Look, it all boils down to the fact that the West is trying to break its addiction to fossil fuels—which means demand is eventually going to tank. Plus, the Chinese have mountains of EVs hitting the streets, and that number is only going up. Unless we stumble into World War III in the next decade or so, half the population in developed nations—our biggest customers, mind you—will be driving electric.
So, yeah—Middle Eastern producers and other oil giants want to squeeze out every cent while they still have something to sell.
On the flip side, natural gas is being rebranded as this "eco-friendly" fuel, so it’s not going anywhere anytime soon—not from our homes, and certainly not from heavy industry.
Russia isn't self-sufficient, neither is America, and neither is Europe. It really just comes down to how much "self-sufficiency" you can actually stomach.
Someone in the West who’s used to high-tech gadgets and a massive paycheck is going to have a hard time accepting a lifestyle where they're eating bread and potatoes and keeping the thermostat at a breezy 68 degrees instead of 73...
Then you've got other countries with much poorer populations—including Russia—where people are already used to making do with nothing. If there's a burger on the table, they'll take it over whatever else Russia might be exporting.
The wealthy will just get wealthier, while the poor get even poorer. In that sense, a struggling society adapts to scarcity way easier than some spoiled person who had everything handed to them. Even now, the local bakery near my place has cut down from 17 different types of bread to just seven.
hiddeneagle98 said:From where I'm sitting, it looks like Saudi Arabia currently has exactly the kind of surplus we need, so the entire oil landscape is just shifting around. Other players are picking up Russian oil at a discount, which frees us up to buy what they used to buy, albeit at a much higher price. Yay. In the end, though, things should eventually level out... or at least get pretty close to it.
Yeah, that’s essentially the gist of it. Oil didn't just vanish into thin air; the delivery routes simply shifted. And let's be honest—the Chinese and Indians aren't exactly being viewed as reliable partners by the Arabs anymore, given their tendency toward market manipulation. So, the Saudis will start offloading that "surplus" to Europe, the US, or whoever else is willing, instead of catering to China and India. Either way, the Saudis are going to stay prosperous.
Natural gas, however, is a much more complicated beast.
So, what's the move here? Is Europe supposed to just roll over, bow down to Putin, and basically admit he's the Emperor of the continent and somehow more in tune with the rest of the world than we are?
It’s pretty wild to think about—wheat used to be grown right there in Egypt along the banks of the Nile back in the days of the Pharaohs... and now, here I am, buying it from Russia.
The only real way out of this mess is getting rid of Putin. But let's be honest—the Russians aren't exactly stepping up either. Nobody is actually willing to throw their life away for the "greater good" just to take him out. If they actually pulled it off, things might finally start unraveling in a positive direction. Because look, not every single Russian is an idiot—just like not every single German was an idiot back during WWII.
So, it looks like everyone is caught off guard by how things turned out. Some people are just pretending they aren't—acting like they're suddenly all enemies—while others are finally having that "oh, wait" moment and realizing they're just as blindsided as the rest of us.
The oil-producing nations are doing some serious math right now. Basically, they're busy locking in those long-term contracts. Europe has already committed to phasing out oil—or at least slashing usage drastically—within the next 10 to 15 years. Or, you know, just cutting it down significantly. That’s why the guys in the Middle East are playing the numbers game. They realize their wealthiest markets might see a massive drop in demand in a decade or so, so they want to squeeze out every cent while they still can. I mean, they’re out there cruising in gold Bentleys, after all. The real question is: how much longer will they keep selling to the West? Eventually, it’ll just be China, India, and Africa left on the menu. And let's be honest—those aren't the types of places that cut a full check upfront like the West does.
Joshua Martinez9 said:Well, the Russians have already kicked off one revolution, and if Putin folds, they might just take him down...
The real question is, does that mean Americans are fine with everything since they aren't protesting?
It’s even worse because they're being fed garbage every single day, so I guess they don't bother complaining...
Americans simply leave the US. And Russians are leaving Russia too—especially the young people from the big cities; they actually get what's happening. Their parents? They just stay put...
About five months ago—way before all this chaos started—I was looking at some pool dye (I don't actually have a pool, I just had another project in mind) A single liter was going for $46 at this well-known hardware store back in Chicago. Fast forward to today, and the price tag says $133. Same exact color, still just one liter. I can't tell if it's because of the sanctions or what, but the price has jumped by 250%... Man, I really kicked myself for not grabbing it then. I kept thinking, "Eh, I'll just pick it up when I go on vacation later this year."
Look, anyone who decides to grind through military academy just to end up a career soldier is basically signing up for a job where the primary task is killing—or getting killed. Doesn't matter if you're German, American, or Russian. It's all the same deal.
electricsurfer47 said:Honestly, it might even be the exact same engine. You can't just swap things out on a whim; you need serious technical expertise for that. I highly doubt they swapped the whole motor since it's only been four months since the end of those two months.
The real question is, what else in that Lada hasn't been modernized? What about the brakes?? And ABS? Or ESP?
I think they just bumped the displacement from 1.3 and 1.5 up to 1.6, but that’s really just wider pistons—specifically the ones made by Bosch.
swiftjackal11 said:Fuel prices were going up anyway, even before Putin decided to go after Ukraine. How does that work?
Just one crisis piled on top of another. The economic meltdown in Germany—which paved the way for A. Hitler and eventually led us straight into WWII—is a classic example.
Bryan Booth82 said:Exactly! And honestly, maybe that’s for the best... we in the West are picking up the tab for the war in Ukraine, while on the other side of the fence, the aggressor has to foot their own bill. If you look at the math—and I mean if you actually use a shred of logic here—it's blindingly obvious... whose burden is actually heavier?😁
lp
True, but we in Europe are essentially paying both Ukraine and Russia...