Recently, crude oil rose to $109.72 on the New York Mercantile Exchange and analyst predict it will rise to an even higher price of $120 a barrel! What does that mean?
Currently, the people in charge of regulating the gas prices have everyone guessing. Additionally, I believe they are conditioning us to think the price that was so ridiculously high to us a month ago is now a steal of a deal.
How much will gas be this week? There are hundreds of websites dedicated to the lowest priced gas in your neighborhood. Everyone is racing for $3.09 (isn’t that cheap!) because tomorrow it will be $3.59 a gallon.
Soon, consumers will think $5 a gallon is inexpensive gas and will be racing to find that price because gas just hit $5.89 a gallon in most places.
Analysts believe that American consumers will not scoff at the price of gas too much and will actually increase their spending on gas in the coming months because it is summer. However, those analysts are obviously not living in the real world.
While our European counterparts have regularly paid much higher prices over the years for gas, they also have readily available and functional mass transit. American’s do not have that same luxury, with the exception of a few major cities. Americans must drive a car in order to go to work, school, purchase groceries, etc.
Additionally, Europeans have health care plans that are paid for by the government and a lot more benefits than American’s do, so their dollar stretches much farther than ours.
What has happened to our economy?
1. Washington has not been paying attention to the bottom line (like that’s a surprise! They do not care; they have everything paid for from our taxes!).
2. American companies have shipped our factories out of the country, which has devalued the dollar. By shipping out our factories, American’s have lost jobs.
3. Almost everything we purchase is made in China or other foreign countries. There is not much to be done about it now. Try finding much of anything that is not made on foreign soil now.
4. Raising gas to prices that are beyond what the average consumer can bear will make it impossible for some people to continue to go to work. Who can possibly afford to pay to go to work?
If you don’t live in one of the few cities in America that have easily accessible mass transportation, you can try commuting on a bus or a train. To find out what it took to commute to work this way, I routed a commute via bus and shuttle to a friend’s workplace.
Three buses, one shuttle, 5 ½ hours and $43 later, I would arrive at his place of work, which normally would take 45 minutes via car. That means I would spend 11 hours a day commuting and $86 a day to pay the fare! To add insult to injury, the bus would leave me nine blocks from his work, where I would have to walk or take a cab in the freezing rain.
5. Insurance companies and mortgage companies have been allowed to run rampant with greed and have sucked all the money out of pockets that were already running on empty.
I think the politicians and the people who regulate all this pandemonium need to be brought to task and made to live the American dream, which has turned into a nightmare.
Pointed directly at the politicians and greedy mongers: Try filling your tank without a job, going to sleep when you don’t have a home to lay your head in and healing yourself when you are sick without insurance.
Jaci Rae - The Queen of More Green
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