so many people here just think their lives are going to end if they don't have access to $39 DVD players and $10 shirts and jeans. you can't reason with them. how much of their monthly budgets are spent on foreign made manufactured goods? very little. yet they panic and scream "inflation" when, heaven forbid, that $10 shirt might cost $13. they don't care what else happens, what jobs are lost, what's happening to our industries, our deficits, etc. as long as they can wander around walmart picking up cheap crap.
I don't think it is the addiction to cheap goods that drives the people of whom you speak, but rather, they are simply confused about what a Strong Dollar means.
They think that a "strong Dollar" means a strong U.S., when it means just the opposite; a "strong Dollar" means the Dollar is strong enough to buy lots and lots and lots of foreign made goods at the expense of losing American jobs.
It's merely an educational issue.
You make a very good point, except for the oil thing. Gas and heating/air conditioning will cost a lot more, too.