pawning stuff for gas

[oceania]

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

May 3, 2006

For Cary Holder, a tank full of gas is worth more than watching movies in his Chevrolet Astro van.

The construction worker recently took his van's DVD player to Cash America Pawn in Lauderdale Lakes so he could buy fuel.

"I'm on E," said Holder, 48, of Lauderdale Lakes. "These gas prices are killing us. I have to drive to Boca and Miami." As fuel prices climb above $3 a gallon, pawnbrokers are seeing more customers like Holder. People are trading jewelry, tools and electronics for gas money.

"This morning there was a contractor who pawned his tool set to go out to a job," said Jack Mulvihill of Action Pawnbrokers, in the 3700 block of N. Andrews Avenue in Oakland Park.

"Many of the roofers in town are pawning roofing tools for gas for their trucks. We had a teacher pawn a television set."

sad state of affairs :!

[Sin]

I gotta agree, that is a pretty sad state of affairs when people have become so dependent upon their vehicles that they simply cannot see life without it... there ARE other options... imagine all the jewelry and family heirlooms they would get to keep if they sold their vehicle, didn't have to pay for gas, didn't have to pay for insurance, and instead took public transit or even carpooled....

[MorganGrayson]

I live in Southern California, where society is built on the automobile. Our public transportation is a bit of a joke, really. We have a beautiful trolley that only has two routes. If you happen to want to go anywhere on those two routes, and can get to one of the trolley stops to get on the thing on foot, it might work. Same thing with the buses.

[twinkley]

The public transpo in orlando is little better ... the busses are okay, and lynx actually does a pretty good job of keepign service running good ... but nothing runs in the middle of the night ... or early early morning ... if you are sick, or need something after like 9, you are totally screwed. there is no other form of public transpo.

I have seen this idea for big cities, its called FLEXCAR - if i ever move into a bigger metro area (which we might be yay!) i will prolly go this route. Basically, you "rent" a car anytime you need one ... you tell the company when / where / and for how long you will need it, and when you are done, its freed up for other people to use, so many people share one car. A better alternative to carpooling for those who can get away with it.

twinkley

[Janell]

I don't live very close to public transportation. I do feel for many Americans who are tight budgets because an extra 100 bucks a month means many children don't eat.

[Sin]

I guess I'm a little spoiled living in the city which supposedly has the best public transit system in all of North America... lol

Even if I didn't though, I still have 2 legs and a heartbeat, and know how to use them :) Plenty of people use their cars for trivial meaningless bullshit, and burn gas simply because they "can" and then they adapt to that lifestyle, and end up pawning shit to maintain it. If you can't afford a fucking tank of gas, you probably shouldn't be on the road...