Some jackdaws complain that Traction Companies run an inadequate number of cars and too few trains, in order to increase their Profits. But the vast majority of Patrons would gladly trade the wait of a few moments, against the TURMOIL of City life. And if the cars are over-crowded, how much more, the horse-filled streets of Central and Olive? And with the affordability of Mr. Ford & Co.'s automobiles, available to even the humblest of menials, Downtown has become like unto the anteroom to the
Again, scare-mongers cry like Cassandra that should the Traction Companies fail, our countless Suburbanites will be marooned on their
[The scene shifts. We find ourselves nearly one hundred years in the future.]
Once upon a time a giant storm swept over the mouth of the
However, in the Golden State of California, a particularly, um, progressive body of legislators has mandated that the gasoline sold in the state have a unique and particular formulation.
Because they could.
High gas prices take money out of the general economy and pump it into the corporations. Every aspect of the economy suffers. More money is spent on gas, less money is available for buying clothes, books, appliances, food. Hmm. Oil companies have the power to raise prices as high as the market will bear. The market will bear quite a bit. In
We are hostage to foreign and often hostile oil-producing countries. We are hostage to American oil corporations. The demand for this strategeraniositous product must fall. SUVs. God, what a waste. Stupid beyond words. Save the planet? Well, that's not my religion, but I am of an age to remember frequent smog alerts, so yes, save my lungs. (But any male who's over 15% body fat had better worry more about that, than smog. Priorities.) And job one is rationalizing the energy supply. Oil harvests the fields. Oil moves the crops. Oil makes the clothes. Oh yeah, it is a public utility.
And what do we do with Public Utilities? We regulate them. For the public good. In the public interest. For national security.
If there is justification for any regulation at all, it must apply to gas prices. For some time during WW II, the national speed limit was 35 miles an hour. Yes, you read it right. It wasn't to conserve oil. Rubber. The
The incredible oil reserves in
Right now, it cannot be market forces that are driving up the price of a gallon of gas, say, ten cents every week. Up one month, down the next - not connected to any rational pattern. Supply and demand is not the driving force, so much as the greed and irresponsibility of profiteers.
Charles Krauthammer has advocated artificially raising gas prices to a set minimum price, by imposing a self-adjusting tax. Amusingly - haha - he posits the outrageously high floor of $3 ... oh, wait ... that's what it is now, where I am. Oh-oh, guess he means $5. But in any case, if the market price of gas goes down, the tax would instantly rise, eliminating the flux. Artificially elevated prices - that is, artificially elevated by the tax, rather than by the oil companies - which would spur research. Well, it might work. If the tax revenue isn't just flushed down the bottomless toilet of government waste. Which it most likely would be. After all, European petrol prices are high because of taxes, yet they haven't gone alternative.
The real benefit, in theory, would be to encourage the development of alternative energy sources. High gas prices would make alternative energies more profitable, more competitive, more worthwhile to develop. It taps into and exploits the wonderful urge for profit, that right now is only taking, and not giving. If, of course, Americans got the message, about actually going for alternative sources. Lower demand for oil would lower the cost of a barrel, and suddenly our oil-rich friend-enemies wouldn't be so rich. They couldn't hold us over the, um, barrel.
This is what government is for. We are taxed, not to subsidize illegitimacy and to fund social engineering. We are taxed to promote the general welfare. I can think of nothing more general than oil. It is the nation's blood. Well, time to evolve. Wood, coal, oil - next, whatever it is. But really, it's time.
J
2 comments:
We need a movement to establish a national public utility to regulate the distribution of all oil and its byproducts.
View it as an issue of national security. We are hostage to hostile alien powers - the third world controls us, for cripes sake - and this is simply dangerous. During WW II, the precedent was set, as I pointed out. It's just a matter of whether it's important. If we can send a man to the moon (so the cliche goes (even though it was 37 years ago)) what would it take to start a national drive toward energy independence within five years? The Manhattan Project took less time than that, and gave us, in effect, nuclear energy. Gas will be five bucks a gallon next year. Times up.
J
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