#140 Fuel Daze

I drove by this one gas station the other day and for the third time that day they were changing the prices. Guess what? It was going up. It’s getting pretty bad when even the conservative radio hacks are calling for price controls. It makes me worry when the political block that hoisted GW to power is saying “enough is enough already.” The effects of overly-heightened fuel costs to the economy at large will be staggering. There was a big price-fixing scandal involving the milk industry a few years back. And it was pretty bad. Turns out the American consumer was paying way more for milk than they needed to. All because the major players in the dairy industry were moo-ving up prices by making secret agreements in a cheesy manor. Skimming the cream from the American family budget was bad then, but nothing like the oil industry’s excesses today. Because you don’t use milk to fuel an 18-wheeler and a huge portion of our nation’s commerce depends on trucking. Figure in extra transportation costs and our internet catalogue society is gonna go bits-up quick.
Now I never aspired to work in a gas station-slash-convenience store. My mom always told me not to work in places with a height gage on the exit door. But recently there was a report that the most hated job in America is the guy who changes the prices on the signboards at the gas station. Some attendants have been hit by flying eggs and fruit. One poor schmuck got pelted with a empty plastic oil container. Symbolism or just plain littering? I feel sorry for those guys. It’s a classic example of shoot the messenger. The gas station guy isn’t the one who’s doing the gouging. It’s the fat cats on the other side of the supposedly crippled refineries, or the supposedly frustrated oil industry that can’t plunder the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, wreak untold environmental havoc and still only get a 3-month supply of oil even when it sucks it dry. Who’s pelting them?
It’s getting bad. The other day I put in my card at the pump to get gas and the little printer printed out a whole new credit application. Banks have given up on home improvement loans and are pitching SUV fill-up loans. The “Cash Advance” shops on every corner are changing their names to “Gas Advance.” All because—this time—Hurricane Katrina wiped out the South. It’s nice to know capitalism still has a golden heart. I mean, I’d hate to see anyone making a craven, horrible, cynical, indecent profit off this tragedy.
America, ya gotta love it.