THE
PRICE OF GAS
-or-
You’re F%@&ed
31 May 2008, by Pirate Joe
Four dollar gas has come to the Hudson Valley.
Actually, we’re at about $4.15 for regular
at this point. But four-dollar gas is hardly news when we all know that
$5,6, or even $7 dollar gas could be here by the end of the year. Not
to mention heating oil. In the U.S.A., the “misery factor” is rising
fast. It’s not just that getting to work (or pleasure) is getting more
expensive. Everything is getting (or will get ) more expensive as
massive fuel price-hikes spike the cost of everything else. All of what
you pick off the shelf at the store got there by a boat, train, plane
or truck, or even all of them. They all have one thing in common: yup,
they all run on oil. Need I say more?
Even as demand drops (in the U.S.A.) prices keep
going up. What’s going on? Greed. Capitalism run amok, deregulation and
probably the corporate clique’s desire to get in one last lick before
the Republicans are (hopefully) swept out of office in November (their
greatest fear). Here’s who’s doing it to us:
1. The
Oil Companies: Record-breaking quarter after another,
multi-million dollar bonuses for the big execs, while all the while
claiming that they’re not to blame. Although they are probably not the primary engine behind it all, they
are certainly not above gouging us good while the sun shines.
2. Futures
Traders: Now we get to the core of the problem. The oil
companies, bad as they are, at least provide a service/product, that
is, fuel at the pump. But futures traders are an entirely different
matter. These parasitic, rapacious, greed-consumed leeches provide a
service to no one, except themselves. They insert themselves into the
market flow of oil, (and other vital commodities ) and, like a
tapeworm, drain off the economic nourishment of our nation, leaving us
emaciated, weak, malnourished and unable to keep the economic life
blood of our country flowing. They are the epitome of the New
Capitalism: unbridled greed that not even love of the Red, White and
Blue can ameliorate. They thrive in an atmosphere of paranoia: “if you
think it’s expensive now,
just wait ‘till next week!”, that they
self-servingly stoke at every opportunity, laughing as hard as Enron
executives while crazed buyers drive prices ever higher. They are
causing economic misery to an unparalleled degree, and they have no
intention of quitting. Why should they? They could afford gas even if
it reached $40/gal. And they fervently hope it does.
The plain fact is that these people are not needed.
Futures trading in any vital commodity benefits no one except a
superfluous cabal of capitalists while causing unnecessary strain on
the world-wide economy. It is a practice that should be outlawed,
period.
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