Gas Prices: How the oil companies are murdering the lower class, and our already broken economy.

I’ve been watching the gas prices go up, and keep wondering how we’re going to be affected as a society.  The implications get worse and worse the more I think about it.  They’ve been trying for years to push the gas price up to $5 or more a gallon. 

While many people see this as fair by world standards, considering that most European countries are paying ₤5 or more for a liter, here is something to think about to put this into perspective – while the EU and UK may pay ₤5 for a liter of gasoline, they have a serious advantage over us here in the US:  public transportation.  The cities and surrounding areas are all connected by train and other forms of public transport.

Here in the US, public transportation is a rarity, and even in areas that have this benefit, the reliability and availability pales in comparison to other parts of the world.  This country has been based on automobile transportation to the point that the once thriving passenger trains plainly don’t exist anymore, and what few do run are second to freight trains, so the reliability is horrid.  Plus, the fares are awful!

So, the only option for most of the country is using gas-guzzling vehicles.  To make things worse, the lower classes are already pressed hard to afford the basics, and for us to work, we NEED a car.  I’d ask the nay-sayers in other countries this:  Do your applications for employment have lines reading, “Do you have a license?” and “Do you own a reliable vehicle?”

So for the middle and lower classes to even work at all, we need a vehicle, and fuel to operate it.  If gas prices continue to rise, more and more people will not be able to afford necessities, as they are putting more and more money into fueling the car to keep a job.  This also compounds matters as less and less money is available to keep the vehicles in good efficient operation, so the fuel economy suffers, making the fuel bill go even higher.

Continually screwing over the middle and lower class senselessly does not bode well for our country.  The people that are being hurt the most are the ones that make this country run at all.  They’re the people that keep the gas stations open, the grocery stores open, clean your clothes, and assemble and repair your stuff.  Just about anything that is service related is done by people who frankly aren’t paid nearly enough to have even a relatively comfortable living.

This will drive more people into negative pass-times to ‘cope’ and ‘escape’, such as drinking and drugs.  The children will see the state their families are in, and begin trying to ‘escape’ as well, as they see that the life of their parents is the one they have to look forward to – and who wants to be broke all of the time and barely able to keep all the utilities on?

The Government: Is it providing the services we pay for?

These days, the government has come to mind more often than I think is should.

The government is run almost like a business these days. There are the peons, managers, regional managers, etc, all the way up to the “CEO”, the president. It is much more complex than that, but I believe it follows along a similar model.

The other thing I'm looking at is that we, as a people, pay the government to render services for us. When I think like this, I realize that really, we're not getting what we are paying for. The government is removing our freedoms, yet they are demanding higher and higher payments to render services.

This country was founded with the idea of freedom. The Declaration of independence is what made this country, and is the document from which all of the others stem from – the Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc.

To quote the Declaration,

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security

The current government is in many cases, removing our freedoms, restricting the common people, and increasingly working to support companies instead of the People. The biggest part of my gripe today is this:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

More and more often, it is not 'the governed' that are consenting to the rules, regulations, and laws that are passed by our huge, monolithic government – it is companies. The FDA is passing regulations on products which they have no jurisdiction over, such as natural products not designed by human hands. Also, they pass regulations supporting industry, not the people whose health and happiness is affected. There are so many departments and sections of the government that it is no wonder that one hand doesn't know what the other is doing.

I really think we need to address our government very soon. The government generally does not operate for the people with our consent, as they keep private sessions and closed doors. The common person can't give input. Our representatives may start off at childhood with honest aspirations, but are corrupted on the way, paid by special interest groups to support some agenda or another even if it is not moral (Money can buy them). More and more laws are passed with no input (or many times even knowledge) from the people. This needs to stop!