Taking A Stand: Rising gas prices bring me down
It’s hot outside and gas is high. This is truly the summer of our discontent.
What’s up with the gas prices? It’s getting so you have to pump fast or the price will go up while the nozzle is still in your tank. Some places don’t even display their prices anymore because, literally, they have to go out and adjust them upwards each day.
I remember when I thought gas was high at $2 gallon early this year. Now, it’s gotten insane as it barrels toward $3.
Not to start a panic, but gas prices should be our number one focus right now since this will translate into economic problems everywhere as transport costs will increase meaning virtually everything we buy will increase while our pay will not increase. This means we all, in essence, are becoming poorer each day gas prices go up. It’s more than inconvenience, it’s a crisis.
Why are they going up? It’s according to whose lie you want to believe. Chinese consumption, limited refineries, hurricanes and over-demand. These are all things thrown out there as reasons, but the bottom line is there are people out there reaping the increased profits, and many of these profits are heading into the Middle East and indirectly into the pockets of folks who want to do us harm. After all, it’s the rich Saudis who have helped bankroll Al Queda all this time, even though the very people they are funding are also blowing up their buildings.
Personally, I say if I’m going to pay $3 a gallon, I’d prefer it go into the American economy by us developing our own oil reserves. Instead of using the wealth of oil in Alaska as a political debate, we need to be more worried about America being held hostage by the very same people our boys are fighting overseas. Make no mistake, without the rich Middle Eastern oil money there would be no Bin Laden and there would be no Al Queda, at least as we know them.
We obviously didn’t learn our lessons from the oil crisis of the 1970s where we were held hostage. Instead of developing our own reserves, we ended up buying gas savvy Japanese cars, staying with the small car craze just long enough to ruin our American car production base for an entire decade. Now, go through any parking lot and you’ll see SUVs as big as bulldozers and pick up trucks big enough to haul a couple of Mitsubishis in their beds. It’s not unusual to hear someone say it took $60 bucks to fill up.
Will this gas crisis ever end? Well, seeing OPEC does want to make a profit, it will eventually level out but the days of affordable gas are over since they’ve figured out we will pay their outrageous prices. As odd as it may sound, I compare big oil to the Eagles (the rock group). Back before the Eagles tour a few years ago, a person could get an affordable ticket to a concert for around $20. However, then the Eagles came around and charged $100 per ticket and people paid it. Since that time, prices for concert tickets have gone up and stayed up because booking agencies saw people would pay the elevated price. Same thing with oil. It comes down to maximizing profit and big oil has been probing us for some time, seeing exactly what they can get.
What we need to do, but we won’t, is wean ourselves off of OPEC and foreign oil. Since we are paying outrageous prices anyway, let’s become our own masters and stop helping fund terrorism.
Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].