The price of living in 2012 isn’t as bad as it seems
read more recent story comments Reader comments| QuestionEverything Tuesday, February 21, 2012: 11:47 am More from QuestionEverything  | I would encourage folks to consider the sales pitch we hear for the XL Keystone Pipeline in much the same way Luedeman suggests we should view flower catalogs - with the knowledge that the advantages and seeming beauty are being oversold and the potential for underperformance, damage, and waste of money are being under-reported. |
| 1Uuse2No Wednesday, February 22, 2012: 9:41 am More from 1Uuse2No | where the heck are you getting your statistics from with "while today’s average wage is around $17 an hour" You must make pretty decent money as a writer then. because on average, all the interviews I have ever been on (after coming home from Iraq because the company I worked for packed up and went to China) is roughly around $10 to $11 hr. |
| 1Uuse2No Wednesday, February 22, 2012: 11:04 am More from 1Uuse2No | So, let me throw my statistics out here for you. In 1934, most people were working locally. Today, most people have to travel to the next biggest city to find work. at your rounded up figure of $17 an hour calculated to $680 per week..(which according to Indiana Business Review it would really be $16.63hr taken from an annual salary so who knows how many overtime hours had to be worked to get that annual salary). We are going to have to knock off 25% of that right off the bat for taxes and SSI (which I probably wont ever get back because SSI is bankrupt and, which didnt start being collected until 1937 so that kicks aside your 1934 BS) which gives us ($510 per week) If I have to travel to Indy every day for work. (30 to 35 miles one way)driving a beat up 1999 vehicle because I cant afford to buy a new car at today's prices(which a "2004" report by Edmunds.com stated that the average vehicle costed $30,000 roughly $65 per week not including car insurance and not including all the taxes they pile on the top of that $30,000 price tag) gets me about 17 miles to the gallon. "According to the United States Department of Transportation, the average motor vehicle, including light trucks, in the US had a fuel economy rating of 17.1 MPG" At your bloated $17 - taxes ($510 per week)that is already 20% of my pay check at $100 week to go back and forth to work..now lets tack on a mortgage payment of (which according to Indian Real Estate Market View is a whopping $1031 per month) divided by 4 weeks costs me ($257 week) so, now we are at a total of ($357 per week) so right there with those 2 things there's 70% of my pay check. Now lets tack on an electric bill (roughly about $85 according to Indianapolis Power & Light) tack on another $30 per month for gas according to Indiana Citizens Energy Group. So, Now we are at ($385 per week) now lets tack on groceries for myself, my wife and my 2 kids.. (If I shop at WalMart and by generic Great Value I can drop that price to roughly $150 per week)Now we are at ($515) per week from $510 per week) ... So, now I am bankrupt!! Should we go on about paing for school supplies for those 2 kids, cale TV since they are banning free public broadcast over the airways, internet, the price of having to buy The Reporter Times News, health insurance for us four in the house, god forbid the kids have to go to the emergency room for some stupid crap all kids do... On and on and on!!!... So, you take your political bolstering of "the economy isnt that bad" and stick it in your ear. |
| 1Uuse2No Wednesday, February 22, 2012: 11:19 am More from 1Uuse2No | Im gonna correct my last sentence... I shouldn't have used the term "political bolstering"... I should have used the term "bolstering" in general... My mind is in a political rant right now from all the stupid crap happening in today's society...... Sorry, My Bad.. |
| RaynBo Sunday, February 26, 2012: 8:46 pm More from RaynBo | For anyone wanting to know the true impacts of the Pipeline read below. Also why is it that we do not fight to have green energy. We really need to find other sources of energy to keep us moving along. I am almost certain this would provide America with many more jobs in the long run. At the same time I think we Americans need to learn to be less superficial and become more self sufficient. Average wage $17.00? Where? Not here in Morgan County most jobs here are service jobs (meaning retail, food, ect) These do not pay well at all. And I am sure that with the recent throat slashing of unions this will only worsen. Folks need to wake up and quit trusting the government. They do not work for us they work for the banks. Are projects that make climate change worse - like the Keystone XL Pipeline - in the national interest? Not if short-term expedience creates long-term disaster. The 1,711-mile-long, yard-wide KXL would transport oil from underneath Alberta's boreal forests to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. The oil would most likely be exported from there. One long-term cost of KXL is its contribution to raising the Earth's temperature. Burning fossil fuel carried in the pipeline produces carbon dioxide. Dr. James Hansen, who heads NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, calculates KXL will carry enough tar sands oil to raise the level of CO2 on Earth by 200 parts per million (ppm). Eighteen American scientific organizations support the consensus view that excess CO2, which is at its highest level in the last 800,000 years (392 ppm), is warming our planet. An increase in the Earth's temperature causes climate change, which has many negative effects. For example, climate change has enlarged the range of disease-bearing insects that once thrived only in warmer climates. In Africa, malaria kills a child every 30 seconds. Climate change will expand the habitat of the tropical mosquitoes that carry malaria, adding 80 million cases annually to that toll. In 1933, malaria infected 30 percent of the Tennessee Valley Authority's inhabitants. The spraying of DDT, which is no longer considered safe, eradicated malaria in the U.S. by 1951. However, if climate change produces the warming and torrential rains that exacerbate stagnant water pools, malaria could return. Another example of an increase in the spread of disease due to climate change is painful and occasionally fatal dengue. Before being eradicated here, it infected half a million Texans in 1922. On the rise in other countries, dengue is expected to revisit the U.S. Southwest and areas stretching to Chicago where one of its carriers, the Asian tiger mosquito, has migrated. Lyme disease - carried by ticks - is increasing as our U.S. climate warms. From 2000 to 2006, the Centers for Disease Control reported between 17,000 and 24,000 cases a year. At the close of 2009, the CDC reported 29,959 cases. Let's compare. The KXL Pipeline will produce 5,060 to 9,250 full-time equivalent, temporary, non-local jobs over the two-year construction phase, as calculated by Cornell University's Global Labor Institute - a realistic number lower than the inflated 20,000 claimed by KXL supporters. Thus KXL will produce $253 million - $555 million in wages (at $50,000 to $60,000 per job). Compare that with the $534 million-plus cost of treating 6,000 added U.S. cases of Lyme disease every three years (at $89,000 per case). Thus, within three years or less, global warming-related, impaired health costs will begin to outweigh wage benefits of the Earth-warming KXL project. Burning fossil fuel also detrimentally affects agriculture and fuel costs. For example, Montana is 20 percent dryer than it was in 1911. Excess CO2 created from burning more fossil fuel will increase dryness. Scientists at the USDA and elsewhere note a 10 percent to 17 percent decline in wheat, corn, soybean, and rice yields for every 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature during growing periods. As temperatures rise our ability to raise food will diminish. TransCanada, KXL's developer, indicates that some oil now refined for domestic production will be diverted to KXL for export to more lucrative markets overseas. As a result, according to the GLI, 15 Mid-western states will experience a 10- to 20-cent per gallon increase in gasoline prices (up to $5 billion a year). Taken together, increases in health care and fuel costs, and decreases in food production, obliterate any financial benefit from KXL jobs and local tax revenues. Others warning of the threats to U.S. national security that climate change poses include the National Intelligence Council, Council on Foreign Relations, Center for Navel Analysis, CIA, Institute for Strategic Studies, and the National Intelligence Council. The NIC's classified assessment for Congress concludes climate change could threaten U.S. security in the next 20 years by causing political instability, mass refugee migration, terrorism, or conflicts over water and other resources. So, our national interest lies in preventing use of tar sands oil, not in facilitating it. When the State Department's Glendive hearing addressed whether KXL was in the national interest, pipeline advocates carried pre-printed signs saying, "Reason Not Extremism." Whose side is reason on? Russ Doty is CEO/general counsel for New World WindPower in Billings. Helena native Holly Wilde is an actor, educator and writer in Steamboat, Colo. Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/columnists/keystone-pipeline-bad-for-the-u-s-and-the-earth/article_01ebc1f8-0a1b-11e1-a0fc-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1nXfDHTVJ |
| Danny Stewart Monday, February 27, 2012: 7:53 am More from Danny Stewart | Raynbo, You should quit listening to the global warming hacks. It's been proven false. Real science has proven the world is actually cooling. As for the weather changes, look to the sun and natural continental shift. |
| Danny Stewart Monday, February 27, 2012: 7:54 am More from Danny Stewart | As for the so called green energy. It's ineffective and useless. At least at theis time. |
| nobodyimportant Monday, February 27, 2012: 8:39 am More from nobodyimportant | I don't know what definition of "green energy" is being used here on this thread. Most clear-thinking people recognize our out of control excesses of the past with regard to using our natural resources. I'm old enough to remember the carbide fog of Lousiville and the coal smog of Pittsburgh. Anyone who would want to go back to that is just plain looney. We have already cleaned up a lot of our act. Polluntants are way down and getting lower. Green energy, if you are talking about fuels to make energy such as electricity, gasoline, etc., is already being implemented. And take this to the bank, it will continue growing. For sure, some of the alternative production mechanisms are not yet feasible or cost-efficient. But just look at what has happened in the computer industry. I am old enough to remember computers that tookl up several rooms and spit out stacks of cards with data. My first personal computer didn't have a hard drive. There is as much computer technology in a 2012 Ford 1500 as there was in the first Mercury space capsule. If you don't believe that we have the will and the means to discover more cost-efficient energy production systems, you aren't thinking with a clear head. |
| RaynBo Monday, February 27, 2012: 4:24 pm More from RaynBo | Thank you nobody, I concur. And Danny, the world is cooling? Really? Where is your science to back this up? The Banking Industries bought scientists? How is Green Energy ineffective? Do explain in detail please? |
| 1Uuse2No Monday, February 27, 2012: 5:50 pm More from 1Uuse2No | Hey RaynBo... Although, I don't agree with Danny's statement that the Earth is cooling. (rather it will be later) I want to know where your science and "facts" are to prove your blabber? I'm calling you out.... So, back it up! I want to see your proof that the warming process is caused in full by mans pollution. 1) Prove to me how the banking industries bought up the scientists. and prove to me that green energy is so efficient. I want to see "facts".. that means citations of publications, web addresses to the websites your getting your information from (not your green peace propaganda and hype publications/websites. I want to see facts and figures on how efficient green energy is. Believe me, I have did my homework on this topic.. I have been researching green energy for a few years. Do explain in detail please! |
| 1Uuse2No Monday, February 27, 2012: 6:02 pm More from 1Uuse2No | Can the Editor please Create a new Thread/Story Line for "The Green Energy and Global Warming Debate" ? This subject has gotten off focus from the original story. |
| 1Uuse2No Tuesday, February 28, 2012: 2:34 pm More from 1Uuse2No | Here is my personal theory about the Green (Alternative) Energy Solution. Although, I am planned on installing alternative energy myself, its really not any more efficient at the current time than power plants. I am installing it because I consider myself to be a survivalist and don't want to be dependent on society to provide me with what my family needs to survive and live somewhat comfortably. When the power goes out for you. It won't for me! That's the only reason I am doing it. The basics in your house will take around 1800 to 2400 watts continuous at 30 amps. Not including central air conditioner, washer and dryer, dish washer large screen TV's and so on. (Basics include water pump, basic appliances like radio, small tv, lights, refrigerator, possibly water heater and furnace.) and still some of this stuff you wont be able to run simutaneously with other stuff. Because it is too much power draw and won't work or will burn up your system. So, here's what I need to do this: a minimum of 10, 200 watt solar panels to equal 2000 watts at $440 each or 5 wind turbines at 1000 watt each running $680 each because at the average windspeed for indiana (7mph) each turbine would produce about 200 watts continuous "while the blades are turning at 7mph" (no wind, no power... less wind less power, and it takes 5.5 mph to start charging batteries)roughly equates to 50 to 60 KWH per month. at 60kwh. I personally use roughly 8 to 9 kwh per day. so, I need four 12v 8G8D batteries at $998.20 each to store this power. Now I need a solar regulator to regulate the power input at $101 each, and, I need a Charge Controller to make sure the batteries don't over charge at $83 each. Since I want to use 2000 watt continuous from time to time, I need a 2000 watt inverter to convert the power from DC to AC which runs $115 each we might need a couple of these things according to how many stations we have in the household to run off this system. Now we need wires to connect all this stuff together (roughly about $400) Now, with all of that out of the way, who is going to make this stuff? It has to be bought from China or some other factory to pollute the environment with their industrial waste which contributes to your "global warming process" plus they have to use power themselves to run the machinery to make this stuff where do they get that? from coal and nuclear power plants which also contribute to your G-W process do you think batteries, copper wire, solar panels, wind turbines, inverters, regulators and controllers grow on trees? So at what cost are we going "Green"??? So, now lets total this up and do some efficiency based math.. Solar panels or wind turbine at roughly $4,000 Batteries to store power again roughly $4,000 a regulator at $ 101 a charge controller at $ 83 an inverter at $ 115 wires and cables to connect everything $ 400 TOTAL $8,699 $8,699 divided by $100 average electric bill equals 87 months divided by 12 months in a year equals 7 years 3 months for the system to pay for itself yet every 5 years we have to keep sinking money into it to maintain the equipment at approximately $2000 a shot. which we have to pay the industries to pullute for us again... So, how efficient is that and at what cost are you going "Green"? Works Cited http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/where_is_wind_indiana.asp http://www.ebay.com/itm/200-watt-off-grid-PV-monocrystalline-solar-panel-sale-/180724060231?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a13fe5047 http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/511938016/magnetic_levitation_wind_turbine_1KW.html http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081230204740AAc3WDX http://www.apexbattery.com/solar-batteries.html#top http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&gs_nf=1&cp=9&gs_id=19&xhr=t&q=solar+regulator&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1024&bih=638&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=11198200712459011095&sa=X&ei=CiJNT6uTComjiQKmh8mPDw&sqi=2&ved=0CIYBEPMCMAA http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=2000+watt+inverter&gs_sm=1&gs_upl=648755l652574l0l655346l12l12l0l3l3l0l173l1220l0.9l9l0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=4124109291421225242&sa=X&ei=LCVNT5L9DLCGiQLCl4mYDw&ved=0CIYBEPMCMAA |
| 26 comments found | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next |
Add a comment
Posting comments on this web site requires you to be logged in. • Create your account• Log in to your account
» more
TABLE OF CONTENTS »
NEWS
Today
Obituaries
Local
Police
Court news
Weather
Business
Property transfers
Area salaries & stats
Education
State
Nation/World
Photo galleries
Videos
SPORTS
Sports
MD-T sports
IU sports blog
Martinsville
Mooresville
Decatur Central
Eminence
Indian Creek
Monrovia
Tabernacle Christian
Fantasy racing league
BLOGS
All blogs
Quit Smoking...Do It
Sci-Fi Sojourns
The Hoosier Scoop
Hoosier Wine Cellar
Gaming Guru
Mellenblog
