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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Missouri homestead for sale
  • Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 14:49:17 EDT


> The only negative is that it is only a bit more than an hour from
> Springfield and will experience strong population growth.
>
>

Maybe. I say that in light of Don's last post on the 'gas price' thread. We
are at fulcrum in human history. Absolutely everything about the modern
American way of life depends on motor fuel. An hour from Springfield will
experience population growth ONLY if the availability of personal
transportation at
today's prices continues unabated.

And that, says I, is unlikely.

In this remote enough hollow where I live there are maybe 15 households
farther up the hollow than I am. My gardens are within sight of the county
road
although, thank the gods, the house isn't. When I am in the garden for a
few
hours I can keep a running count of the traffic. Many of these people have
nothing to do with themselves and one would see the same vehicle go down the
road
and back up four or five times a day .... one trip for frozen pizza, one to
pick up kids from something, one for smokes, one for a newspaper and some
beer,
etc. Last summer when gas hit $3/gal, all that traffic abruptly stopped.
When gas fell below $2.25 again, it picked up unabated. Well, nearly
unabated.
Two families had moved out. Very few of these people have a rural lifestyle
and when a reasonable facsimile of town life could not be had because of fuel
prices, they left.

This summer it's the same thing. Gas here stands at about $2.95/gal but it
had reached more than $3.10 at one point. The traffic halted completely.
Another family moved out.

$5/gal gas would just about depopulate the whole place except for a few old
diehards and the Mexicans. Fine by me. </HTML>




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