political feelings affect how they governed our country and now we are all paying the price for their failings.

Where did our Presidential placebo go? The bounce we were so focused upon receiving did not happen. Rather than an uptick in our financial markets, a curtailing of our job losses, and a wealthier nation, we are now at a point where we are just entering the deepest valleys of this recession. I am convinced that we are going to see even worse times as we search for the rock bottom of our economic downturn. Millions more Americans will lose their jobs, billions more American taxpayer dollars will be spent without our agreement, and our stocks will continue to fall while we watch the foreclosure signs weather in our yards and our bank accounts shrink into penny savings. The placebo didn’t work and neither is spending money we don’t have. Placebo… we need the real deal.

So, how am I abusing my television? Well, let me put it this way, I like to yell at the digital people on the screen… a lot… and very loud… sometimes, I think they can actually hear me. My voice and reactions must carry through the wonderland of audio and video frequencies… I whole heartedly believe that! I don’t yell and scream at the real people in my life, why do I yell at digital representations of people on my television? If I was the only one that does this, I might feel a bit weird, or maybe even crazy. But, I KNOW I’m not the only one who EXPECTS the people inside the television to hear and obey the screams of those watching.

And so, I abuse my television, it carries the weight of this burden quite well. It has yet to talk back to me and it never fails to turn on. It must be a glutton for punishment because if I listened to how I talk to it (and I’m using talk very loosely here), I would have up and blown my picture tube a long time ago. I would have ceased to recognize the remote control signals and simply sit there doing absolutely nothing. Yep, that’s what I would do quite honestly. I’m sure glad my television doesn’t have any artificial intelligence at all.

Not only do I scream at the video game people, but I yell at people playing the variety of sports that I watch. How can they make such lousy plays when they’ve been playing these sports for the vast majority of their living and breathing life? Shouldn’t they be nearly unstoppable in every facet of their sport after practicing for nearly 20 years and being paid to do it to boot? From missed free throws to missed bunts to missing their pit in the race… how can it be done?

In reality, these people DESERVE to be yelled at and yelled at VERY loudly. Not only are they making their team cover for their mistakes, but they are affecting millions of people watching their performance. Yes, they should EXPECT to get yelled at… I would because I yell at myself for making the teams I’m involved with cover for my mistakes. Yes, not only do I yell at the video games and sports people on television, but I actually yell at and abuse myself.

I hope you guys don’t think I like yelling at things that don’t talk back… I don’t exactly like it. It’s just something that is built into my emotional state of being. I like to yell at inanimate things because I believe they actually enjoy making me mad enough to do it. Why else do some of the most unbelievable things happen while I’m watching? I honestly believe that if I’m not watching, things are absolutely perfect and nothing goes wrong… but when I tune in or play the game, the entire world comes crashing down in front of me just to see how loud I can yell or how high I can make my blood pressure go.

Even though I recognize that these objects in my life simply cannot hear me, I will continue to express my dissatisfaction with them by yelling, screaming, and generally hating every lasting minute of their existence until they succumb to my every beck and call. So, television, I know I’m a bit crazy, but you will continue to hear my yells. Sports people… you also will continue to be berated by my maniacal tirades at your incompetence. And I haven’t even mentioned the tools in my life… they probably deserve their own article.

So, join me in my abuse of inanimate objects… let’s show them who the boss is! I’ll guarantee you that I’ll do my part!

Why do we do this? Whether your faith tells you not to judge others or not, we all are judging one another. We can pick the most miniscule aspect out of someone’s life and simply label them a failure because of their abject failing to be perfect in their existence. The majority of us are harsh critics of one another but at the same time, ultimate forgivers when it comes to our own failings. We rationalize away our own problems and mistakes. It must have been the circumstances or bad luck or some other cosmic crossroads that created our own error in judgment or action.

Of course the other people in our world can’t possibly have that sort of leniency. They must be responsible for every last word spoken and action taken. There are no “do overs” and no “reasons” and there are no “mistakes” when it comes to the people we judge in our lives. As I said earlier, I often fall into the trap of judging others… all under the assumption that I must be the perfect example they are judged against. How wrong is that?

Today, for whatever reason, I was thinking about someone who I had judged in my life and I thought to myself, why is that ok when I am no better? No, I didn’t make the same mistakes, but were the mistakes made by that person any worse than mine? We all like to put grades on everything in our lives… it helps us determine priority and importance. But, if I’m not supposed to judge, then how can I place a grade on their mistake? All I can do is take care of myself and work on my own mistakes.

Take a few minutes and look at your last few days. Can you honestly say that you haven’t judged another person in that timeframe? I can’t. While I know that I’m not supposed to judge, I still manage to do it because I’m not perfect. My goal is to limit the times I do while going forward so that eventually, judging others becomes as rare as humanly possible.

The fallout from judging others can damage or even destroy existing relationships. It can keep relationships from ever being formed. The obstacles we create by judging others create an unfair roadblock for others to climb over. Rarely do we judge ourselves so we unconsciously believe ourselves to be perfect… or a shade of perfect… or a rational version of perfection…

Do you think it’s fair if the people in your life judged you and put these obstacles in front of your relationship? You do it, so you can bet they do it also. Maybe that’s why relationships are so hard to keep and nurture these days… People are so judgmental of everyone in their lives that forgiveness rarely enters the equation. We have determined that nobody fits our model of perfection and we have simply determined that no one deserves to be in our innermost trusted circle.

Rather than judge the people you know, and even those you do not, try turning the idea upside down. Apply the standards you have unjustly placed on others to yourself. Place yourself within the constraints of perfection and see how well you stack up. My guess is you will be shocked by your performance if you’re honest… we aren’t perfect and never will be. Why should we apply an unachievable standard to those around us if we can’t ever achieve the standard? Stop judging and start forgiving, that’s what I plan on doing more of. I don’t want to be judged by others so why should I judge them?

How easy is it to simply focus on the perceived failings of your competitors and do nothing to differentiate yourself other than to run down the scorecard of these failures? It’s very easy. How easy is it to focus on the shortcomings of your co-workers and use them to promote your own self up the ladder? Again, it’s very easy. My personal opinion on the people and businesses using this copout way of “attracting” attention is that they are showing you their true colors, their lack of character depth, and their lack of quality product or ability.

If you have nothing to differentiate yourself other than to constantly run other people down in an effort to make you or your product appear better, do you have anything better to offer in reality? Shouldn’t your product speak for itself? Shouldn’t your work ethic and character makeup speak for your ability? Shouldn’t you focus on what makes you better and not what makes the others worse? The reason why you see more and more people and businesses take this line of product differentiation is because they lack the cognitive ability to promote their own product ethically with integrity. Of course, that is assuming their product is at minimum, equal to their competitors.

You don’t have to be a marketing major or industry analyst to differentiate your product in a manner that is both ethical and positive. But, it does take more effort than constantly running your mouth about the weaknesses of your opposition. Your consumers, and or coworkers, are not oblivious to the real world, no matter how inept you believe them to be. People do not need to be fed their information as if they cannot form a rational opinion on their own. If you believe they need reinforcement in the manner of spouting negatives about your competition, then your product doesn’t have the natural distinction to win their attention on its own.

It’s not as simple as a “build it and they will come” philosophy, but it is as simple that if you build a product that is inherently better than the competitor, you can differentiate yourself in a positive and ethical manner. Simplistic minds and questionable character development allows a fertile ground for these negative differentiators to grow and exist.

I’ve personally seen more and more of this in my life from individuals and businesses. It turns me off from having a relationship with either of them. If they believe that I need a push to choose them over their competitor, they should show me the positives of their product. If all they can focus upon is a negative laundry list of their competitors, it tells me they don’t have a product I want.

People and businesses choose the easy way out in our lives more often than not. They choose not to focus upon creating their own positive image. They are too worried about getting ahead this instant. Their only traction in society is to belittle and publicly damage those who are “in their way.” Do you want to associate with these types of people or businesses? If they are so superficial and lacking in character, how much importance do you think you are to them? Are you nothing more than a contributor to their bottom line as long as you “agree” with their sentiments? Are you nothing more than a friend when you “agree” with their laundry lists?

I choose to deal with people and businesses of real character. For those who lack this capability, I refuse to augment their financial sheets and I refuse to incorporate them into my life. Focus on differentiating yourself in a positive manner. Yes, it takes more effort, but in the end, it makes you stand out above your competitors more than any list of failings they may have. Build some character, be positive, because guess what, you’re only the flavor of the month if all you have to win people over is what’s wrong with everyone else. What’s right with you? My guess is not a whole lot. Have some class and integrity… it goes a long way.

My wife has an issue with my viewpoint. She says I am rationalizing the ugly term of pessimism into an “acceptable” way of living. I am not a pessimist. I do not always assume the worst of everything but I do pay attention to the negatives in nearly all situations and account for their impact. However, along with that, I account for the positives and I make a decision based upon that knowledge. This knowledge, coupled with the experience of the real word, lead me to my realistic point of view.

The problem that comes as a result of living this way is that in reality, most things do have a negative result. Should we expect anything different? Is that a pessimistic or realistic statement? What do you think? To me, that is a realistic statement because of the state our world is currently in. Our spiritual relationships have withered, our morality has withdrawn into the darkness, and our ethical standards have decreased to the point where almost everything is acceptable in our world.

Given these REAL circumstances, the realistic point of view in nearly all situations will result in a true answer… give or take a miracle of humanity here and there. There are times when I hope against hope and am eternally optimistic, but those times are few and far between. Generally, I lay it out the way our world will most likely answer our situations. That is my realistic point of view. It is not pessimism. Pessimism to me is wallowing in self pity and sinking into a world of destructive hopelessness.

I have hope and I enjoy being optimistic. But I am only overly optimistic when the times are right and the situation calls for it. I will admit that having this point of view can lead you into pessimism because while we need to focus on the negatives that can happen, we must not dwell on their existence and occurrence at all times. Being a realist can very easily lead to a person becoming a pessimist.

I don’t think that will happen to me for a couple of reasons. I have a wonderful family life that fills my world with hope every day. I have a spiritual relationship that provides me hope and optimism. I am smart enough to know that good happens just as bad happens. But, people without those attributes in their lives can easily become pessimists with highly negative personalities.

Am I rationalizing or am I just being a realist? What’s your point of view? Are you an eternal optimist or an eternal pessimist? You may ask how I can be a realist and not an eternal optimist if I have a spiritual relationship with God. My answer to that is God did not make this world a perfect place. There are lots of things wrong in our world and we cannot simply be unaware of these bad things in our lives. We can hope that the bad won’t happen, but we must realize that it will happen… a lot.

I wish I could be an eternal optimist, but living a life like that in our world today can only lead to a lifetime of hurt feelings and damaged or crushed dreams. We can hope, but we must hope when hope is warranted. We can hope in all circumstances, but we must realize that sometimes, we are hoping against hope and the likely outcome isn’t going to be what we want. Miracles do happen, so hope is not ever to be given up, but just don’t expect a miracle in every situation, it won’t happen. That’s just being realistic.

I take things seriously, I am a competitive person. If I commit to doing something, I have chosen to enter into a competition with myself at the very basic level. I will continue down the path even if futility is certain. Quitting to me is an abject failure and should be averted at all costs. I believe there is always one last “Hail Mary” in our quiver of life’s arrows. Are you similar to me or is your standard of commitment a variable in an equation that changes by the day, hour, or even minute?

Personally, I know people who fall into each category. I know people who are like me… steadfast in their pursuit of their commitment. I know people who are the complete opposite of me… wishy-washy individuals who throw around the term commitment like yesterday’s worn socks. I know a whole gamut of people in between… that’s where most people are these days. Who is worse, the people who are wishy-washy or the in between commitment makers?

Being that I’m the polar opposite of the wishy-washy person, you may think I believe they are the worst ones… you would be wrong. The fact of the matter is that with the wishy-washy people, you know they will not honor their commitment and if they do, you should view it as a miraculous event… a true bonus in life. The middle of the road commitment makers are the most disturbing group of people to be around. You never know what you’re going to get. Are you going to get the guy who means what he says this time or not? Can you depend on him over the long term or is he just into making commitments for the short term? Or worse yet, is he the person that sometimes shows up and sometimes doesn’t?

Who makes you angrier? At least the wishy-washy commitment maker has his cards on the table and you know what you’re getting. Anger in their direction is your own fault… you shouldn’t have counted on their commitment anyway. Hoping against hope isn’t the answer here, track record is the answer.

I get aggravated, angry, and upset with the middle of the road guys. How can you pick and choose what you are committed to when other people are expecting you to uphold your end of the bargain? Do these people value their time over everyone else’s? What makes them more important than the other people involved in the commitment? I don’t understand the rationale here. If I commit to something, I have undertaken a responsibility and I honor my duty.

Duty, responsibility, and commitment… those are pretty large words in our vapid society today. No longer do the masses respect other people and their sacrifices required to honor their commitments. There’s another large word… respect. We have also thrown around the term honor. Honestly, how often do you see these traits in the world today? I would venture to say that if you have experienced these traits in an individual in your life recently, you probably couldn’t wait to tell the next person in your life about your “awesome” experience. These instances have become increasingly rare, and that’s sad.

Starting right now, think about the commitments in your life, no matter how large or small they may be. If you are not honoring your commitments, think about how your actions are hurting those who have chosen to respect their commitment. You may not be an all in person, all the time, but focus on honoring your commitments and people will respect you.

Oil has been trading below $50 for a while now and gas prices have plunged across the United States to levels we haven’t seen in five years. Even as OPEC continues to cut production in an effort to prop up falling oil prices, the bottom line still has not been found. OPEC nations built their fiscal year revenue models on $70+ per barrel prices. With the market price set much lower than that, their governments are having to dig deep into their coffers of cash to sustain their economy… it’s not like they are left wanting with the billions they have made in the last few years.

So, what we have right now is a massive global decline in demand for oil. Consumer demand for goods and services have eroded and many of the global economies have been in a state of freefall. Not only are the average people not spending money, but the wealthy are holding back on their investments and spending only on proven or guaranteed opportunities… the purse strings are tight everywhere. A continuing erosion of demand will lead to even softer prices for oil, no matter what OPEC does until they near the rock bottom oil production which is necessary to sustain the world’s most basic economic functions.

Are we close to that level? I don’t know, we may never find out. But, we could be finding out in our near future that we are entering into a much more horrific future regarding gas and oil prices than what we saw this summer. What will we see happen when the global recession begins to end and the demand for oil returns? What will we see happen when the cuts OPEC has made impacts the volatile and fledging economic upswings? Will the diminished production coupled with a reappearing demand for oil throw the market into upheaval?

How fast do you think OPEC will turn their spigots back on when the economies begin demanding more oil? Do you think they will be satisfied with a measly $70 per barrel or do you think they are like an animal after that once tasted sweet blood of $150 per barrel? If $150 was seen without OPEC reducing their supply, what do you think we’ll see with their levels cut and demand returning? Will we see $200, $250, or even $300? I’ve read reports from some lifelong oil traders who are throwing around the term super spike. I’m not all about doom and gloom, but the reality is that our global recession will end at some point and OPEC has cut millions of barrels of production already. They will likely cut more in the next year if things do not turn around sooner than later.

The only rational future is that of horrific oil and gas prices once again. We are living in what I equate to an oil remission. The future is not the present… the future is more of our past summer. Is that a horror show? I believe so.

You may say that the economies will succumb to the extreme costs and immediately withdraw into a minor recession and thus avert a super spike of oil and gas prices. That may well be true. The impending oil costs of our future could in fact destroy any gains we make as nations in an effort to dig ourselves out of our growing recession. If that day comes, the recession will be even worse than what we are experiencing now because it will be like a sledgehammer (oil prices) hitting a watermelon (weak economies on brittle standing). As nations reverse recessions, the economies must gain momentum and sustain consumer demand. If oil and gas immediately spike, any gains will be immediately killed and the economies could back away much further than necessary in a violent reactionary adjustment.

We want and are in dire need of an economic turnaround, but we must be prepared for the impending costs of oil and gas. If we fail to recognize a potential super spike on the way, we are destined to repeat our errors of the last few years and end up in a worse boat than now. Millions of jobs lost now? Tens of millions of jobs lost later. Be wary and watchful.