>>Sorry, I'm not buying it. No one is forced to work far from home. No one is forced to work. Hell, in the US the federal government provides numerous incentives not to work, but I digress. We all have choices we have made in the past and more to make in the future and we have to live with those decisions. If one insists on living an hour car ride from their job, that's their choice. No one forced them into it and no one is forcing them to stay. Everyone must weigh their options, make a decision and live with the consequences.
>
>What do you propose for a family?

It was their choice to start a family. If they weren't financially secure then that's a bad choice, but lets assume they are.

>- Both working at the same place or very close to each other

By choice

>- One works the other stays home

By choice

>- None of them work

By choice

> , hey, it is our choice if we want to eat or not, and we should live with that decision too!

Food stamps, welfare, soup kitchens, dumpster diving...if you're hungry in America, you're not trying to eat.
Some people have made a complete lifestyle out of getting stuff really cheap or free.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24879628/

>Now, of course each time the member of the family that works changes work (by their decision or their employer) then the family needs to move, and if the area of the new job is much more expensive than the one they currently live, tough luck

Why does the family need to move? Why were they in the location in the first place? Did they accurately assess the future of the job they're working at? Why don't they start their own business so they're job is not subject to the whim of others?

>Yes, Jake, very realistic your way to solve problems.

Ah, so instead we should blame everyone and everything around us instead of being responsible for the decisions that have put us in our present situation? I must say, that does sound like the majority of this country.

The global demand for oil has been rising for years, and the US government has not done anything to increase it's domestic production. The biggest spigot is in the hands of a cartel of undemocratic, anti-capitalist countries. The eventual price increase was obvious to anyone bothering to look and listen. It has been sped up by other factors, but the price increase itself was inevitable without a policy change or a new find on the order of Saudi Arabia somewhere in the world. The price has not gone up overnight and there was plenty of time for people to plan for the rise in gas prices.

Of course, most people are incapable of accurately assessing their situation since they're living WAY beyond their means in the first place. Hence the loud chorus of "poor me" which is now collectively emanating from a country whose so-called leaders have been wasting time with cap-and-trade and windfall taxes for 2 weeks because their gullible constituents still believe in CO2 caused global warming, regardless of the temp record vs. CO2 emissions over the last 10 years, and that the big bad oil companies are gouging even after numerous investigations have not resulted in one shred of evidence to back it up.

>Oh, by the way... The US does not NEED to buy oil from the OPEC, so they should really stop complaining and calling them a Cartel.

The US would not need to buy oil from anyone if we opened our own natural resources. 3+ trillion barrels, and that's just oil.