No, but the freedom of being able to own 20 SUV's might be what he is talking about.

It's what I'm talking about too.

I think what might be happening here, is that our standard of living is based somewhat around our ability to buy/drill/use oil without huge expense.
Not that our gas is cheap, but our economy is based largely around oil, and our access to it.
If we don't have cheap oil here in the states, our quality fo living goes down. Not because we have to pay 10 cents more per gallon than before individually, but as an ecenomic nation.
I haven't formed a decisive opinion on this yet, I'm just putting out what the basis of this argument might be.

Exactly.

Oil affects the standard of living in many more ways than what kind of car you own. Everything you buy goes to the store in a truck. Plastics are made from oil. There's at least one airline about to go into bankruptcy because of the price of jet fuel. What the big corporations do with gas and oil spins off into every facet of our lives. Until we have a good alternative, which will happen someday, we need to keep the oil flowing.

Then perhaps we should make an effort to by local products and recycle plastics, or better yet, just buy less of them, and fly less while we're at it.

If we buy less, and fly less, then we also work less. You're talking about eliminating jobs.