They've got us over a barrel

Gas is now flirting with $4 a gallon ($3.99 a gallon, so figure, yeah, it's already up to $4, so to speak) and the oil companies literally have us over a barrel. They know that we need gas to run our cars and oil to run - and produce - just about everything else, so Wall Street speculators can run up the price of oil as high as they want and not suffer the consequences, because they're all filthy rich anyway and it really doesn't pain them to fill up at such high prices. But for the rest of us, we're all wondering how on earth we can manage to make it in this economy. I've literally been reduced to living paycheck to paycheck, with no ability to save any money whatsoever. And I'm hardly living beyond my means, either. Just paying monthly bills, filling my car with gas and buying groceries, in addition to paying for ridiculous health care costs, is leaving me scrambling to figure out how on earth I am going to survive on the $25,000 a year I currently make. There is literally no slack in the budget anymore. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. It costs me literally almost every dime I make a month just to survive on bare bones basics. I don't know how people expect us to live in this wildly inflated economy. I'm stressed so badly that it's driven my blood pressure to higher levels. I try to bargain shop but there are very few bargains out there anymore. I could live on cheap junk food, but that would be detrimental to my health. I'd rather spend the extra money to eat healthy foods, but it's killing my budget to do so. Why are healthier options priced such that they practically become a privilege for the wealthy? Is it any wonder that health care costs are skyrocketing, when low income people are forced to eat cheap unhealthy foods while the well heeled get to enjoy a healthier diet and can afford higher priced organic foods? I tell you, I am quite surprised that a revolution hasn't broken out in the streets over what's happened to this country. The rich are getting richer and the rest of us are forced to "eat cake", so to speak. Where is the righteous anger over the inequality in this country? Why aren't people out demanding an end to this increasingly aristocratic country club set who are benefitting off of our misery? If gas gets any higher than it already is - and there are predictions of it going as high as $5 a gallon by Labor Day - I may be forced to quit my job because I will no longer be able to afford to drive there anymore. I'd hate to do that after 25 years, when I had so hoped to get in my 30 years and retire, but the economic situation is forcing me to rethink my long-term plans. That it's come to this point in my life is terribly sad, quite frankly. And we can blame the Republicans, who sought a restoration of the Imperial Presidency that almost happened under Nixon, only he got caught and was forced to resign, and the NeoCons have been dreaming of an Imperial Restoration ever since. Well, they got their wish, only it's probably forever damaged the system of checks and balances we once had that was guaranteed by the Constitution. Future presidents will have the ability to pick up the tools that Bush has put into place and use them against us, and that's a dangerous loaded weapon to leave lying around in the White House. Time to defuse it immediately before it becomes a ticking time bomb.

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY
I suppose that the good thing about gas being so expensive now is that it will force much more conservation. People are already ditching their gas guzzlers in search of smaller, more fuel efficient cars. It may also hasten reseach and development of alternative green fuel sources. It's still probably a decade off before we can find some way to completely extricate ourselves from oil, but if we start now, we can get a good head start and create high paying "green collar" jobs that will jumpstart our lagging economy. I know that as far as the current administration is concerned, nothing is going to happen in its waning months where any of this is concerned. But if fortune should favor us and a Democrat is elected this fall, we may yet stand a chance of a huge wave of environmentalism and solutions to our oil problem. Now, the bad thing about what's going on right now with higher gas prices is that it's driving the price of everything else up so fast that it's fueling inflation to where the gap between rich and poor is getting wider literally by the day. I find it odd that the steep price hikes in oil are happening just as the Bush administration is winding down to its exit from the White House. It looks to me like there are fears among oil men that a Democrat will take over next January and start serious environmental measures that get us eventually off of oil, so my guess is that they are all making hay while the sun shines, so to speak. That's my theory, anyway. I think that they are wildly speculating on Wall Street now so that they can make their fortunes while a business friendly president still resides in the White House. The ugly thing about all of this is that countries who make their fortunes off of oil are already doing their level best to inflict as much pain on Americans as they possibly can in punishment for our disastrous Middle Eastern policies. So while there are good and bad things about all of this, I am hard pressed to feel too optimistic that Americans will adapt very easily to these higher gas prices and do something constructive about it. People are quick to complain but slow to act. Unfortunately, we need to both complain and act now, before the price of gas puts us all in the poorhouse.