High Gas Prices

The current high price of gas is affecting almost every aspect of our lives at this point.

If you drive to work, then a larger portion of your paycheck is going towards paying for your commute. More of the hours you're working are being spent on actually getting to work.

Food prices are increasing because the cost of transporting food across the country to a neighborhood store near you is increasing.

There's less to go around because we need to spend more to get around.

And then there are those being affected by high gas prices that we don't hear so much about.

Charity organizations such as St. Vincent DePaul, Salvation Army, Goodwill Industries, and others rely heavily on their various drop-off points for receiving donations of used goods. It's a convenience provided for people that inspires and encourages giving. Drop off your used items at the nearest bin or trailer, and the organization periodically comes and picks it up. For larger items, some organizations will come to your house and collect your used furniture or appliances.

For a non-profit, charitable organization, their biggest challenge is keeping down their operating expenses so that more of the money they receive from funders and sponsors can go directly to the services they provide. It's what makes a non-profit "non-profit". When operating costs increase, the funding does not. It simply means that out of the funding received, more of it has to be spent on keeping the org running than can be spent on actually helping the people they serve.

With gas prices on an uphill climb, these organizations may end their pickup service and recall their drop-off trailers because the cost of driving the trucks will cut too deeply into their available funds. This would leave would-be doners with the responsibility of bringing their discarded goods to locations that are fewer and farther away than usual. Given the choice between throwing things out and having the trash truck pick it up, or spending the gas money to drive unwanted materials to a building 10-15 miles away, I would guess only the most civic minded individuals will want to make that kind of effort.

Food organizations such as Philabundance face the same problem. Not long ago I contemplated arranging for a series of concerts to be held in various venues throughout the city and suburbs for the purpose of gathering food donations. The food banks in the city and in other areas are running very low. However, when I spoke to the food banks to arrange for a pickup of the donations anticipated for each concert, I was told the total donation would have to be quite substantial to warrant them sending out the truck. I forget the exact number, but I remember it was the equivalent of several pallets worth of food, and not a couple of cartons of canned goods.

This meant that if the food donations received at a concert fell below this minimum requirement, I would either have to arrange for someone to deliver the food, or I would have to store the food somewhere until the total donations of all the concerts reached the required level for pickup. Considering most shows end after 10:00 PM, delivering the food at 2:00 AM seemed impractical at best. Storing the food was an even bigger problem because renting storage space costs money, which I don't have any more of than anyone else.

Speaking of concerts, independent musicians and artists are another group suffering from the high cost of gas. It's a well known fact that bands, songwriters, and musicians who have no record deal and who are playing in clubs and bars around the region are not making money. Most of the money generated these days comes from merchandise sales. Artists may accept little to no payment for a gig as long as they get to set up a table to sell their CD's, t-shirts, and whatever other tschokas they may have available.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of gigs that are played where nothing sells and the sum total of payment ends up being some drink coupons for the bar. This is definitely not worth the cost of fuel to haul drums, guitars, amplifiers, and other equipment to a gig that may only last 20 minutes worth of playing time.

Add that to the already restrictive climate in the music industry, and more and more voices will be silenced.

Meals-on-Wheels, organizations that offer transit service to dialysis and hospital treatment, animal rescue groups, art and music orgs, traveling theater groups, book mobiles, mobile medical clinics, needle exchange programs, music festivals, art festivals, and hundreds of other small, independent groups that bring food, health care, literacy, art, and music to the very doorsteps of the poor are all affected and could eventually disappear simply because they can't afford to get where they need to go.

We're a society that's slowly dying from the ground up, and as my mother and I discussed yesterday, I wonder how much harm needs to be done before people become willing to take action.