April 26, 2006

• There seems to be a lot of talk recently about gas prices and its time
  that I put my 2 dollars and 91 cents in. Honestly, I don't think these
  high prices are as bad as people think. Allow me to explain. First of
  all, the use of gas is not only bad for the environment, but its also
  bad for the country. Logically speaking, the more money for gas, the
  more likely people would be to try to find other forms of
  transportation, hence less gas being used. Sadly, though, this doesn't
  seem to be the case, as usage has not gone down much. People are
  bitching and pissing and moaning about prices, yet they do nothing
  different to cut back their own use. For example, a couple of months
  ago, I had a chump walk up to me while I was getting gas and beg me for
  money because as he put it, they just put $17 in their rather large SUV
  and it was "still on empty." Of course, I didn't give him any money. My
  thinking is that (besides the fact that you should have at least 7
  gallons of gas and his fuel gage probably wasn't working) you should
  have thought about the cost of filling up your Earth killing machine
  before you bought the damn thing. Shit, gas prices have been over $2 a
  gallon for a long time now, its really nothing new. The frustrating
  part is that years ago, our government used to ask people to do things
  to help, whereas now, they (both Republicans AND Democrats are guilty
  of this) are afraid to ask because it would come back to bite them. The
  American people don't want to be inconvenienced and don't have the
  desire
  to sacrifice part of their lifestyle. The American people believe that
  they shouldn't have to change their ways, to do so would be
  un-American. Yet, some 60 years ago during WWII, Roosevelt asked the
  American people to make sacrifices and we gladly did it. Other
  presidents have asked things of the people and we always did it. Its
  like what Kennedy said "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". We
  are fighting 2 wars in the middle east, one real and one bullshit, and
  part of the way we as patriotic citizens could help is to use less gas,
  which would help wean our depencence on foreign oil. Sure, nobody wants
  to pay $4 for a gallon of gas, but very few people are willing to make
  changes, such as driving a fuel efficient car, car pooling or, and here
  is a novel idea, driving less. They just don't change and keep
  expecting our elected officials to do something. And, being afraid of
  the public, these elected officials don't have the balls to say "Ok, we
  will do something for you, but you have to do something for us, try to
  find ways to use less gas."

  The other side to this is that these oil companies are clearly gouging
  the American public and then cry poor. If they are so fucking poor, why
  did Exxon give its retiring CEO a $400 fucking million retirement send
  off? Why did that same company post the largest profit ever for the
  last quarter of 2005? They blame a lot of this on unrest in the middle
  east, but a dirty little secret they are not telling you is that 50% of
  our oil comes from Canada, and although I may not be a geography
  expert, I can figure out that Canada is not exactly the middle east. If
  one of these companies is smart, it will get with an automaker to help
  develop a car that runs on another source of fuel besides oil and then
  start selling that vehicle along with the alternate source of fuel as
  the wave of the future. When enough people start buying this other car
  and using this other source, this oil company and automaker will be
  sitting back, raking in the money and saying "I told you so." But,
  again, we have too many companies that are more concerned with the
  green of money instead of the greens of the Earth. These are big
  corporations and companies and with tremendous power and wealth comes
  even greater responsibility. And that responsibility is protecting our
  only planet. And, protecting our economy and country. These high gas
  prices affect every single person, company and industry in America and
  our economy can only hold out for so long. When we went rafting last
  year, we were told that the cost to go rafting had gone up because of
  the cost of gas to run the buses. If gas prices could affect a small
  rafting and campground, imagine what it will do to grocery stores,
  airlines and government agencies. And because states are willing to
  suspend taxes on gas, they have to make up for that money some way and
  that means in the long run, higher taxes. Plus, the government uses gas
  and oil too, and how are they going to pay for that? By raising or
  coming up with other taxes.

  In conclusion, it comes down to the oil companies and the people being
  responsible for these high gas prices. Don't sit there and cry poor
  while you are posting the highest profit ever. And don't sit there and
  say you can't afford to fill up your Escalade if you aren't will to make a
  simple sacrifice or curb your gas usage. Because if so, in the end, you
  are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

  • 9:39 pm
  • 1 Comment