100% cali. It'll be $8 a gallon in a few hours. It's nearly $5 here, but i rarely need to drive... and when I drive I've gotten it down to around 3 miles.. My gas tank might last longer than this war does.
and I can also go steal a bike... there's a school .25 miles away. I store the bike, perhaps re-paint it, then just bike around easy as 3 miles on a bike is nothing.
Sadly it is more complex than simple transportation issues- even under the best conditions many nations and places are difficult to supply, and you have places like California which both are one of the top US oil producers of crude AND refined product, and even as their own country would be around the 27th in production world wide- but still have tended to have historically high gas prices.
The situation is compounded by a current boom in inflation which has been exacerbated by recent events but has its roots in long standing financial practices, real estate, and globalization.
The market actually started to balloon before any supply issues arose out of general fear of what was believed to be on the horizon for the global economy. We could try and “uncork” more oil, but that would simply be repeating the past- which the steady climb of oil prices over almost a century indicates such measures haven’t been effective long term.
A strategy of continued advancement away from reliance on fossil fuels and life style changes by everyday citizens as well as society to reduce reliance on such fuels may or may not work- but we’d have to try it earnestly on a scale and time line to give proper chance to see its impacts and refine the technology and social adherence for such ends.
Ironically our wide spread reliance on long distance transportation of consumable energy via conventional vehicles and the resulting infrastructure and habits are in essence at the core of the issue and patterns we’d need to break out of to really make a solid dent against fossil fuel reliance I would think.
Another problem is private corporations taking oil from public US land and selling it on the world market when, IMO, oil from US land should be a public commodity, not a privatized product. It should be drilled, refined, and distributed by government run or associated organizations. Giving the government say on who its sold to and first grabs at it to stabilize our own gas economy.
I see both points. I like the idea of government owners businesses that compete with private businesses to add both some competition in markets where new competition isn’t really practical especially (huge overheads etc. like energy, telecom, medical, etc), but also to provide “tiered” service since government owned businesses providing these goods and services can also be used to guarantee regardless of budget etc. that all or most Americans can afford and access critical resources for life like food, energy, communications etc.
I also agree with funk that where any system exists with rules- some people will game it. Getting rich and staying there isn’t all hard work or skill- much if it is knowing how to game people and rules and a willingness to be self servingly opportunistic.
I think it can work though in some capacity. We’d need a wide ranging and comprehensive set of rules and fundamental shifts in how economics works and is considered. Basically a quasi government controlled economy.
For example- if the government produces raw materials and sells to the private sector, there are multiple approaches to use like indexing the market. Any material sold at less than government rates essentially gets a tax or tariff to raise it to the government price. Another method is to tax companies essentially- for the government to get a “cut” of any sales of finished goods produced or total profits where government oil or materials are used and so forth.
The way I see the fundamental flaw in the current system is that when public resources are used in private commerce, the ones making the deals are usually bargaining based on their own benefit and not in the public benefit. Private companies make all the profit margin while the public takes the loss for their success. There are numerous other problems in the system which could be smoothed out a bit with the right laws- but to work we really need to address ways to prevent politicians from unjust enrichment from their positions and to break up the chumminess between business and government. The same people who are supposed to regulate industries or negotiate with them for public benefit etc. are often owners or participants in those industries with friends and their own personal wealth in the mix. When the fox runs the hen house of course you’ll end up with chickens missing. When the crow that feeds off the leftovers is the one who investigates missing hens… the Fox is pretty safe…
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Some problems are just unsolvable
The situation is compounded by a current boom in inflation which has been exacerbated by recent events but has its roots in long standing financial practices, real estate, and globalization.
The market actually started to balloon before any supply issues arose out of general fear of what was believed to be on the horizon for the global economy. We could try and “uncork” more oil, but that would simply be repeating the past- which the steady climb of oil prices over almost a century indicates such measures haven’t been effective long term.
Ironically our wide spread reliance on long distance transportation of consumable energy via conventional vehicles and the resulting infrastructure and habits are in essence at the core of the issue and patterns we’d need to break out of to really make a solid dent against fossil fuel reliance I would think.
I also agree with funk that where any system exists with rules- some people will game it. Getting rich and staying there isn’t all hard work or skill- much if it is knowing how to game people and rules and a willingness to be self servingly opportunistic.
For example- if the government produces raw materials and sells to the private sector, there are multiple approaches to use like indexing the market. Any material sold at less than government rates essentially gets a tax or tariff to raise it to the government price. Another method is to tax companies essentially- for the government to get a “cut” of any sales of finished goods produced or total profits where government oil or materials are used and so forth.