everything in their tanks for emergency purposes.”
There was a long pause. “Well at least the fire departments and police stations will be able to get their vehicles where they're needed in the face of the inevitable coming riots.”
Something in his cousin's tone let Trev know Lewis had one of his unorthodox opinions on the matter. “You don't think it was a good idea to get control of the fuel supply in the hands of the people who could do the most good with it?”
He could almost sense Lewis's shrug. “Good for the government's continued operation, sure. But depriving citizens of the chance to buy fuel, and doing it everywhere all across the nation, will have ramifications of its own. For one thing it's going to stall the economy, and I mean shifting to reverse while going 75 miles per hour and dropping the transmission stall it, to the point that it would take a miracle for it to get going again.
“One unintended consequence of the government snatching up all the fuel is that almost immediately all the trucks scheduled to deliver necessary shipments won't be able to refuel. None of the cities will care about that, and in fact they'll probably be happy that trucks full of food and other useful things are stranded there where they can make use of them. But it means that every place food is produced is instantly cut off from every place where food is consumed, which means for perishables you're going to see most of the nation starving while a comparatively small part of the population is sitting on food going bad faster than they can eat it. To say nothing of the huge stockpiles of nonperishables like grain and corn, where a few people will have it but they can't ship it where it's needed. Which is great for them but sucks for literally everyone else.”
“Yeah, that's a bit more of a problem,” Trev agreed. “And like you said the cities with those massive stockpiles are going to be even more eager to hold shipments and keep the food and the fuel for themselves.”
“There's also the fact that without fuel almost none of the nation's crops are going to get harvested this fall. That means even if we could manage to find fuel somewhere we're looking at major food shortages next year and probably farther down the line as well. And that's just commercially. On the private side of things not having access to fuel is going to strand everyone who's currently traveling wherever they were after the President's speech, or the next place they try to gas up afterwards. That includes all the planes that have been grounded to save fuel for emergency flights.”
“Well that certainly applies to me,” Trev said, slapping the steering wheel.
“You and a surprisingly large percentage of the population. Even during this last year with fuel prices climbing steeply, with the way our society functions a lot of people have to travel for work or to visit distant relatives or for countless other reasons. Access to relatively cheap, plentiful fuel has made us a mobile people, and now that the fuel's gone the nation's going to boil like a kicked anthill as all those stranded people scatter in every direction trying to get home. And they're not going to have an easy time of it since everywhere they go will be as bad as where they left.”
Trev always liked discussing current events and possible future dangers with his cousin, but now didn't really feel like the time. “Speaking of not having an easy time of it, I've got a long walk ahead of me and you've got a ton of fuel in a tank in the shed. Can you come pick me up?”
“Sure, let me gas up the truck and I'll call you when I'm on the way. You're still on the highway, right?”
“Right,” Trev said, thinking of his wild urge to ride the steep slope off the road. He must've been half crazy.
“Okay, I'll see you soon.” Lewis abruptly hung up, and Trev put the seat back to rest until his cousin showed up. It had been a mostly sleepless night, and combined with the
There was a long pause. “Well at least the fire departments and police stations will be able to get their vehicles where they're needed in the face of the inevitable coming riots.”
Something in his cousin's tone let Trev know Lewis had one of his unorthodox opinions on the matter. “You don't think it was a good idea to get control of the fuel supply in the hands of the people who could do the most good with it?”
He could almost sense Lewis's shrug. “Good for the government's continued operation, sure. But depriving citizens of the chance to buy fuel, and doing it everywhere all across the nation, will have ramifications of its own. For one thing it's going to stall the economy, and I mean shifting to reverse while going 75 miles per hour and dropping the transmission stall it, to the point that it would take a miracle for it to get going again.
“One unintended consequence of the government snatching up all the fuel is that almost immediately all the trucks scheduled to deliver necessary shipments won't be able to refuel. None of the cities will care about that, and in fact they'll probably be happy that trucks full of food and other useful things are stranded there where they can make use of them. But it means that every place food is produced is instantly cut off from every place where food is consumed, which means for perishables you're going to see most of the nation starving while a comparatively small part of the population is sitting on food going bad faster than they can eat it. To say nothing of the huge stockpiles of nonperishables like grain and corn, where a few people will have it but they can't ship it where it's needed. Which is great for them but sucks for literally everyone else.”
“Yeah, that's a bit more of a problem,” Trev agreed. “And like you said the cities with those massive stockpiles are going to be even more eager to hold shipments and keep the food and the fuel for themselves.”
“There's also the fact that without fuel almost none of the nation's crops are going to get harvested this fall. That means even if we could manage to find fuel somewhere we're looking at major food shortages next year and probably farther down the line as well. And that's just commercially. On the private side of things not having access to fuel is going to strand everyone who's currently traveling wherever they were after the President's speech, or the next place they try to gas up afterwards. That includes all the planes that have been grounded to save fuel for emergency flights.”
“Well that certainly applies to me,” Trev said, slapping the steering wheel.
“You and a surprisingly large percentage of the population. Even during this last year with fuel prices climbing steeply, with the way our society functions a lot of people have to travel for work or to visit distant relatives or for countless other reasons. Access to relatively cheap, plentiful fuel has made us a mobile people, and now that the fuel's gone the nation's going to boil like a kicked anthill as all those stranded people scatter in every direction trying to get home. And they're not going to have an easy time of it since everywhere they go will be as bad as where they left.”
Trev always liked discussing current events and possible future dangers with his cousin, but now didn't really feel like the time. “Speaking of not having an easy time of it, I've got a long walk ahead of me and you've got a ton of fuel in a tank in the shed. Can you come pick me up?”
“Sure, let me gas up the truck and I'll call you when I'm on the way. You're still on the highway, right?”
“Right,” Trev said, thinking of his wild urge to ride the steep slope off the road. He must've been half crazy.
“Okay, I'll see you soon.” Lewis abruptly hung up, and Trev put the seat back to rest until his cousin showed up. It had been a mostly sleepless night, and combined with the
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