hawil wrote on Jun 9
th, 2011 at 5:55pm:
Price will affect consumption; a good example are bananas, as 75% of banana production was destroyed y the cyclone yasi and the floods, only 25% of bananas are currently hitting th market, and as government does not allow any banana imports, only 25% of bananas are currently consumed in Australia.
But here is the hitch: as the banana price has quadrupled, the total cost of bananas to the public is the same as when the bananas were being sold for around $3.00, therefore the growers which were not affected by the flood or cyclone, are laughing all the way to the bank.
I never thought that the average Joe Blow in Australia will not be able to afford bananas.
In the case of bananas, the lack of supply has pushed the price higher, because the Demand hasn't fallen away, as much as Supply.
The big difference between bananas & Fossil Fules, is that there are alternatives to bananas, whereas there are really no current alternatives to Fossil Fuels, in particular Oil.
So, if bananas quadruple in Price, we simply pick another fruit, if the Price of Oil quadrupled, due to Demand outstipping Supply, then the Global Economy goes into a massive Depression.
The only possible fixes are finding new sources of Energy, particularly Liquids &/or the changing over of the transport industry & several others, to new modes, where they can work without Oil!