Texans Pawning for Gasoline

I don't have to tell you that gasoline prices are high. But here's an interesting story out of Texas. It talks about how the gas crunch is squeezing poor working folks so hard they have to pawn their worldy goods to keep driving.

Here's a few excerpts...

"We just have customers come in and have to tell us that they need money ‘till the end of the week, for gas to get back and forth to work," said pawn shop owner, Gerald Costner.

Everything from high end jewelry, to name brand purses, and televisions… pawn shop owners say they are seeing it all come in. They say customers are frustrated and have no place to go to get extra cash for gas.

"Some of the construction people tell us they are having to pawn their tools to buy gas, but when they pawn their tools they can't go out and work in the construction business ‘cause their tools are in pawn. So it kind of a catch-22,” Costner said.

Mary Rodriguez has worked at the Casa View Pawn Shop for five years. She says she's seen people of all ages coming in looking for help.

“We've always had a clientele of the young kids, or middle age kids, and now we’re getting an older generation. Which, it just seems wrong that they have to pawn things just to get gas, or ya know, to make ends meet on things like that."

My heart goes out to those poor folks. They're stretched to the breaking point. One thing that struck me was the phrase "it just seems wrong." And you know, I bet a lot of those people thought the war in Iraq meant we'd get lots of cheap oil/gas from the Middle East. A lot of things seem to be going wrong.

Imagine if we'd taken the money we've spent (and keep spending) to shove democracy down the throats of ungrateful Iraqis and used that to make the transition to alternative fuels. We spent $85 billion in Iraq in 2005 and the total cost of the war is expected to run over a TRILLION dollars.

Just something to think about as you pawn your TV for gas money.

Here's the link to the story: http://cbs11tv.com/local/local_story_110231803.html

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