What To Do About High Gas Prices

August 19, 2005

 

As gas prices sprint toward $3 per gallon, the squeals from the populace are getting louder. My callers are demanding the president and congress “do something!” When I ask what they want our elected officials to do, they seem to be at a loss for words. The truth is, there's not a lot anyone can do. We're at the mercy of those who control the world's oil supplies, specifically OPEC. We seem to be slow in learning our lesson. They've been playing this cat and mouse game for more than thirty years yet we still kneel and kiss their rings because we haven't come up with an alternative. Perhaps $3-per-gallon gas prices will spur the inventors and innovators in the private sector to come up with viable, mass-marketable energy alternative. Until then, we must simply grit our teeth while we pay through the nose.

 

One suggestion I do have is to raise the price of any food items we import to these OPEC nations commensurate with the rising price in oil. As an old sage from my hometown once asked rhetorically, “Why don't we just eat our wheat and let them eat their oil?” Honest question.

 

There are eleven OPEC nations. Among them is Kuwait. This is a country we liberated just more than a decade ago and freed from the grip of Saddam Hussein. In return, they conspire with the other ten to sock it to the American consumers. Saudi Arabia is almost in the same boat. We ran to their side and used ourselves as a human shield against Saddam. We now see what a grateful nation they are.

 

High gas prices are having an effect everywhere in America. From commuters to truckers to traveling salesmen, everyone is feeling the pinch. One point that's being brought up by my more liberal listeners is the disproportionate effect the high price of oil is having on the poor. Naturally, the poor spend a larger proportion of their income on the essentials – including gas. The higher gas prices, they argue, also translate into higher prices across the board because merchants, inevitably, pass along the higher cost of fuel by way of higher prices for their goods. That's true, of course, but it got me to thinking. If the liberals are so concerned about pass-through costs brought about by higher gas prices, why can't they see the same scenario in higher taxes?

 

The liberals are constantly whining that the rich aren't paying enough taxes. Forget the fact that IRS statistics show that the top five percent of wage earners pay fifty-six percent of the income taxes. That's not enough. The rich must pay more. Who do they think own the businesses and factories? I've never worked for a poor man nor have I ever begrudged him for being rich. It's the entrepreneurs who, if you'll pardon the expression, are the oil in the engine of capitalism. Just like higher fuel prices, higher taxes are passed through to the consumer. Although the liberals think they're penalizing the rich for being rich, they're actually hurting the poor each time they pile on another tax.

 

High taxes have the same effect as high gasoline prices. They take a heavy toll on the economy by dragging it down with added costs on everything you buy. You may envy the rich but don't cut off your nose to spite your face. It may be counter-intuitive for liberals to think this way but sticking it to the rich only exacerbates the problems of the poor. As I've always warned you, when you soak the rich, everybody gets wet.