The gas shortage has caused most of the southeast, especially Atlanta (and I hear Charlotte is pretty bad as well) to reconsider our activities.  So now, even though I currently have enough gas to get to work this week, everyone in the household has curtailed activities that involve driving somewhere.  We're making conservative and likely prudent decisions to ensure that we can perform our responsibilities as we get through this crazy time.  To me this type of "tough" decision making is what separates responsible people from the vast majority that are irresponsible.  We don't go to football games, cruise the strip, visit a friend across town instead of conserving what we have to handle our responsibilities in the coming weeks.  So here again, I see those running out of gas at football games and other things that don't matter.  These are the same people that probably won't make it to work on Monday thinking they have an air tight excuse.

This can directly translate to the current financial situation.  Too many people made decisions for the day without any respect for the consequences that lie ahead tomorrow.  Like those that aren't going to make it to work Monday, they have a sob story and an "air tight excuse", but the bottom line is that they acted irresponsibly and need to suffer the consequences.  While we continue to reward bad behavior, the markets, the economy and the country will continue to suffer. We're going to lose, or may already be losing our edge as we spend our efforts giving candy to the crying babies.  It warmed my heart to see some people taking to the streets to oppose this bailout.  Even if the alternative is a lot of pain for this country, I'm in favor of it.  It's time that people developed a sense of fear. Hopefully this fear will turn into more responsible decision making in the future instead of hopes of being bailed out again.

And on a lighter note, for those not in the southeast, I may snap some photos of the gas lines and stations with no gas (which is the vast majority of them).  You see the pictures from the 70's and it seems strange, and the first few times you see stations with the gas prices blanked out, it's very strange.  Now it's strange to see stations with gas.  The unfortunate thing is that people are getting mean and rude.  Slight panic is setting in and people are going to bizarre extremes to make sure their tank gets filled.  What's worse is that people are topping off, which only adds to the problem.

So my weekend plans consist of planning a way to get fuel at some point this week, seeing where my money ends up and how I can access it (thanks to the WaMu failure), and seeing how much of my tax dollars go to undeserving people.  Certainly not your typical weekend.