Tired of reading about high oil prices, how about reporting some positives too?

**dancar3** · 05-27-2008, 01:27 PM

It seems like everywhere you look, at least here on my computer or in the newspapers you see the headlines: "Oil prices roared past $130 a barrel!" or "Oil prices keep going higher and higher". Have you noticed when it starts to go back down (like it did Tuesday morning 5/27 by about $3 nonetheless!) you don't hear a thing about it? If it does get a mention it, it's very very brief and always followed by a statement such as, "even though prices have hit a bit reprieve, we expect it to go higher any moment" or something stupid like that. These people I feel are thriving on playing on people's fears and keep publishing only negative things instead of reporting any postive improvements. Are they wanting things to get really bad so they can more dismall news to write about? If so, I guess they're not looking hard enough. I have stopped reading this kind of news and am trying to focus on the positives, while of course planning for our future accordingly. What do you think?

**SAHM I Am** · 05-27-2008, 01:32 PM

I think its much healthier to focus on the positives...and what's really important in life. ;-)

**JanieD** · 05-27-2008, 02:28 PM

Well, those kind of things are beyond our control for the most part. It seems no positive results will come from the constant reports on oil, etc. I'm trying to do what I can to stay on budget as prices rise. I feel good about hanging out laundry or not stopping by the store, cause I know I'm cutting where I can. My dad told me months ago he doesn't look at the price of gas everytime he passes the station. He stop in when he needs some & doesn't think about it otherwise. Of course he's cutting back on trips to the store & such like most of us.

I think there are other options & we each will find what works. Attitude is 90% of it!

**janelane** · 05-27-2008, 03:53 PM

People don't get happy when the price drops a little because the price drops are part of the dismal news. It's manipulation. Each time there is a hike, it's a lot. There's a reason for that. They kick it up right before weekend driving, then drop it so come the next week we don't feel so bad. The problem? it's still higher than it was before, so why is it a positive thing at all? Those little price drops are still part of the reason profits for the energy companies are so high. They get us used to the higher prices, *grateful* even, that it's not the even higher price it was, and baby step by baby step it creeps upward.

Now, the good thing in my opinion is that prices are forcing people to cut back, not just on their consumption of oil but consumption in general -- and we are a nation of over consumers, *something* had to reign us in. But of course not even that is viewed in a positive light everywhere, because companies are getting whiney, and people in poverty already are certainly not having a positive time.

It's a matter of perspective, what one sees as positive and negative. If you want to see good things around you, you will. Don't let doomsday headlines dampen your positive view of life

Turn the negative news into positive action

**mombottoo** · 05-27-2008, 04:00 PM

I think the media is partly responsible for the way gas prices fluctuate...and I am serious. I know many people who work at gas stations...they change their price depending on what the stations around them are doing...no magic phone call from headquarters telling them to raise it due to fluctuations in oil prices.

So if the news is that oil prices are up and gas prices are averageing $4.50 a gallon joe blow (manager generally) tells employees to up the price...I have also been told by a station employee that their boss raised their gas price to help make up for the declining gas sales...

I get tired of all of the doom & gloom on the news, but in order to stay up to date you almost have to watch it every now & again...I'd much prefer happy news over the doom & gloom any day of the week.

**dancar3** · 05-27-2008, 04:44 PM

Yes, that's what I've been trying to get at. I do see the positive things in having higher gas prices, but I don't want them to keep reporting all the bad things about it. It' like a self-fulfilling prophecy, it seems like some of them want the economy to do badly so they keep reporting the negative aspects of it which does appear to have that affect. Report the positive and the other people will start feeling better about the ecomony which will hopefully then start to make it turn around.

**mikandmari** · 05-27-2008, 09:07 PM

There is plenty of blame to go around for what's ailing this country, but the media didn't cause the problems. It's their job to report, and of course there is shock value in bad news.

But I see it both ways... especially depending on who is doing the reporting. Numbers are twisted and manipulated to get the results desired, such as the GDP being reported by the gov't.

I remember not long ago reading a very optimistic story about sales increasing at GM, and how this meant people in the U.S. were regaining faith in domestic cars. But another reporter gave a more objective story... sales had increased at GM because of rental companies buying fleets of cars. Sales to the the average consumer were still dropping.

I get tired of the spin doctors!