The Lobster House, started in 1936 in Cape May, is the largest
independent (nonchain) restaurant in New Jersey, the 18th largest
independent in the United States. With its own fleet of boats, the
restaurant ships millions of pounds a year of fresh seafood,
including tuna, shark, and oysters, throughout the United
States.
The harbor in Cape May is home to an annual shark-fishing
contest, pulling fishermen from around the world to compete for a
$228,000 purse for the biggest makos and threshers, plus a $50,000
Monster Prize for the overall heaviest shark.
As a sign of the times, Mexican immigrants seemed to be the
majority labor force on the Lobster House’s fishing boats this
year, just as they’re becoming a major factor in South Jersey
agriculture, landscaping and construction.
Our waitress explained that though the Mexicans are hurting
summer jobs for Cape May’s kids, they’re more reliable than the
town’s own high school and college summer work force.
As another sign of the times, the waitress said she averaged
$200 in tips for her three-hour lunch shift last year, but that
this year it was down to $100. Up the beach in Sea Isle, the
largest realtor in town said this year’s rentals weren’t keeping up
with the supply of houses.
At Trump’s Marina in Atlantic City, there’s seating for probably
200 at the outside bar and dock, but at 1 p.m. during peak season
on a sunny Friday, our table of five was the only occupied table or
bar stool in the place. Our waitress said she averaged $200 at
lunch last year, but that her tips this year had dropped to
$40.
The bartender for what should have been a lunch rush explained
that he’s worked at Trump’s for 11 years and this was the worst.
“We’ve never seen it like this. Inside too, at night in the
restaurants, there’s nothing.” Yachts and small boats were sitting
silent in the harbor, whereas last year the big story was a
mega-yacht that got a fill-up for $54,000 before heading to Europe.
This year, the same fill-up would be closer to $80,000.
Most attribute the lackluster summer season to the price of gas.
“Workers are feeling the gasoline pinch and are adjusting their
leisure activities to compensate,” writes J.W. Elphinstone of the
Associated Press, referring to a recent consumer survey. “Almost 65
percent of respondents are reducing their entertainment and hobby
expenditures because of higher fuel costs. More than half are
cutting back on summer travel, while 29 percent are canceling
summer travel plans altogether.”
If that’s the economic downside at $3 per gallon, one wonders
what the impact would be on the U.S. economy at $5 or $10 per
gallon. In Germany, the price per gallon of gasoline at the end of
July was $6.56 in U.S. dollars, and that’s without the lid blowing
off the Middle East. In Belgium, the price was $6.76.
A month after the attacks of Sept. 11, Harvard economics
professor Martin Feldstein, chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisers from 1982 through 1984 and President Ronald Reagan’s chief
economic adviser, issued a warning about the direct links between
America’s oil dependency, anti-Americanism throughout the Middle
East and national security.
“Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates have
more than half the world’s reserves of oil,” wrote Feldstein,
“while the United States has only 2 percent of the total.” By 2020,
the National Energy Development Group estimates that the Gulf area
will be producing two-thirds of the world’s oil.
U.S. dependence on imported oil was at 42 percent of consumption
in 1974. By 2000, imports had increased to 52 percent of total U.S.
oil consumption.
Feldstein saw no reversal in the trend, even with fewer
government restrictions on drilling and rising oil prices producing
an increase in domestic production: “Experts now predict that the
oil imports of the U.S. will rise to 70 percent of our consumption
by 2020.”
Increases on the supply side won’t fix the problem, Feldstein
argued. What’s required are decreases in demand. It takes 40
percent more oil to produce $100,000 in income or output in the
U.S. than in France or Germany.
The fix isn’t so hard. For starters, the Toyota Prius Liftback
gets 51 mpg on the highway, 60 mpg in the city — enough to get the
Lobster House waitress back to $200 and keep billions from sloshing
around the Middle East and finding its way into the hands of
Hezbollah.
