Tiny Violins Alert

Gas prices are rising again, so of course you start hearing calls for doing something about. Politicians look into price gouging, or windfall profits tax on oil companies. Of course it's those evil oil companies that are to blame for the average joe paying such high prices on gas which should be cheap. I mean, that's a right of every American, isn't it? Don't they see how we are suffering?

My response? Let me get out the world's smallest violin.

Look, if Americans are upset about high oil prices, they might want to look into the rear-view mirror of their SUV. A lot of Americans feel they have to buy these huge behemoths for whatever reason. Top that with the fact that said people like to live in far flung suburbs where they have to drive many miles (alone) to work, eschewing public transportation or rideshare or carpooling or what have you. We bascially got ourselves into this mess because we think that the oil will just keep flowin'.


Bull Moose shares his thoughts on this issue and says about the same:

Is there anything good about high gasoline prices? Needless to say , the Moose has sympathy for the working stiff who must take a second mortgage to pay for a gallon of gas. And no one likes Oil CEO's who get compensation packages bigger than the GDP of some nations.But, contrary to the all of the politicians' demagoguery, we have met the enemy and he is us .

The Moose is no economist, but surely consumers (along with rising demand in China and India) are partly responsible for the soaring cost of gas because of our insatiable appetite for more oil. High demand fetches high prices.That was the Moose's thought as he attempted to negotiate a shopping mall parking lot in his '88 Toyota Corolla this past weekend. The Moose felt lost amidst a sea of SUV's and Maxi-Vans the size of M1 Abrams tanks. To paraphrase Bill Maher, when you drive a vehicle the size of a 18 Wheeler, you drive with Bin Laden.

Everyone talks about energy independence, but who does anything about it? Even those Hollywood lefties who kvetch about oil dependency and global warming will be the last ones to give up their private jets.The Moose is no oil dependance fanatic, but perhaps a gas price attack is not bad for the nation. Just maybe, we'll change our behavior. It is truly outrageous that we are at the mercy of the likes of Sheiks, Mullahs and Hugo Chavez's for our energy.

He also offers that a gas tax joined with a payroll tax cut might do the trick to weaning us off our oil jones.

I'm not anti-car, but we as a nation need to start to change our own practices before we start blaming other people. If we really are upset about high gas prices, then we need to look into more fuel-efficient cars. As the old saying goes, when you point a finger at someone, four fingers are pointing back at you.