Back in the mid-‘70’s, I watched a large two-tank gas truck roll into the Shell station across the street; the driver proceeded to dump the gas into underground tanks. About an hour later, another, similar truck arrived and the scenario was repeated. What is interesting is that it was about 2:00 AM and the station had been closed for about two weeks. It didn’t open the next day, either, but I did run into the owner having dinner at the local diner that night.
“Hey, Gil,” I said. “How come you’re still not open and I saw two trucks unload over there last night?”
“Well,” he replied, “it’s like this. Right now I’ve got 50,000 gallons of gas in the ground. I actually bought that gas three weeks ago and Shell told me they’d deliver it later at the same price. So, I closed and I don’t have any payroll and not much overhead and now, I’ll wait another week and I can open again. I’ll sell the whole 50,000 gallons of gas in about two days and I’ll make about 50 cents a gallon on it, because the price has gone up that much. Not bad for two days work, huh?” Especially in those days.
Those were the days of the “gas shortages” and the public was gullible enough to go along with it. It was just a simple matter of creating the demand and holding back on the supply.
Déjà vu all over again? Well, the individual operators aren’t making the money. But, the majors are. It appears to me that they are putting out a good spin and great lip service and laying the blame everywhere except at their own doorsteps. Why can’t THEY hoard the gas and create the demand and limit the supply and drive the costs up?
I don’t doubt that production has leveled off. The wells will run dry someday. But the question nags at me: Are we citizens of this world paying the price of our own ignorance?
I can cite many cases in point. Remember the great sugar shortage that drove the price of sugar and soft drinks sky high? Why did no one complain about the price of sugar-free soft drinks going up at the same time? Remember the toilet paper shortage? Talk about all of the stock flying off the shelves over that one!
And now, we get to the “trickle-down effect.” In all honesty, I’ve expected the impact of high has and diesel prices to hit retail values for over a year now and I think that most outlets have done an excellent job in containing prices. Now, it’s time for us to pay the piper and we’re seeing all sorts of “sticker shock” wherever we go.
Nevertheless, we don’t see retailers claiming enormous jumps in profit similar to those posted by the oil companies. At the same time, the oil companies are controlling prices at the pump, not by telling the operators what to sell for, but by controlling the prices that they allow their distributors to deliver for. Let’s face it, we are down to four…. just four… oil operating companies in this country.
Isn’t this the reason the government broke the oil companies apart for 50 or 60 years ago? Had they not created a hopeless monopoly, similar to what we have today? Should we break them up again? Should we pull the ultimate coup and nationalize them?
I think there is ample legal precedent for the country to consider such drastic measures, based on the public need and under the same premise that utilities, rails and other similar industries are regulated. Here is one blatant example of what happens when “greed rules the day and government looks away.” This is just one of many, almost countless, symptoms of a crumbling will to govern ourselves. The day is rapidly approaching when we Americans are going to have to step up to the plate and take our country back from the pirate bandits or to watch Roman history repeat itself. The price of freedom and democracy is eternal vigilance and we Americans are to blame for ignoring our watch.
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