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5/16/04
This nonsense about gas
prices has to stop, America. I know I’m going to get some angry E-mail
because of this, but it’s time to realize that cheap gasoline is not one of
the inalienable rights the Founding Fathers were talking about. What got me all wound
up? I received this in my E-mail inbox today: Subject:
stop! gasoline prices !!!! I’m
guessing that a lot of you have seen the same thing at least once before,
because every time gas prices go up a bit or something bad happens in the Middle
East (like a guy getting his head cut off, one of the most horrifying things
I’ve ever heard of), this E-mail starts circulating. This isn’t new. I’m
pretty darned sick of people whining about gas prices—I see it on the news
every night as they interview housewives gassing up their Hummer H2s and Lincoln
Navigators and Chevy Suburbans complaining about how expensive it is. My friend
with a new Chevy Avalanche (he’s single and lives alone in an apartment, by
the way) complains about the $85.00 fill-ups every five days, but won’t
consider getting rid of the truck. Instead he says that the government should
release the strategic reserves to help ease his pain. Yeah, it’s a real
emergency when Americans can’t afford to gas up their empty, single-passenger
SUVs, and we should use up a finite resource stockpile to avert a real crisis. For
Ed and everybody else, I’m going to lay it out here in plain language: Nobody
owes us cheap gas, OK? It
isn’t the government’s job to investigate gas prices (heck, they’re
responsible for at least $0.31 of every gallon you pump, and that's just the
Federal tax) or force companies to charge less for their product. It isn’t
newsworthy that gas costs $2.00 a gallon any more than it’s newsworthy that a
pair of jeans suddenly cost $30.00 instead of $25.00. Right
now, the supply of oil is tenuous at best because of the situation in the Middle
East. Demand is high and going up because of the summer travel season. Without
drawing the graph, this is all about supply and demand, the old Econ 101 lesson
that everyone pretty much understands. For those two reasons, prices at the pump
are up. You may also have noticed that the price of dairy products is up, too,
but you don’t see anyone launching E-mail campaigns to boycott the
Land-O-Lakes lady for a day or asking for the government to release their
stockpile of Holsteins. Same situation, different product. The difference? We
aren’t willing to use less gasoline the way we’re willing to use less
butter. First,
let me dissect this E-mail so you can see how foolish this whole concept is.
IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES Who
“calculated” this hokum? It seems to imply that we use every drop of
gasoline the oil companies can produce each and every day. Do people really
think that the oil companies are running so close to capacity that just one day
of zero sales will cause their tanks to overflow like a bathtub filled to the
brim? Come on, people—think for yourselves! AT
THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER 4.6
BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES. Really?
So they’ll lose $4.6 billion on Wednesday, but make $9.2 billion on Thursday
to make up for all the people who didn’t buy gas on Wednesday, but did on
Thursday. See, all this event is doing is moving the day you purchase the
gas, not eliminating the purchase entirely. The oil company is still getting all
its money, just not on Wednesday. I’m guessing that they don’t particularly
care when you buy your gas, just as long as you buy it (and you will continue to
do so for the foreseeable future). The only person you might possibly hurt with
this is the independent gas station owner, who makes a whopping $0.02-0.04 per
gallon. Yelling at the 17-year-old girl at the register probably won't do much,
either (I've seen it already). To be honest, this is a typical knee-jerk middle-America reaction. We all want to do something to make our voices heard, but not in a way that inconveniences us or forces us to reevaluate the priorities in our lives. How about instead of buying gas that day, try to spend the week (or however long a tank of gas lasts in your particular car) living your life as though there is no gasoline. Find alternative modes of transportation, carpool, walk to the store, ride a bicycle, whatever. Not buying gas for that week, just once, if done by enough people, actually would send the message this event is supposed to send.
WAITING ON THIS ADMINISTRATION TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS In that case, I'm unhappy about paying "market price" for lobster. Who do these fishermen think they are, charging so much for a stupid fish (well, crustacean, but you know what I mean)? I think they should lower the price because I really, really like lobster and I want to eat more of it but I don't want to pay so much at the restaurant. And I don't want to eat anything but lobster, either! The government should force the fishermen to earn less money so I can have more lobster. (See how stupid it sounds in another context?) Instead
of really making our voices heard with strong actions, Americans are merely
willing to take the easy way out and inconvenience ourselves for a single day
(and honestly, who can’t wait an extra day to buy gas?). I thought a boycott
was supposed to eliminate the usage of a product altogether to show the company
or industry in question our displeasure. It was supposed to imply that there is
some sort of hardship on the part of the consumer to demonstrate exactly how
unhappy we are with a policy or product, so unhappy that we’re willing to hurt
ourselves to make that point known. With this “don’t
buy gas on Wednesday” idea, all we’re really saying is that we can’t live
without the oil and we’re not willing to make any significant changes in our
lives to help the situation (buying more efficient vehicles is a very easy one,
for instance). Someone else should change, not us. We're a society of victims
and whiners, unable to control ourselves in any way, just slaves to evil
corporations. It's Big Brother's job to take care of us and keep us safe and let
us just keep living with our heads in the clouds (sorry, maybe a little too much
political ranting there). The bottom line is that all this complaining just
makes us look even more selfish, ignorant and glutinous than we already did to
the rest of the world. I’ve
always believed that the only way to get Americans to notice a problem is to hit
them in the pocketbook. As soon as something gets expensive, hey, we
notice. Civilians being decapitated in the Middle East isn’t a big deal, but, whoa!
Gas is almost $2.00 a gallon! Man, I’m gonna do something about this! Screw
those greedy oil companies! It just makes me sick. I
know this isn’t a political site, and that it should be about the hobby, but
in a very direct way, things like this do affect our hobby. All our old cars are
gas-guzzlers, we know that. When gas gets expensive, it’s harder for us to
play with our toys. That’s frustrating, but we know that we have to pay to
play. I don’t think anybody is denying that fact. I’m certainly not. As
enthusiasts, we have to be aware of the industries that affect us and we have to
be smart about the positions we take. I’d love to be able to enjoy my Century
for the next 70 years (or however many years I have left). To make that happen,
I drive 4-cylinder cars that get 30+ MPG whenever I’m not playing with my
toys. I’ll put my money where my mouth is and admit that I’m no longer
considering the Dodge Magnum Hemi wagon as my next new car—I’ll buy
something more efficient instead. That Mazda 6 wagon is looking pretty darned
good… Demanding
cheap gasoline makes all Americans look bad ($2.00/gallon is still less than half
of what they typically pay in England, and about 1/3 of what they pay in
Germany!). In a time when being an American is somehow shameful (many people
traveling in other countries often say they are Canadian instead of American),
we need to speak with a unified voice. I think enthusiasts are a pretty smart
group, smart enough to see that one day of not buying gas will not accomplish a
single thing and that the only way to make a significant change for the better
is to make changes in the way we live. I, for one, don’t want to be ashamed to
be an American. So
be a leader. If you can, lead by example. I love my 8-cylinder cars (FYI: the
Mustang will go through 3 tanks of premium in one day at the race track), and
know that the price of gas will change the amount of time I can enjoy them. But
I drive economical cars during the week and whenever I have business to conduct.
The price of gas doesn’t affect me in any significant way because of this. I
think if more people realized that having 2 kids and a dog doesn’t mean you
need an 8000-pound truck to get around, things might change. After all, the old supply and demand theory works the other way, too. If we needed less gas, it would get cheaper. In the end, everybody wins with that scenario. See you next month. E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net This page accessed Thanks, Fidget! |
