Recession, depression, excession!

I am so confused these days as to what exactly is happening to our fragile economy. Some say recession, could be, but no one is jumping off roof-tops, so I say hard times that we all need to learn to deal with. With gas at $3.50 at the pump, and the big oil guru's reporting record profits, I doubt we'll ever see gas below $3.00 ever again. It's really comical maybe at how the oil companies are reporting these huge profits. They give a run down for every little aspect of their business, research, drilling, imports/exports etc. When they get to refining they show little profit in that area. Of course they would, they have to show us that they have to raise the price of gas so they can continue to refine. And then our great news guru's report "the demand for gasoline is down." What, how the hell can it be down and we're still paying high dollar. When I was in school so many years ago, I was taught the relationship between supply and demand. If supply is high and there is no demand, cost factors go down. Hmmm, did I miss something?

Surely in the true scope and definition of the word, we are not anywhere close to depression, yet! If all the layoffs, cutbacks, price raises etc. continue, we surely could dip in that direction. I do believe though, that we are smart enough in this country not to allow that to happen.

Now for my sniglet, excession! Look around, doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we have too damn much in this country. A couple of examples. My disclaimer, seems in this day and age you have to have a disclaimer for everything; "I am not in anyway attacking or faulting anyone or any business for trying to make a buck."

I live in a city of roughly 175,000, not a big city, but open up the yellow pages and look for automobile dealers. Too friggin' many thats for sure. Do these dealers really sell all these cars? Why do we need a half dozen Ford dealerships in a radius of 15 miles or so? Why do we need to have a Walgreens at every major intersection? Now you realize that Walgreens pays upfront for every store they build and thats a good thing. On to Kroger (grocery chain), Walmart, Target, and malls in general. Come on guys give us a break. You're killing me. Too many choices in too many directions. Why take the trees and leave a concrete/asphalt mass when you close that store.

We, as a people need to give up some of these wonderful conveniences. I'd rather drive a few mile further and enjoy the trees and nature along the way. Bottom line, we are killing our resources for the convenience of closeness. The "green" people that are so concerned about global warming, which to be truthful I have no idea what thats all about, pure air, recycling and the like, need to push for ordinances concerning these abandoned giant pads of concrete and asphalt. I say, if a business builds and moves to a new home they should be required to either sell, develop, or return that piece of abandoned property to it's natural state, whether that be forestry, green fields or creek beds, within a year of their move.

Okay I've rambled long enough, hell no one reads this crap anyway do they!