Howdy. I'm Joeverkill, and this is the Right-Wing Rant.
The issue of oil prices is on a lot of minds and tongues these days. It's starting to really piss people off, and so of course the fatcats in Washington want to step in an do something about it in order to appease their constituents. There are several proposed plans, the two front-runners being price controls and John McCain's plan to suspend the federal gas tax.
These are bad ideas.
Let me first address John McCain's thinly veiled bribe to short-sighted voters. McCain wants to suspend the federal gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Suspending the 18 cent per gallon federal tax would cost the government an estimated $10 billion. John McCain has admitted in the past that he's not an economic expert, and that is evident here. What could he be thinking? "Gee, I bet people would love it if I magically made gas cheaper when it's at its most expensive. Hey, it's a good idea to artificially and suddenly decrease the price of a limited commodity during a time of peak demand, right? Golly, the voters are gonna love this." Aaaaand cut to a Vietnam flashback. Suspending the federal gas tax for a few months is a temporary solution to a permanent problem. It's short-sighted and callous, and in my opinion it's an obvious attempt at bribing voters.
What about price controls? I'm pro free-market, but even I have to admit price controls are a useful and even necessary thing sometimes. However, like John McCain's proposed Summer of sex and taxless gas (minus the sex), price controls on gasoline are a bad idea. They're a short-term solution to a long-term problem. This country needs to come to terms with the fact that internal combustion engines are expensive to run. Serious changes need to be made if we're going to maintain our current standard of living after oil goes up to $200 per barrel. You may argue that price controls will prevent costs from going up that high. And if that's your argument, you're a fucking idiot and deserve to be run over by your own gas-powered riding lawnmower.
I'm Joeverkill, and this has been a Right-Wing Rant.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Right-Wing Rant: Oil Prices
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1 responses:
What would your solution be joe? I am genuinely curious, I am pretty confused by this issue too. While the obvious one of R&D and alternate fuels is a good one, we need something while these things happen - a quick fix.
What about the solution proposed by the organisation of truckers who circled the white house in protest - stopping any further addition to the strategic oil reserve and all exports of american oil. First of all I wasn't even aware that america exported oil, why would it when it has to get more from the Saudis? Also Hillary made a good point when she mentioned that she was reminded of the California electricity price gouging scandal a few years back. I don't believe that this huge increase in gas prices is a natural part of the free market economy. Not that Hilldog doesn't have diesel dripping from her paws and whiskers.
As Danny pointed out above, an invasion in of a foreign country is not exactly very freeing, it is in itself a form of constraining the will of the marketplace - albeit that of another country. The invasion has had the unintended effect of strangling production. Tons of gasoline(afraid i dont have the stats on hand but it is a huge amount) is stolen every day from the rich refineries of Iraq and lives are lost trying to protect those shipments. Here working americans sweat away to pay a third time for that oil and get a fraction of what they would have got for it before.
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