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Gasoline Prices – Countdown To Rip-Off
Calendars have all the official seasons and days conveniently pre-printed. No calendar has, or even attempts, to have them all. For instance, you have to write in your boss’s day off.
Only very special calendars have “driving season” indicated. It’s our oil producer’s favorite holiday- and it’s on the way. The clock is already ticking.
For them, “the driving season” is a cherished ritual. Are you ready?
Last year they ran the price up above one hundred and forty dollars a barrel. That was a new record. Although they run this scam every summer, 2008 exceeded their wildest hopes. Prior to our “sky is falling” episode last September, it was the number one topic; some even had the temerity to suggest that it could cause a recession. Imagine!
Now that we have a real recession, will they have the nerve to run the racket again, even though demand is clearly down? Despite the obvious oil glut, will interests still find a way to jack us up again?
Well, that’s not really a serious question, is it? They’re certainly going to try. These are very bright boys and girls; and they’ve got the eggs. Who knows, maybe this year they will convince us that higher prices are good for us! Perhaps an “oil rescue” plan?
While it’s less than a year since oil prices had us by the short hairs, very little notice has been taken by official punditry of the fact that the price of a barrel has increased from around thirty five dollars to fifty dollars in the last several weeks. While all the media hasten to remind us of how much better off we are than last year, independent thinkers must wonder what market forces are at work to raise prices in the face of declining demand.
OPEC is ready. As with other producers, they have begun to manipulate supply. Hugo Chavez is hopeful; and Amadinejad is wearing a hole though his prayer rug. In the various financial towers that grace this great land, the “Wall Street” types are at it again with schemes of buying and storing oil until this artificial withdrawal causes the price to rise. Already, so much oil has been diverted that the planet is running out of places and tankers to stash the stuff. They’re all puffing as hard as they can to inflate the “summer bubble”.
We can predict with confidence that, once again, in broad daylight, the theft of trillions of dollars will be attempted this year. Must we also expect the canned banal response from both the mainstream media and the blogosphere that we usually get? That is, the dreary after-the-fact and impotent post-mortems?
In a way, it does take your breath away. You have to admire the spectacular nerve it’s going to take this year, in the face of the suffering caused by the crash, to squeeze us again.
Maybe, like good little chumps, we should just sit back, relax, and have a good time? You’ve probably heard that old joke? Don’t drop the soap at the pump? We’re such good people. Maybe we could make a game of it, or a lottery?
The average “Joes” from “Main Street” could try to guess how high the price will go this year. Two seventy-five? Three dollars? Three seventy five? Four forty? Five sixty eight? Good clean fun; a diversion, a game to keep our minds off our emptying pockets. Something like an election.
Yet, it doesn’t have to be that way again. This is the perfect opportunity for an independent-minded alternative press to earn the respect and gratitude of the public. For, this is the ideal issue: Everyone will benefit from the effort. Democrats and Republicans, Conservatives and Liberals, every color, every religion, every creed, and every individual will stand up and applaud if somebody finally comes to the rescue.
Will this be the year that we stop them before they get over? Dead in their tracks- the first ever populist pre-emptive strike? Like a war that doesn’t start, sometimes the best story is the story that doesn’t happen.
This year, we can either spend the summer wringing our hands and protesting the hardships at the pump, or we can be the story, and stop this crime before it occurs.
There has to come a time when our efforts show effect.
The time is now.
-Richard Hirschhorn
Oil Company Derangement Syndrome
Michelle has a good piece about the latest “dog and pony show” on Capital Hill involving oil company executives. Every time gas prices go up, Congress calls the oil company execs to appear at hearings so they can tell them to their face what greedy scumbags they are.
The only reason this happens is to give members of Congress cover when they have to return home to their constituents. If they’re seen on C-SPAN screaming at oil company execs and hurling accusations they can say they’re doing what they can to bring gas prices down.
It’s all a big show, but I guess most Americans really are stupid enough to believe all that or they wouldn’t keep doing it.
I’ll be the first to admit that the hearings are entertaining, but the underlying message of the hearings is actually quite troubling for a capitalist system like ours.
The idea that a company should have to apologize for making a profit seems contrary to everything this country was founded on. The idea of “too much profit” is something I’ve never heard of and really has a socialist ring to it.
I hate high gas prices as much as anyone, but as long as the oil companies are not committing a crime they should be allowed to make as much profit as they can. That’s what corporations are supposed to do, and they shouldn’t have to apologize for it. Again, provided they’re not ripping off consumers.
As I write this not one shred of evidence has been put fourth that U.S. oil companies are guilty of anything except making a profit which I’m led to believe is still legal in this country.
Unfortunately, John McCain appears to disagree with that sentiment according to his speech in Charlotte, NC in which he said this:
“Um, I don’t like obscene profits being made anywhere–and I’d be glad to look not just at the windfall profits tax–that’s not what bothers me–but we should look at any incentives that we are giving to people, that or industries or corporations that are distorting the market.”
The oil company execs repeatedly made the point that prices would come down if they had more access to supply. However, Democrats and John McCain refuse to allow oil companies to drill for oil in Alaska, or in the vast majority of our oceans.
That’s not a politically correct answer however, instead Democrats + McCain prefer a short-term feel good solution like a “windfall profits tax.”
The message is that you can be successful in America, but not too successful or we’ll have to tax you.
It is the oil execs who should be screaming at the Congress for killing our economy with their refusal to allow drilling and exploration in America.
-Chris Jones
Totally Nuts: Michigan Congressman Wants 50-Cent Tax On Every Gallon Of Gas
Sometimes you just have to pretend you didn’t hear certain things in order to keep your sanity. A Michigan congressman wants to put a 50-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline to try to cut back on Americans’ consumption.
Only a Democrat could propose such an absurd idea and manage to keep a straight face. With the economy sliding towards a recession and gas prices already through the roof, a 50 cent tax on gas is exactly what the American people need!
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., wants to help cut consumption with a gas tax but some don’t agree with the idea, according to a new poll by the National Center for Public Policy Research.
The poll, scheduled to be released on Thursday, shows 48 percent don’t support paying even a penny more, 28 percent would pay up to 50 cents more, 10 percent would pay more than 50 cents and 8 percent would pay more than a dollar.
“I don’t want to pay more, I don’t think anyone wants to,” said Karen Deacon, a motorist.
“I think that wouldn’t make any sense,” said Frankie Hoe, a motorist. “Ugh … who’s making the money from all this and where is that money going? Is it going to go green? I don’t see any green things anywhere.”
It’s almost too much to believe that anyone could suggest that we pay more than we already are at the damn pump. Democrats like to talk about how much damage the Bush administration has done to the middle class, but I wonder how the middle class would feel about paying 50 cents more per gallon of gas?
-Chris Jones
