I Give!!!

Ok. I am in need of reading more about this but before I read about it I have to talk it through with somebody. Blogging world you are here to listen. I might sound like an old grandpa, but I dont care. I remember when gas prices were .99 in Tulsa growing up. Now I am going to give the benefit of the doubt that Oklahoma had very low gas prices. I was probably 16-18 years old when this was taking place. For sake of argument I am going to say that the average in those times was around $1.20 per gallon.

SO that was lets say 15 years ago. Here are the only 2 logical explanations as to why gas prices have doubled and in some cases probably tripled.

a. Our supply is getting lower.
b. We are all taking it up the prostrate zone.

Now lets take "a". There is the argument that we have become more dependant on oil. Seriously, so you are telling me that in 15 years we depend on 3 times as much oil as we used to. So to make that argument you would have to almost say that the population has more than doubled in those 15 years. Is that possible? Cant use the excuse of bigger trucks, blah, blah blah. We have to give credit to ourselves and hope that our trucks, cars, planes and all are more efficient now than 15 years ago. Not just efficient on gas, but on all aspects.

Now lets take the argument that we are more dependant on oil. If we do away with oil as much as possible wont whatever we use in its place cost us more anyway. Take Hybrid cars as an example, although a bad one. Hybrid cars are about $4-5,000 more than regular cars. Now either you spend an extra 4-5000 in fuel each year due to gas prices or you spend that money on a Hybrid. Either way its effecting your pocket. Now maybe an argument is that it cost more in the short term, but its better for the long term. Then the next argument will be that their is still a better solution than the Hybrids and should be an all electrical car. So my questions is when does this vicious circle stop or better yet will it ever stop?

This is what would be called the fall of an empire. When an empire gets to its crescent, then what else does it have to do otehr than eat itself out from the inside. In other words the empire starts to turn on itself. Have we as a nation begun to fall into that cycle?

That leaves us to option "b". I don't honestly think its the oil companies sticking it to us. Lets take the supply and demand metaphor. If in our industry (relocation) our trucks began to vanish and the supply of moving trucks went away what is the first thing that would happen? We would raise our costs. Oil companies are raising their cost in order to facilitate the demand as the supply starts to vanish. Do they need to raise it that high? who knows. Who do I blame? US Government. I am sure you all know that on every dollar you pay at the pump the government is getting paid. Here in CO we pay over .20 per gallon to the state. Then we also pay $.18 to the Federal Government. While I dont agree with McCain on much of anything what he is talking about doing is taking away these taxes for the summer in order to get some money back into our pockets. Makes sense.

All I know is that somebody is making a ton of profit, we are paying a ton of money, and somehow our nation is going to hell in 2 hand baskets. Will somebody please throw us in the "middle class" a f-in bone!