This conversation always makes me snicker a little bit.

For many people, a QUARTER of their income goes to the fuel in order to propel them to their job. For some it's higher.

I had a brief conversation with the cashier at our local grocer the other day. I asked her if she'd started her tomato plants yet and she replied testily that she "doesn't have time to garden because she's so busy working." I asked why she had to work so much and she then snapped, "Because I have to feed my family!"

You don't have time to grow food because you're so busy working so that you can buy food?

Is there a magic price of gasoline that will force us Americans to suddenly realize the trap and fraud of corporate employment? Is there a number at which Americans will suddenly begin to be concerned with how to reduce their needs so that they don't have to sell their time?

We live in such a state of wealth and luxury that has never been seen before in the history of men. Even the poorest peasant in America enjoys out-of-season strawberries and air conditioning. Entertainment is piped straight in through the wires. Each of us lives a life that a king could only have dreamed of in times past.

But you wanted it to be cheap forever?