Black Gold

Its Just Our Luck. Right when our age group is beginning to drive, gas prices decide to shoot up astronomically. If I had to pay for my own gas right now, I don't know how I would do it. With prices approaching four dollars a gallon, its not going to get any better. Alaska is the most expensive place to buy gas at $4.18 a gallon (isn't that were most of our non-imported gas comes from?) and Arizona is the cheapest at $3.71 a gallon. I heard that the company that makes the numbers for gas stations signs has received many new orders. Gas stations are running out of threes and fours and there are even some orders for fives. Scary.

If someone would have said that we would have four dollar gas about 10 years ago, no one would have believed you. If they would have shot up to that immediately, there most likely would have been a revolt. There was the oil embargo in the 70s that highlighted our countries need for oil, and we simply cannot live without it and are forced to pay whatever the price.

Gas prices have continually increased over the past few years, and all of a sudden I have found myself saying "When did gas get so high? Seems like it was just at $2.80" The increase is so gradual that it makes it easier on our minds but tougher on our bank accounts.

It might even be tolerable if gas prices didn't cause everything else to rise in price. Food, airline tickets, and basically every industry is affected by the high prices of gas and they pass that expense on to the consumer. I don't buy a whole lot of things myself, but soon I will head off to college and have to survive on my own income. And college kids are usually broke.

So who to blame. So many say 'blame Bush, he caused all of this!' but I think the picture is more complicated. Reserves are being drained faster and faster, chaos in Iraq and other Middle East countries has caused hostilites and oil shortages, and Chinese people are switching from bikes to cars and there are alot of Chinese people. One thing that we cannot deny is that the oil companies are raking in record profits. Exxon Mobil set the record for quaterly earnings this winter by making a profit of $11 billion. That is the highest profit for a US company ever. Exxon made $40 Billion in profit in 2007. But again that is only a part of the problem. Exxons revenue was about ten times the profit, which means that only ten percent of the price of gas goes to the gas companies. So instead of four dollars a gallon it would be $3.60.

And Its Only Going To Get Worse