If Gas Prices Go to $5 Per Gallon

(This post was written with Egypt's current political atmosphere in mind.)

Photo Courtesy of the Associated Press.

The Alpha Strategy gives simple advice on how to protect your wallet against inflation. Download it here.

But if you haven't downloaded that book yet (or haven't read it) I will briefly mention what you can do to prepare for an increase in gas prices.

Unfortunately, there is very little, especially if the price of gas jumps overnight. This is because gas is unlike other things you can buy in advance (like food) before the price goes up. Simply put, you can store a lot of food in a pantry. You can't store a lot of gas anywhere unless you have a storage unit away from the house. This rules out people who live in apartments and condos. Only homeowners can do this.

Option 1: Stocking up on gas is the best you can do. It is also the hardest to do. And it also the most dangerous. There are a lot of drawbacks to this. There are a lot of Federal rules and permits that you need to do this. Most people won't or can't do this. I can't. Perhaps the rich can or someone with tons of free storage room. Turn to page 78 of the Alpha Strategy to read about this in detail.

Option 2: Buying a motorcycle or scooter (like Vespa) can help reduce travel costs. Certain scooters have 2.5 gallon tanks that travel 70 miles per gallon. They are also very stylish. I would get one. I think they are pretty stylish. The upside to getting one of these is that even if gas goes to $5 per gallon, you're only paying $12.50 for a fill. Whereas your SUV-driving counterparts would be paying $70 dollars easy. The downside is that the fastest ones only go about 50-mph, which make it good for city streets, but bad for highways. Then again, if less people are driving, highways will be less crowded. Oh, and of course, it is only a one-seat deal. Sorry kids.

Additionally, if the price of scooters or motorcycles increases, you can buy either one early and lock in a good rate. So even if there is interest, say on a $1,999 scooter, it is still less than interest on a $3,999 or $9,999 or $19,999 if the price doubles, triples, or whatever due to inflation.

Motorcycles are also a way to hedge against inflation. Read about this here ("A Two-Wheeled Hedge Against Inflation).

For a list of the MPG for motorcycles visit the following links

Top 50 Best MPG Motocycles
Total Motorcycle Fuel Economy Guide

For a list of the MPG for Scooters visit the following links
MPG Guide: The Fuel Economy Of 250 Top Selling Scooters
Motor Scooter Muse

For Vespa, the international scooter company, go here.
For Honda click here. (Youtube is handy to see how they ride)

Option 3: This option is a continuation of the second. You can store gas cans for motor cycles and scooters in a garage. Perhaps buying a few cans in advance wouldn't hurt. Oh and the Alpha Strategy mentions that chemicals in gas break down over time, so read up on that before you store anything. Then consult a professional.

Option 4: Buy a bike...better than the one you had in middle school. It is the last resort...it also signifies a lower quality of living. No one wants to resort to this. I don't want to do this. I like the motorcycle option the most.

Once again, if you haven't done so before, download The Alpha Strategy and flip to page 78.

On a side note, I believe that more people will buy motorcycles and scooters as market pressures force gas prices to rise. I'm not saying the following scenario is realistic, but imagine if we let GM and Chrysler to fail, and a foreign company came in and re-figured their factories to sell something Americans, and perhaps the world, needs.

The Chinese rode bikes a lot before they became an economic power. I'm sure Americans can ride gasoline-powered motorcycles, especially if a squeeze on their wallets force them to.

Now that I think about it, the small tanks that they hold are very conservative of gas. Perhaps a shift in more people using these would be an example of how the free-market conserves gas, instead of a legislation used to shift everyone to "green energy."

On another note, I think if the prices increases dramatically, more companies will shift to telecommuting.

My second published article!!!!

Senate Tea Party Caucus Says Movement Won’t be ‘Co-Opted’ by Washington | CNSnews.com

Ok, I want this Propaganda book, too!

I just have this deep interest in analyzing propaganda when I see it.

Video: List of Hateful Rhetoric is Long

I want this book on Chinese Propaganda

I think its time to head to my local library to do some research on propaganda.

Video: Peter Schiff on the State of the Union, Fed, and more!

Video: Peter Schiff: FCIC is a sham!

Video: Ben Witherington on Jesus and Money

Video: Cato Addresses State of the Union 2011

My First Published Article!!!

Rep. Bachmann Targets 132 New Regulations, Costing Billions, Created in the First 2 Years of Obama Administration | CNSnews.com

Gerald Celente on the Riot Mentality

"When people lose everything, and they have nothing left to lose, they lose it." Gerald Celente, And Now We're Headed For The GREATEST Depression, Says Gerald Celente

Obama is not Martin Luther King

“Obama could admire King, but he could never be him. He was not a leader of a movement; he was a politician, a commander-in-chief.” David Remnick, quoted in Reviewing the Obama Presidency

Video: Where do you start with Gold?

Video: End of Liberty

Video: Poor Mans Way To Prepare For Hyperinflation, Homelessness as a Lifestyle...

Gary North on Why No Committee is Needed

"It is difficult for many people to understand that the free market operates rationally, even though there is no committee of experts planners or politicians to tell the market what to produce. People find it difficult to believe that God’s world is a world in which individual people, responsible before God and their fellow men, go about their daily business, making decisions, planning for the future, and focusing their attention on their own personal and family needs, and out of all this hustling and bustling, pushing and shoving, comes the most productive economy in the history of man." Gary North, Honest Money

Video: 'Is Healthcare a Constitutional Right?' Asks CNSNews.com

Is Health Care a Constitutional right? Well, Rep. John Lewis seems to think so. He cites the Preamble to the Constitution, Fourteen Amendment and the "Pursuit of Happiness" statement in the Declaration of Independence as his support.

The full story can be read here.

Chinese Dissident Calls for Obama to ‘Imagine’ One of His Daughters ‘Has to Be Put to Death,' Just Like Under China's One-Child Policy | CNSnews.com

I love it when Christians stand up for human rights abuses!

Chinese Dissident Calls for Obama to ‘Imagine’ One of His Daughters ‘Has to Be Put to Death,' Just Like Under China's One-Child Policy | CNSnews.com

Video: Reason TV on Stupid Cable Punditry

Rich Noyes on Leftist Hypocrisy

According to Rich Noyes, the list of leftist incendiary speech is long, and it dates back years:

But if the media insist on having a debate about political speech, they need to focus on the Left’s vileness as well. Otherwise, they’re just partisan hypocrites joining in the exploitation of tragedy for political gain.

Rich Noyes, While Media Indict Conservative Speech, Left's Lunacy Is Ignored

Lew Rockwell on "Incendiary Speech"

Take it away Lew:

Politicians are, once again, seeking to outlaw “incendiary speech”. So, no more threatening the mass murder of Iranians? Oh no, of course, not. That sort of rhetoric, and the killing of perhaps a million people in the Muslim world under the Bushes, Clinton, and Obama, and all the future planned killing, is just public policy. Nothing to see there. Move along.

Lew Rockwell on his facebook status.

Michael S. Rozeff on Monetizing the Debt

A few reasons to buy gold and silver:

As the Federal Reserve keeps buying more and more government debt, with no prospect of reducing its holdings unless and until the government gets its house in order, bond yields are likely to rise, despite Fed buying, because yields also reflect inflation premiums. The prospect of inflation will rise as the Fed monetizes the debt. We would then see yields rising accompanied by firm prices of commodities and metals.

The inflationary participation by the Fed, which postpones the inevitable fiscal decisions of the government, harms all holders of fixed-dollar assets and all those whose receipts of dollars are fixed and lag behind the Fed’s production of new dollars. In addition and more importantly, the inflation sets in motion another boom-bust cycle.

M. Rozeff, Geithner Says U.S. Insolvent

Star Parker on the Black Clergy and Individual Freedom

"One can only hope that at some point black clergy will grasp that freedom means a culture of responsibility, not a culture of entitlement. And that individuals cannot be empowered by others or by forced transfer of what belongs to others. It can only come by individuals taking responsibility for their own lives." Star Parker, A new coalition of Black churches offers nothing new

Video: Five Ways to Cut Military Spending Today

War is a Racket! Go Download it

Ludwig Von Mises once said that "Economically considered, war and revolution are always bad business." I agree. War is, by its very nature, the destruction of valuable and scarce resources (human and non-human). People's ways of living are always destroyed and, to give a 21st century example, agitate these same people into violence.

When we destroy, say, an opium poppy field in Afghanistan, we are also destroying someones way of life. These farmers must look elsewhere for work and other ways to provide for themselves, usually in areas of work that they are less skilled in (thus increasing their chances of earning lower wages). Many times these same farmers join militaristic groups to fight back against aggressive governments.

After destroying their only way of living, can we really blame them?

On a side note, who is to say that these farmers are using opium poppy seeds soley to fund a terrorist group, if at all? Who is to say these farmers can't sell these seeds to medical companies who want to produce pain reducing medications?

After all, opium poppy seeds do have medicinal purposes as well.

Also, just because we have a legalized culture of drug prohibition in the United States doesn't mean we can use military might to impose that culture on any foreign country.

In short, we choose the killing of livings by our intervention rather than helping farmers make a killing from their way of living by our non-intervention.

The other tragic aspect of war is that there are others who profit from war. It is for this reason that I am providing a link to the anti-war classic "War is a Racket" by retired U.S. Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler. The link in the previous sentence is to the online HTML version. However, if you want the PDF version click here.

Thomas Sowell on the Question of the Millennium

"Why are politicians so focused on one set of people, at the expense of other people? Because “saving” one set of people increases the chances of getting those people’s votes." Thomas Sowell, 'Saving' the Housing Market

Don't 'Save' The Housing Market

Thomas Sowell explains the fallacy of the seen and the unseen in the effort to "save" particular people with prospects of home foreclosure:

We hear sad stories about people whose homes are “underwater” or who are facing foreclosure. But why should our attention be arbitrarily focused on these particular people, rather than on the many other people who would benefit from being able to buy those same houses at lower prices? The government is artificially keeping the prices up with subsidies and with pressures on lenders to accommodate the current occupants.

I have felt this and have been saying this for quite some time in other areas. Read the rest of the article here.

Student Loan Reform on Student Loan Laws

I found this on Facebook:

Donald Trump can file for bankruptcy for losing all of his money in the stock market and making poor business decisions but college students are not allowed to do so with their student debt. The issue isn't that we took out too much money, it's that companies such as Sallie Mae keep trying to screw us in order to make more money on late fees and defaults. It's not fair! So, it's time to organize and make sure people are aware of this issue so they don't make the same mistake I did. I trusted Sallie Mae.