The "rest of the planet" doesn't drive as many cars as we do. They haven't
earned the right to gripe about gas prices. They take the public transport
systems to work. Their cars sit in the garage until the weekend then get to
"go to town". America lives and dies by it's privately owned vehicles. Ever
since Henry Ford figured out how to stamp the derned things out cheaply, we've
been hooked.
This is NOT the rest of the world, we do NOT have to compare ourselves with
them in ANY fashion on a singular topic like: gasoline. They pay more in gas
but pay less in medical bills (in some countries it's ALL government
subsidized) or insurance, etc. etc. To deal with this topic like it's "no
issue" becuase we pay less is just ignorance of a global economy.
Our gas is cheap for a reason, I tried to point that out. Realistically,
gas prices shouldn't shift more than a dime per gallon from one end of the
country to the other, but it's as much as 60 cents between areas. This is due
to oil company's price searching: "How much can we stick this area for before
it screams 'ouch' and gets pissed off at us?" There is no real "competition"
in the gasoline area, the oil companies have a limited monopoly and know
precisely what those limits are. They price fix and collude with an unwritten
rule of thumb that makes them all a ton of money, and nobody can do anything
about it. When one is forced to increase prices: they all do. When one drops
them (slowly) to meet some kind of quota, they all do, knowing they can jump
it back up after it's done.
You may like giving your money away, but I'd suggest a charity, they'll at
least do something good with it other than fight better technologies that'll
eventually do away with oil. I won't support the "April 30th" boycott
intentionally (I may not need gas that day) but I will strive to use less gas
overall. I hate oil companies, but I need their product to survive. Until
someone breaks the oil chain... I'll be stuck with them.
Shaun H.
---original message---
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1999 15:45:48 -0600
From: John Neff <jndneff@texas.net>
Subject: DML: RE:DML Boycott Gas...
Regardless of the reason the gas prices are going up, the fact remains.
People are bitching about the price of gas. If they think we have it bad, go
to another country and they will get a real taste of what expensive fuel is
all about. The fact is, that we have the lowest prices on the planet, while
having one of the highest incomes per capita. People need to look around and
see what the rest of the world is paying for gas before they start crying
about anything.
I plan on going to which ever gas station I can find with picketers (and you
know there will be some) and filling my truck to the very top. Then I'm
going to go home get the other Gas Hog out of the garage, 88 Pontiac Trans
Am GTA, and filling it up too. I may just get an oil company credit card
while there and have them charge it too!
John
98 Dakota (Big Blue Gas Hog) CC 4X4 Sport with 5.2L of gas guzzling power
with Mopar headers attached to a low efficiency automatic transmission
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