It’s time to start using verbiage that is reserved for emergency situations. It’s time to begin considering that what might be hyperbolic in good times is best construed as accurate in the environment we seem to be facing. When gas stations are sending programmers to their pumps to prepare their computers for something that was never thought to be a realistic possibility — we’re talking ten dollar per gallon gas — we have a very serious problem. And I mean serious.
JPMorgan is predicting that surging fuel costs over the summer could result in an American national average of more than six dollars per gallon.
“With expectations of strong driving demand … US retail price could surge another 37% by August to a $6.20/gal national average,” Natasha Kaneva, head of commodities research at JPMorgan, said in a note Tuesday. The outlook arrived days ahead of the Memorial Day holiday, the traditional start of the summer driving season that runs until Labor Day in early September.
— Carla Mozee, Yahoo! News
You know, we’ve been covering this through various writers on this site for a while now. We’ve discussed upcoming food shortages, rising fuel costs, more localized vacations, and much more since last year. We have a heck of a track record in this regard. If you’re not sure about that, just go click on the “Travel” tab for the website and explore all of our articles discussing the topic. What we’re now ready to say is that should gas prices, which are already at record levels almost every single day, continue to climb another nearly two dollars or more above what we’re currently seeing… this will deeply damage tourism, the tourist industry, and all the businesses dependent on vacations other than the very largest theme park companies. Yet that’s just the beginning.
If you thought the family on the edge of affording their vacation was thinking hard about taking one, you can just forget them hitting the road if gas prices shatter records like JPMorgan is suggesting. But it gets so much worse…
If gas prices go into that stratospheric level, understand that literally every material good we have in our economy is dependent on fuel costs for the determination of their overall price point. The trucks, planes and trains that bring us our goods are not running on solar power or electricity. They’re running on different derivative forms of oil. So if gas and diesel go up that far, everything — and I mean everything — is about to skyrocket in cost. That will drive inflation much higher and will damage the economy to degrees we haven’t seen in at least decades. For the vacation and tourist industries, they just had years of being socked by a pandemic that shut them down in a way that would have been fiction until our new reality. Many of those businesses are already on the ropes. Many of those businesses will not survive another KO out of gas prices that are ridiculously high at double the historic records ever seen before.
Gas prices officially hit $4 in all 50 states for the first time ever! pic.twitter.com/g4G7SW9Kc1
— SAY CHEESE! 👄🧀 (@SaycheeseDGTL) May 18, 2022
If there’s an emergency button that will cause people to drop partisanship and ideology in order to solve a problem, it’s time to break the glass. Unfortunately, our country currently has a strong ideological current that is likely to require hardship before it will shake the acolytes free of their dogmas.
So what does this mean for you and your summer vacation?
If you haven’t made plans yet, I highly recommend to aim your travel dates early in the summer. We could see surging travel costs combined with mutually-rising inflationary costs for goods and services. That means that unlike in most years and travel seasons, there’s a solid chance that the time you travel will dramatically alter your total necessary budget. If you have camping gear and live near a national park, it might be time to consider a trip outdoors. Then again, this level of a problem could be with us for years… so maybe go on that big vacation you’ve wanted to do while you still can. I’m not saying that vacations and fun are dead, but I am saying that it’s going to be dramatically more expensive until this situation flushes through the economy… and that probably won’t happen in months.
Here at That Park Place, we’re going to begin altering some of our tourism coverage to include fun activities you can do more locally. You’ve likely already seen some of that with our articles about greenways and camping trips. We’ll keep that up and accelerate it. Even during inflationary times, you need a way to have tons of fun. We all need something to look forward to and an adventure on the horizon.
Hang in there… it’s going to be tough on all of us as inflation rages. Even the guy in the extended range Tesla has to go to the grocery store.
For all the news we wish to be fun, keep reading That Park Place. Drop a comment down below!
