Monday Musings...
Each and every day we're seeing domino after domino fall in the never-ending tale from gas pump. Whether it's 300 people being terminated (they "say" LAYOFF, but let's call this what it TRULY is, people) from the Fleetwood Enterprises company, maker of RV motor homes and trailers in Decatur, Indiana, or the lack of fireworks due to shipment problems from China (breaks my heart, and allows me to retain some sanity in THAT process), or being able to drive from San Diego to Tijuana, Mexico to fill up your car at HALF THE PRICE it would cost to do the same in the USA (fuel costs around $2.50 a gallon in Mexico - even less when paying in PESOS).
Add to this growing debacle the fact that recent FLOODS throughout the Midwest have severely curtailed crop production of soybean and corn, as well as displace thousands of people from their homes (and yet none of the post-Katrina rioting, raping, and pillaging...wonder WHY THAT is, hmm? Must be all those white people too busy HELPING one another...yeah that's it). But the farms (and eventually the rest of us) got hit the worst.
Now what was everyone saying about touting corn-based ETHANOL (which isn't going to cost a helluva lot less than regular gasoline anyway)? Not to mention the price of corn itself (as in ears to eat and grain to feed cattle) is jumping considerably to boot. Looks like we might have "knee-jerked" ourselves into digging further into a much larger hole.
We attempt to compensate by buying hybrid vehicles or "smart" cars (My car has been smart for the past 25 years, and NOT because it's got a locking gas cap, but because of the person behind the wheel), are told to NOT drive for one day a week (already been doing that for a while...), and are advised to conserve where possible (been there, done that too...I've been through the oil embargo of the 70's remember?) in some vain attempt to curb our addiction to petrol.
Problem with all this is that petroleum-based products are EVERYWHERE. from plastic bottles (anyone recall glass "recyclable" bottles that used to have a DEPOSIT on them when you returned it?) to foods we eat to the clothing on our backs....and more.
No getting away from that.
Funny thing...we used to not HAVE to "need" petroleum in everything single thing we touched, bought or wore.
How times have changed.
Petroleum is not all that "reclaimable" either. It's going to take another million years to create the oil needed NOW. After all, it took about the same time to create the oil we've ALREADY consumed, right? And unless we've got THAT much time to kill waiting or it (I personally do not), we're just not going to see it in our lifetime, or ANY time soon.
One thing I find interesting (and I'd probably need a chemical engineer from MIT to 'splain it to me) is that we already have "synthetic" oil for our cars...so WHY NOT find a way to create SYNTHETIC GASOLINE?
(not all this alternative crap, OK?)
Yeah, I know that it sounds SO damn simple in theory, so why haven't we pursued it, right? Well, that's where the chemist comes in. I just figured if we had synthetic everything else, why not fuel?
Hey, maybe it's a "forest for the trees" moment, and perhaps someone WILL take the ball and run with it. Maybe THAT solution was right in front of us all the time and we just didn't see it?
I DO know it would seem a more viable option than what we've currently got on the table.
And the Mexican connection has me curious as well. WHY would Mexican gas be HALF the price of AMERICAN gas anyway? Doesn't EVERY nation buy from the SAME sources? And don't these monopolistic bastards all set the "going rate" at the SAME LEVEL for everyone around the world?
Now before you go and jump on some liberal bandwagon...NO, I DO NOT think we should institute a "fuel for illegals" policy/program (send us gas, and we promise to take in all those families crossing our borders...AND their drugs). That dog won't hunt for me. Somehow that seems a bit counterproductive.
Still, whatever we do in the short term, it will not halt the domino effect.
But it's not like we had plenty of chances to do so in the past, is it?
Oh, wait...we DID , but were too busy driving those 2 ton "lead-sleds" across the highways and through the cities of America in a never-ending hedonistic pursuit of our "inalienable right" to become about as bright as a small appliance bulb with conservation and moderation.
Ben Franklin once said:
"Everything in moderation - Nothing in excess".
Now he seemed to be a pretty bright guy.
And he NEVER owned a 12 MPG SUV!
So even HE believed (back in the 1700s) that too much of ANYTHING is not necessarily a GOOD thing.
And therein lies the moral to that "fable".
Aesop is smiling...I can feel it.
Ben is just rolling in his grave, I fear