Have we all become petroleum slaves?

yes it is pretty scary. For me, I plan my errands etc more carefully. I drive a small car that is good on gas. We keep our heat down in the winter as much as possible and wear sweaters and use blankets. Still, the costs have risen and our pays haven't. You can only cut corners so much and still survive. I do know a man who has created an engine that will run on water...yup...just pure water. It cost him about $300 to install it in his corvette which he is currently driving on tap water. He bought all the materials from the hardware store and plans on going public with it. I'm thinking that the oil companies will try to buy out his plans or kill him. It'd be very cool but I don't think our government or the oil industry really cares about our plight or wants a solution. They are profitting from this.

Very well said. I do think we are slaves to oil, bound by chains of our own making. We live in this instant gratification style society in which we pass our problems to our children. There are many alternative energy sources if we just put the money into them, however in the current economic crunch it is hard for the little guy to do that. Corporate greed is so high we would rather have a buck today than reinvest it into alternative energies. Oil companies are bragging that they put over a billion dollars into research, but taken in context that is less than 1%. I don't know about you, but I don't think that is all that impressive. Eventually the oil will run dry and we will have to look to solar, wind, hydro, nuclear and plant energy.

There are cars that run on vegetable oil and burn cleaner for the environment. We have nuclear plants in place. More and more people are turning to wind and solar energies. However, until we as a society make these the norms we will be stuck in oil mess. How developed we will be as a country will depend on how much effort we put into alternative sources. As a country we need to do away with this plastic today, bankrupt tomorrow attitude and go back to being responsible. Our future is in our own hands.

Sorry for the book...lol. This subject just gets me going.

We have all become dependent on petroleum. This is the reason why we all feel bad and sad when there are oil price increases. This is because we are all aware that once there in an oil price hike, there will also be an increase in price of basic commodities. Since we do not have our own source of petroleum, we are burdened by the consequences of increase in oil price in the world market. I hope the government will be able to really do something about supporting the use of alternative source of energy.

In the US, its not that the people and society have become petroleum slaves... they've been petroleum slaves... for many decades. The infrastructure and other facets of society point this out. The residential and community developments are further, farther and more convoluted all of which depend on a car for consumption. There is no encouragement for walking due to the design. There is barely any public transportation. All attempts at alternative transportation were either quashed by the oil situation and viability, or were suppressed due to backwards fears and inappropriate priorities ("nope can't have any rail eh? only the car, the car is perfect" fools...-_-)

I don't just place the blame on the oil companies. There are also speculators and forces on the market end influencing the price. You also have another variable, the people consumed all of this, and the elected officials did nothing significant. Can't have buses or can only have less busses - because "those" people use them, and because they slow down the almighty car. Can't have rail, rail "sucks". Can't spend on research and development on the public sector side of this equation... that money is reserved for the politician's pockets... I meant "better" causes. -_-. Psyche there are options and only now are governments and people starting to catch on. It'll take many years before things actually get better and even that is not guaranteed. It is more likely gasoline (and energy) costs will continue to rise, but due to the lack of choice for many, consumption will continue (another cause for rising costs). Due to the negative perception and the current built environment public transportation will be very difficult to implement, but the cause for building them becomes more and more apparent: cut airlines, increases travel costs, increases motorist costs.