Roll Out the Barrel!!!!!

Roll Out the Barrels and We’ll Have a Barrel of Crude!!!!


$3.39. People lining up to pay $2.69 per gallon! It’s now worse than running our cars on gallons of milk. Look around. Where’d the traffic go? The slowdown is on.

Free Market? The holy grail of Republican economics. Trust the free market. It will make everything right if we just keep out of the regulation market. Right. Free market this.

Why do we think the free market gives a flying fart about the US economy? The gas companies are internationals and have stockholders that they care about. What’s going on when gas prices hit record highs and Sunoco stock shoots up $7 per share? Record gas prices are becoming record profits for the gas giants. They are not feeling our pain.

There has not been an oil refinery built in the US for the past 20 years. 20 years. Since 1985.

Oil and gas usage since that time has gone way up. What’s going on? Well, you see, the free market seeks to maximize profit, which is exactly what the big oil companies are rolling in during our time of crisis. Oil refineries are “stretched to the limit” according to the news. Every threatened disruption spikes gas prices. The free market in its glory. Supply and demand. Tight supply leads to higher prices leads to higher profits. What incentive do the oil companies have to create new refineries or, for that matter, to find more oil? Things are just about right for them now.

That is why the US should step in. Let’s get our head out of our rear ends and recognize that the free market is not always in the best interests of our country. The US should take it upon itself to regulate the gas markets or, in the alternative, to build nationalized oil refineries to compete with the gas guys. That way, our economy is not at the mercy of mercenary gas barons whose goal isn’t to keep the US economy on track or to provide reasonably priced oil and gas, but rather to suck as much money out of the US economy as possible. Shame on us for even thinking that Exxon or Sunoco is the slightest bit concerned about what is best for America!

Blawgerman