I was reviewing the historical price of gas (for the last 60 years), and found an interesting fact.  When you adjust the price of gas for inflation the cost of a gallon of gas has stayed relatively constant for the past 60 years.

A couple of things are obvious.  Gas prices have over time changed very little.  Upward spikes have generally been sharp, precipitated by some external event (i.e., The Great Depression, First Oil Embargo, Second Oil Embargo, etc.), and price declines have been gradual and of long duration between the spikes.  This would tend to indicate that gas prices have little to do with Big Oil’s wishes, and a lot to do with global politics and world economic conditions.  The last few years however have seen a steady and seemingly unending increase in the price of gas.    I would submit that there have been two underlying causes.

First is globalization of the economy.  It has a couple of facets that have impact the price of gallon.  One is that we have reached a point where oil is truly a world-wide commodity.  It is produced and consumed in quantity virtually everywhere in the world.  At the same time, the transportation system has reached a point of efficiency (pipelines, super-tankers) that location means relatively little.  It can be moved in bulk, efficiently between “any points’ on the globe.

What is the second?  Upticks in price have been relatively sharp; downticks have been relatively drawn out.  During the down ticks market forces have been in control, you know that pesky “Free Market.” The upticks, oh that’s when political forces, either by intention or accident, have interceded in the marketplace.  Governments are filled with Type Ones.  They are the “ruling elite.”  The ability to go where we want, when we want, is one of the foundations of our freedom.  At the present time, and for the foreseeable future those freedoms are brought to us thanks to petroleum and automobile.  You can not control (rule) people who exercise that degree of freedom.  So that freedom must be limited.  Mass transit is an attempt to do just that.  You can only go from one specific location to another specific location at the time specified.  Mass transit is virtually non-existent in the free-market, because quite frankly it sucks, and so people vote every day.  Mass transit is a government phenomena, it is promoted, financed, and in most cases run by the government.  It gives the government control.  Look around the world, the United States is the freest country; it also has the least mass transit.  This is no accident.  Control of the population (the penultimate goal of Type Ones) requires control of the movement of the citizenry.

I don’ think I’m overstating when I say that the automobile represents freedom.  Deep down we all know it, ask any teen waiting to get their license.  Now stop and think, has any other thing attracted the ire of the Type Ones more than the automobile.  From the 60’s on, it has been a constantly relentless assault on the automobile & driving from safety (even when it kills), to pollution control (that wrecked an industry), to anti-trust actions (over paints & buses), to CAFÉ standards, to MADD, to the infamous double nickel, to HOV lanes,  “road rage”, cell phone use, down to the gas tax (not used for roads), the gas guzzler tax, red light cameras, and now saving the environment.

So what is the government doing about the high price of gas?   Well, nothing and everything.  They have essentially shutdown drilling for oil within the United States and its coastal waters.  The total amount of oil this keeps off the marketplace is in the range of all the oil in the Middle East. They have hamstrung the efficiency of the production and distribution processes with an array of absurd product requirements.  Environmental laws, permitting requirements, and civil litigation, have kept us from building any new refineries for decades.  They have brought on the high gas prices by strangling supply, all the while blaming it on the Big Oil.  What’s really sad is that the Type Two’s are too preoccupied/lazy/stupid to see it.  The herd heads into the slaughterhouse. 

What can be done about it?  Well the simplest, most effective course of action would be to elect public officials that believe in our freedom, not their power.  Good luck.