Gas Pains



So gas prices break a record, and nobody seems to care. I filled up today and paid something involving a second mortgage, several gold ingots, and a healthy internal organ of your choice! Every time I've filled up lately, I've winced as the pump meter flew past my previous all-time high- every fill-up is a personal record, and forty bucks a tank is no longer a surprise. Yet people are still driving just like always, and they're paying up, and according to the paper they're philosophical about it. Gotta have the SUV. Can't help it, they say, can't worry about it, it's just the cost of living. Some of the people they interviewed didn't even notice the price until the reporter pointed it out. The public seems to just be ignoring the problem, even though this price rise is being caused not by a fuel shortage or war or anything like that. No, it's because speculators and nervous investors are running up the price of crude while OPEC dithers on production increases. Isn't that enough to get people riled up? Shouldn't they be stampeding to the commodities markets looking for the varmints what bid up them oil prices? Shouldn't we be talking about this on the air, since you don't get much more of an eye-level topic than the rising cost of something we all use and need? Maybe it's because we can't do anything about gas prices, but we can't really do much about anything else, either, and it doesn't stop us from talking about it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think they need to repeal the gas tax first-then go after the companies price gouging the consumer. I confess-I own an SUV and a pickup truck, but gas wasn't that expensive when I bought either one and 4 wheel drive comes in handy in the winter for my commute into work. I'm upset, especially since my budget is about to take a big hit-but like you said-what can we do?

-macbeaner