All of us with automobiles or trucks are dealing with gasoline prices that are rising higher everyday.
Businesspeople among us with larger fleets of vehicles and organizations like the city of Everett, which has dozens of vehicles, are going to need much more for fuel in the coming year than in the year before – or so it seems.
The dramatic rise in the price for fuel has elicited the standard response from the President of the United States.
“I have instructed the attorney general to investigate. Anyone doing anything wrong will be harshly prosecuted.”
That’s great.
We know such investigations in a capitalist society like ours add up to absolutely nothing, and most likely add up or translate into higher prices for gasoline.
The rising price for fuel is caused by speculation because oil is traded, largely by speculators, who never take possession of the product.
Bottom line, oil and gasoline should no longer be treated as a commodity like gold or silver. It should be treated more like a utility.
We use gasoline to power our automobiles and trucks the same way we use electricity to power our lighting and heating systems.
Oil and gasoline are the pillars upon which we base our economy and entire way of life so it is only natural that something must be done to take the speculation out of the oil and gasoline marketplace.
All the oil companies and producer nations will still make plenty of money. The marketplace will be calmer and more real, if you will.
An interesting political aside to the spike in oil and gasoline prices is that the Republicans all clamoring for debt reduction and savings don’t have a collective word to say about the outrageous and damaging rise in the price for oil and gasoline.
Those of us who use gasoline and oil are like sheep being led to slaughter each time we fill up.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a government that actually did something about this instead of paying lip service to investigations being made into speculation?
Don’t hold your breath.