20060717

bah

why do people always blame "big oil" for high gas prices? personally, i think they're overlooking a few things:
1) "big oil" is, in fact, a business, and businesses exist to make money, NOT TO SERVE CUSTOMERS. while they may make their money by serving customers, that is a means rather than an end.
2) what about the blame on OPEC? their control of the oil supply sets the price for crude; as they drive up the price for the raw materials, the price for the finished product (gas) will rise with it.
3) a gallon of gas is still, in many places, cheaper than a gallon of milk (the articles a few years old, but those milk prices are still high).
4) also, gas here is still cheaper than it is in europe. true, our public transit is not nearly as nice as much of europe's, but our country is more than twice the size of the european union (at 9,161,923 sq km to 3,976,372 sq km... that's not all of europe, but a pretty good chunk of it); it's a bit tricky to fill an area that size with reliable public transit. that, and our politicians have much better things to spend (or at least attempt to spend) our tax dollars on, like in-state tuition and social security for illegal aliens.

i had some more arguments, but it's time for bed.