Gas- Fueling the Rich
What blog would be complete without some constructive albeit emotional analyzing of our ridiculous gas crisis We as Americans have somehow allowed our most precious commodity to turn our gas bill into a second mortgage payment. It should be unconstitutional to allow pricing of something so vital to this nation’s function to triple and quadruple in such a short amount of time. That’s to say the government should play a role in the crises; but should they Is the culprit truly price, or is it our own ridiculous dependency on massive gas guzzling SUV’s and the inability to conserve Whatever the answer, it may be little to late as the effects may take quite a while to unfold.
The people of this country, myself included, lack some form of leadership on this issue. I think if someone would come out publicly with a strong unifying solution on what to do, we would be able to effectively handle it. American’s are running around furious about paying 4 bucks a gallon but have no idea where to channel it. Some have taken the liberty of blaming the big rig crude oil companies. These same people feel very strongly that price rise is just price gouging and therefore discontinuing the purchase of gas from those companies will magically force lower prices. Price gouging results when prices rise purely for excessive profit and with no regard to supply and demand. Im not sure where the exact figures are pertaining to gouging, though the US government has recently passed a stricter legislation regarding this issue and has unsuccessfully investigated companies for it.
The other explanation, the one the oil companies and most republican economists will tell relates solely to supply and demand. According to them, gas prices hinge solely on the natural balance of our economic properties; that being the indirect relationship of supply and demand with regards to price, and more specifically the price per barrel of crude oil. As the increase in cost per barrel generally lands on the consumer in terms of higher per gallon costs, what power do we have in this equation Most people don’t have the luxury of not buying gas to decrease demand but, at what point does price force that card And is that the only solution to curb price increases American’s are fiends for gas with all our big toys, SUV’s and just an insatiable appetite for travel that the demand will not be subsiding any time soon.
I read an interesting statistic that stated American’s drive over 2.5 trillion miles per year equating into 14 trips to the sun; or 56 billion gallons of gas. That’s freak’n ridiculous. It seems logical to me that with a demand so substantial, the price would have to skyrocket for any real effect to be seen regarding supply increases. Keep in mind, this is subject to the belief that economics plays the only role in solving the equation and ignores the fact that Exxon and Mobile are profiting ungodly amounts due to this fortunate supply and demand crisis. Someone is setting prices and could therefore set them lower. According to the heads of these companies, in no way could they afford to lower the price. Blahh!!! How is the government, with all the investigations of price gouging, failing to implicate these companies at least a little Is it the tax money our government receives, or high importation pricesSome piece of the puzzle is missing (not including the solution) and its frustrating as a consumer to lack sufficient ammunition to solve it. One thing seems clear, our gas prices will continue to rise until somehow takes charge and educates the American population.
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