Let's have our Congress stop supporting grain price supports and subsidies and make the large corporate and family farms compete on a more level
market based playing field. Sudsidies in grain markets have screwed this country's grain production up since the 1970's. Subsidies are a form of
corprate welfare and protectionist in nature. By legislating subsidies for ethonal production, Congress has made it more lucrative to produce grain
for fuel rather than food. This has resulted in artifically high prices for grain and related food products. These are called "un-intended
consequences". Well meaning, un-educated politicians, who flunked out of economics classes in college or never took econ to begin with are a large
part of the problem. They also maybe co-opted by Agri-busiess and shilling for them. wouldn't be the first time. Legislators have no business
meddling in market economics, they screw it up every time. "Can You Say, "Jimmi Cater, boys and girls", I knew you could!!" Nixon was just as bad.
Policy makers should stick to policy and stay out of the market.
If you want to fix our fuel problems, start building more refinery capacity. The US currently imports over 15% of its' refined gasoline from outside
of the country. It's cheaper to ship into the country than to fight the enviro's and the EPA in court to build more refineries, so the petroleum
industry has finally thrown their collective hands up in the air and said, "Screw you !", and they won't build any more refining capacity here on
the continent. We are not out of gas, it is not a supply issue currently, it is a refining issue. Notice there are no gas lines, because it is not a
supply issue. We can also look to our friendly state and federal authorities for a more obvious cause for high fuel costs.
A question for the audience! Who profits more from higher fuel prices? tick-tock-tick-tock
OK, time is up. The answer is Government!!
State and federal combined Earn more that 3 times what the oil companies earn from the sale of gasoline and related petroleum products.
So ask yourself, "What is the governments' motivation for lower gas prices if their tax reciepts drop?"
The answer is, "There is no motivation for them to force prices lower, because they are body-slamming us harder than the global oil producers!!
Is any of this making sense, or am I the only guy thinking this stuff?
Are we getting the joke yet!!???
I recommend Econ 101 and Econ 110 taken from a non-socialist perspective. Meaning a free market economist. There are still some out there.
It is nothing more than another contrived crises to make people start wringing their collective hands and start pointing fingers. There is nothing
here that can't be fixed.
[edit on 20-4-2008 by sharkman]
[edit on 20-4-2008 by sharkman]