I'm going to have to change them, Diesel here in so Cal is almost $ 3.50 a gallon.  I'm afraid it'll hit $ 4.00/gal soon, I'm going to have to work hard to find ways to reduce my driving.

This summer I asked the same question to a friend of mine who owns a boat sales/marina. My questions was to see if the increase in gas prices negatively effected his customers and his profits.

His response was that most boat owners who had invested many thousands and tens of thousands of dollars in their equippment and had made vacation plans a year in advance, were going to continue on as usual, regardless of the cost of fuel. The fuel was the least expensive part of their plans.

This summer, at several different horse shows, we observed good turnouts, large classes and the prolifiration of larger and new rigs. My wife and I didn't notice a significant down turn in attendance.

I would assume that the two results are common. Both groups have made major investements in their equippment and will use them in spite of additional costs.

Day to day driving may be changing, but when it comes to hobbies, I think people will do whatever they can to maintain their special interests.

bol  Gard

Not this summer, most people thought this was just a blip...Next show season wil be telling the tale...

Just as an aside...everyone who happens to have a variable rate mortgage will be getting EXCITING new numbers in November...(my lowest row of the keyboard isn't typing very well...)

" And I cannot understand the people at the groceries and convenience stores who leave their vehicles running while they go inside to run their errands."

They want their vehicles stolen....:-)  Is it wrong to hope that they are?

Well, they won't be going down anytime soon, unless we enter a MAJOR recession...CHINA and INDIA are now becoming MAJOR world consumers of oil and there is the rub...

I feel the need for Pure theory... 

What is the role of government in a capitalist society?

The only purpose of government would be to protect its citizens from force or fraud.

The protection from force, that is, the protection of individual rights, would be achieved through the use of a police force to protect the rights of citizens at home; a military, to protect the rights of citizens from foreign aggression; and a court system to enforce contracts and settle disputes between citizens. Since rights can only be violated by initiating force, the government would only use force in retaliation of those who initiated it.

The greatest aggressor against man -- the greatest spiller of human blood, has been the various governments that man has adopted throughout history. Because the government holds a legal monopoly for the use of force, the crimes committed by individuals acting on their own behalf are trivial compared to the crimes, tyrannies, and wholesale barbarism that governments are responsible for. This is why it is crucial that governments be limited in their ability to use force by a constitution based upon individual rights. That was the key insight of the Founding Fathers which made America freer than any other nation on earth.

Any other function of government than those listed above, no matter what its intentions, would necessitate the violation of rights by initiating the use of force against the people it is supposed to protect. For example, compulsory tax-supported education forces some people to pay for the schooling of others for whom they would not have voluntarily paid for.

This is assuming one believes we are living in a capitalistic society...