Friday, April 29, 2011

6-8 Weeks Hard Labor for $2.50

"Only 150 years ago, something like 65% of the work being done in the American economy was being done by horses, oxen, mules ... another 18% or so was being done by human muscle power ... & the rest , less than 20% of the work getting done was being done by fuel fed machines ... Now virtually all the work is being done by fuel fed machinery ... the contribution of muscle power is virtually non existent by comparison ... this is a completely different way of living, of thinking about the world & for us it is something to be expected ... that there is always going to be a machine to take care of us , to produce our foods, to carry us from one place to another.

Imagine pushing your car 20-30 miles. That's what we get from a single gallon of gasoline that we pay maybe $2.50 for (try $3.89) . That amount of work is roughly equivalent to 6-8 weeks of hard human labor. Imagine getting 6-8 weeks of hard human labor for $2.50. That's what we've gotten used to. "

~~ Richard Heinberg
Author - The Party's Over

This is from the documentary "Blind Spot" which tells the tale of our demise via our utter dependence on cheap oil ...

I'll post video in next post ...

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