Category: Personal Thoughts

Why isn’t anyone going up to bat for the little guy?  The little guy being you and I, by the way.

 

Everyone is blogging about oil prices this week, but I’m wondering why nobody is looking at it from this angle: the public needs support from larger companies.  It’s not every day when I think a big company should be helping out the general public, but this time I think I can make a case for it.

 

There’s lots of finger pointing going on and everyone is blaming one thing after another for high gas prices.  In 2008, the last time gas topped $4 a gallon in my neck of the woods, everyone said it was out of control and there was nothing they could do about it – but oil companies posted some of the largest prices of any company in the history of anything ever.  And I’m not being hyperbolic.  The latest round of rumors are that American oil production isn’t even operating at 100% right now, there isn’t a gas crisis or a gas shortage: it’s the futures market that is causing the crazy high gas prices.  I don’t care who is to blame, all I know is it hurts.

 

As gas prices approach the $4.00 per gallon mark, the economy can see (in broad terms) a slow down in sales elsewhere, like retail for instance.  We go through a national “belt tightening” every time gas prices get just a tad too high.  You can try to do things like buy gas cards, or even join Sam’s Club, where member-only gas pumps are often five to ten cents cheaper than neighboring gas stations…  but that’s not enough.

 

image credit: m_bartosch.

I think the big chain stores, like the Wal-Marts, the Lowes, Sears, Targets – they need to band together to find something to do about gas prices.  With enough pressure from them, there must be something that the Exxons of the world can do to trim back their excessively high profit margins.  While the consumer may be feeling the pinch now, I believe this could be bad news for the economy in the long run, because I sure will be going out less, doing less, spending less.  That many for my gas tank has to come from somewhere, and I need to get to work.  What I don’t need is to travel the interstates during my time off.  Stay-cation ‘08 is coming back for 2011!

 

Although large chains like Wal-Mart and Target might be able to ride out the storm, other chains that might not have quite as much draw may want to start putting a plan together, because I can certainly get by without visiting my local local RadioShack any time in the next six months, and might have to if I can’t afford the tiny luxuries of wasting money on random cabling and electronics supplies.  They might not be giants, but they’re big enough to get the attention of the oil companies and try to figure out what can be done to keep people like me on the road, instead of in the driveway.

Keeping up with blog posts isn’t easy.  I’ve, once again, fallen behind.  Maybe going from zero posts to daily posts was a bit much.  But I do have a backlog of stuff to send your way, So let’s put out a few updates today and see what else I can get done for this week, huh?  Thanks for staying tuned!

I don’t care what side of the isle you’re on, some things just don’t make sense.

 

When the United States was founded, because we were all spread out over hundreds and hundreds of miles, we had people speaking on our behalf.  You remember grade school, right? “No taxation without representation.”  We gave our input and our representative was supposed to vote how “we, the people” wanted them to vote.

 

Here in 2011, we have a voice of our own.  We can vote from a computer, or a mobile phone, and the results are instantaneous.  Just look at American Idol.  True, more people vote for than that WOULD likely vote for something like H.J. Res 37, but the point is: do we really need someone to “represent” us?  Don’t we have a voice of our own yet?  Anyone can be swayed by lobbyists, it’s obvious.  And it doesn’t take much to sway the American Public (as evidenced, again, by the popularity of American Idol), but I can’t help but think of that law of averages – checks and balances are built in to large sample-groups.  One lobbyist with deep pockets can have a much bigger effect on one congressman or senator who can’t resist a good bottle of scotch, or some fancy new clothes, or whatever other perks they seem to be giving out these days.

 

People are swayed by advertising, it’s true – and elections will continue to be bought and sold for generations to come, no matter what the voting system would happen to be.  But did the framers of our Constitution believe so firmly that the misinformed few should be represented in an electoral college by the easily tainted fewer?  I suppose they have their legitimate reasons: after all, a disturbingly large number of Americans still have no idea what the vetting process consists of and believe that Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim.

 

 

So, some things just don’t make sense…  why don’t we do the voting ourselves, through “vote.gov” or something?  Then again, you can reason your way through it pretty quickly when you realize just how easily misinformation spreads.  But, perhaps someday, the world won’t be filled with as many stupid people, and we’ll be able to answer for ourselves when asked important questions like what to name that new courthouse in Yuma, Arizona.  Voting isn’t pointless, it just seems like it sometimes.