We just posted an 8.6% annualized inflation rate last month, which is the worst since 1981. The bulk thereof is concentrated in essentials, like food, shelter, gasoline, and transportation. (To which end, I consider it almost humorously pathetic that the administration conveniently prefers the metric of inflation that excludes most of these essentials for policy formation purposes.) Gasoline has seen the biggest spike on a percentage basis out of all those costs: up 49.5% over the last year and roughly double since Biden took office, so that would be the main expense to get back under control. I mean I just paid a full $5 per gallon to fill up on Thursday, which is the most I've ever paid by a good margin. What gets to me more than anything about this whole situation though is the fact that the White House claims they're basically out of ideas for what to do about it.
...I mean personally I can think of tons of solutions. I don't know why our politicians think of none of them. And none of them involve more drilling, incidentally, which is a STUPID idea that would take many months and years to even get going anyway. That's all the Republicans are throwing out there for ideas. It's more than the Biden Administration though. They're just exhausting our emergency reserves and it's not working! Look, if supply was truly the problem here, then Exxon and other oil giants wouldn't be raking in unfathomable profits right now and using them to buy back their own stocks to boost the price thereof instead of spending it on increased oil exploration and production. They don't need pressure from the environmentalists to minimize the fuel supply; they can do that all by themselves 'cause it's quite profitable and they can use the political situation as cover!
Anyway, as for solutions, let's try out these ideas:
1) Transportation Secretary Buttigieg says that the "price of gasoline is not set by a dial in the Oval Office". This begs the question of WHY THE HELL IT ISN'T right about now!!! I mean seriously, how about we just do what we used to do in these kinds of situations and impose a price ceiling that companies aren't allowed to exceed? Because that will increase demand and lead to fuel shortages, you say? If so then boy have you been drinking the Kool-Aid! France has used fuel price ceilings of late and they seem to work just fine there! Save only for Malta, they have the lowest inflation rate of all of EU countries as a direct result. I mean it's over 5% now, so still high, but substantially below what ours has been. Price ceilings work in our context because the actual main problem is companies profiting off the current situation, not something else. Sorry suckers who've bought into some other corporate-sponsored narrative.
2) How about we just ban oil exports for a while instead of artificially reducing our existing supply?
3) Or perhaps, in a more salient solution, we adopt the Alaska universal basic income model nationally and give the population regular oil sale dividends? That way the population would benefit from the rising cost of fuel instead of suffering from it!
4) Or, perhaps the most obvious yet politically toxic solution, we could just nationalize ownership of our natural resources, like the energy sector. That way we could subsidize the price of fuel like many other countries do!
5) Or we could just reverse the oil sanctions on Russia. That would solve a lot of this problem right there. I mean let's get real: it's clear at this point that we're doing waaaaay more harm to ourselves than to the Putin oligarchy with those. The regime's actually making more money off of fuel sales than they were before the war (excuse me, "special operation") because they can now charge higher prices for their exports. And if Europe stops buying too, that just means they have to get more oil from us instead, which means less oil coming in from Russia and more going out to Europe, which all adds up to way less for us here at home, which adds up to as much as $6.20 a gallon by August. Another obvious solution few people are willing to give voice to.
Well anyway, none of it's going to happen so what does it matter? My point is there are solutions out the wazoo here, people, there's just nobody in Washington with the guts to pursue them, and THAT's what frustrates me more than anything about this whole fucking situation!
Last edited by Jaicee - on 14 June 2022
