Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> 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>