So I read the Left Angeles Times article two more times.
And a reality hit me square in the face.
The article about a supposed lack of anger about rising gas prices is a cover and flack piece to inoculate the Dear Leader, President Obama, and his abysmal energy policies.
So in reading this article twice, I think that some of it is accurate at least in this part of California.
We always are just behind Hawai'i in some of the highest gas prices in the United States no matter what.
And yes, as Lara Clayton told the Times writer, she has adjusted her ways around the spike in gas prices. And one of those ways is just cutting back on driving.
Same thing happened in 2008, the last time gas prices took on this kind of rise in price.
Granted it is not during the peak driving season from Memorial Day to Labor Day. But the rise in energy prices is the most for this time of year. And it is not just the price for a gallon of gas. But in the East coast where many depend on it, the cost of home heating fuel is part of this rise as well.
And while the article focused entirely on the gas prices, a little balance would have pointed out that it contributes to the rising cost of food and basic staples we depend on. The cost of transportation to get said items to market is also up as well. But, this administration has cooked the books to make it appear that there is little if any inflation.
The federal government will suggest that inflation is about 1.5 to two percent. However according to the American Institute for Economic Research, make that about about eight percent. And what is one of the driving forces behind it?
The cost of fuel.
In the Times article, the writer quotes a Michael Sivak from the University of Michigan basically saying hey, we can handle $4 a gallon gas prices. Why in fact when you count in inflation we are really only paying $3.72c a gallon as opposed to 2008.
I love when they throw that out there. As if we are supposed to feel better. Since it is 2012 and we are paying the high gas prices now.
But Mr Sivak goes on to suggest that American drivers are in better, more fuel efficient cars. And that somehow in four years it is so good that people just do not seem to be so concerned about the gas prices.
Hmm, I kind of think that is hokey reasoning, but K.
I like the fact that Mr. Sivak is honest to admit that once gas prices hit $5 a gallon, people ain't gonna be that complacent.
Now, since it has not hit $5 a gallon anywhere.
Oops! My bad! I kind of fibbed up there. Because here in California, yes one can find $5+ a gallon gas.
Here is the gas station at Wawona in Yosemite National Park. As of Tuesday, March 28, 2012, this was the price of a gallon of gas.
You read that right.
$5.11c for one gallon of petrol.
And yes, we were forced to pay for it. And yes, we did not put as much in the tank as we normally would while travelling. We decided to put just enough in the tank that would get us to eventual civilization and the city of Riverbank near Modesto. It was almost a full buck less there at the local ARCO.
Now one could say that since there are only two gas stations in the park they kind of can do this. But what happens when this becomes the price in say, I don't know, any given American suburb? Or a city in the Heartland?
You get the picture.
The interesting aspect is how the writer was able to focus on clearly complacent people in the article. It seems that he could only find one person to kind of suggest that the whole theory of "Ah, no big deal" is, well bunk.
And leave to Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog to state the obvious. And yeah, Consumer Watchdog is a lefty group. But even they can be like a broken clock, right twice a day.
Mr. Court says that maybe after a while $4 or $5 a gallon of gas does not seem to be a big deal if it happens enough. But that there is trouble brewing beneath the seeming resignation to the high cost of fuel.
But why? I mean everything is rosy now in the economy, right? I mean, people are working, there is little if any inflation, right?
Well, if you care to actually dig deep you will find that the United States economy is still in the dumper. And yes, one of the reasons is high gas prices.
But we can't really be mad as we were when the eeeeevvvvviiiiilllll George W. Bush was president in 2008, right?
We should be as mad because this is as bad and can get much worse before it gets better.
And even a flack piece like the one presented in today's Left Angeles Times can not cover up the reality that this can and will get worse.
And that will fall squarely on the shoulders of the Dear Leader, President Obama.
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