Seeing gas prices at the pump now at $3.80+ per gallon for regular unleaded and diesel at $4.00+ is a long way from the .16 cents my father used to pay at the pump when I was a child. It is getting ridiculous to say the least. With oil companies reporting profits of $12 billion usd or more for last year is sickening and telling congress that they are sinking billions into research for alternative fuels and exploration. What a joke. With alternative fuels already available and the capability of creating blended fuels I would think they would be looking into these alternatives, the technology is here. I think it is nothing more than a ruse to justify in their minds the cost they are charging the average consumer at the pump. To me is it nothing more than profiteering and price gouging. It is causing undue hardship on the average worker, bringing up the price of shipped goods and staples needed to survive. Food is being taken from the table, bills are going unpaid in order to meet this demand for higher prices and it is time our government did something about it.
With the rise in the cost of manufacturing goods and to harvest food companies are failing to meet the increase in the cost of living their employees are now being faced with. Their excuse, well production is down, fuel and energy cost have risen and at this time we cannot offer you relief. People are suffering because someone in control deems it a necessity to raise the cost of fuel to be more profitably marketable to share holders. Not only are they making a profit at the pump, they are making on it Wall Street too. This so called Land of Opportunity is quickly becoming the Land of the Disillusioned and it is the working man who suffers for this asinine decision . A rise in unemployment and in welfare disbursement are in direct correlation with the rising fuel costs, people just cannot afford to get to work based on their current pay.
They say alternatives and an adjustment to lifestyles need to be considered, relocate closer to your job, all easier said than done. And the sad thing about it is that they know this. Americans have always commuted to work, very few live within a close proximity of their work place. Take a bus or commute with others? That too is a non-viable solution to quite a few people, even if they work in an environment that offers car pooling or ride shares. Very few people who work together live close and many find themselves going out of their way to accommodate this alternative job commuting idea. To get to a bus stop for some would still require a commute and to ride share or car pool they would have to rise earlier and get home later which would affect their work and then the inevitable fact that someone would miss their turn due to sickness or other family emergency would add to this and cause last minute arrangements to get to work. Usually by using their own vehicle and commuting to work alone. Yes it all looks good when it rests between their ears or offering it as a reason to sustain a lower wage or a reason not get a cost of living adjustment. It is unacceptable to say the least that we should have to suffer for this.
It is time that the officials we have elected to represent us to listen to us and do something about it and stop listening to the companies that line their pockets with political donations. They were elected based on their promise to look out for us and we trusted them to do so and all I see them doing is being another vehicle in the long list of excuses being offered by the oil companies. They work for us, the average citizen, not for some over paid executive and it is time they woke up and realized that. All this rhetoric about seeking alternative fuels is fast becoming old to the average working class person without seeing any results. The price keeps on rising. Don't blame OPEC, Venezuela or any foreign country, place the blame where it belongs, behind the smoke screen they are trying to shield themselves with, blame it on the ones we elected and those in control of the oil companies where it belongs.
It is getting to where we can not afford to be comfortable at home any longer, we have to pass down the excuses we are given to our children to justify why we cannot even afford to leave home or take a vacation to relax. No, we have to get an extra job in order to make ends meet, in order to put food on the table, keep a roof over our heads and pay utilities that too are exorbitant. I pay more in electric than I ever did on my mortgage, that is ridiculous to say the least.
It is time someone else suffered for their decisions and not us.
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