Why is it that America, a nation that has often has been associated with the term exceptional, is so very resistant to change and so hesitant to deal with its most critical problems? America is heading directly into an energy crisis of massive proportions and nothing of any substance is being done to prevent it from happening; absolutely nothing.
That absence of any positive action to deal with this approaching crisis is a major contributing factor in the escalation of prices at the pump. The American people are becoming more and more angry as they watch the price of a gallon of gas climbing once again; the national average of $4.00 gallon for regular is expected to rise to $5.00 during the summer. While this is very disturbing and stressful, and as bad as it seems to be, the worst is yet to come; what we're seeing is but the tip of the iceberg.
The world's supply of oil is trending downward. That's a fact. No, the world is not going to completely run out of oil for a very long time; that's not the problem. The real problem is that world oil reserves are beginning to tap out, new reserves aren't being discovered, and the world's production capacity is already dangerously close to being overwhelmed by increasing world demand. As this trend continues, future prices will continue to rise. This warning has been issued time and time again by industry experts but no one seems to be listening, especially our tone deaf politicians in Washington.
Talk about the tip of the iceberg; how many Americans, who are angry at paying $4.00 gallon, and who will become much angrier when it rises to $5.00 and far beyond, are aware that the price they're paying represents only a portion of the total amount that comes out of their pocket? To explain: those who are in the business of manufacturing or marketing know that the total cost of a product includes labor, material and (all) elements of overhead. The gasoline we purchase does include labor, material, and overhead incurred from the time petroleum is extracted from the ground to shipments to refineries and then shipments to gas stations, but one element of overhead is missing.
The price of $4.00 gallon is, whether we realize it or not, a gross misrepresentation. The additional overhead that is not being applied is the massive cost being spent each and every day by the U.S. military that is protecting America's "special interests" around the world, primarily petroleum. Our military is heavily engaged in attempting to control the critical resources of the world; sometimes called "resource wars" and often mistakenly referred to as the War on Terror.
Think of Iraq and the Middle East, Afghanistan and Central Asia, and Libya as examples. If humans had never discovered oil those wars would never have been conducted.
There are those who totally reject that premise, that this so-called military associated overhead does not exist, that hundreds of billions that are being spent to guarantee a steady stream of imported oil to the U.S., is misguided judgment. Others may say that even if this is the case, that it is the extra price that we have to pay, that it is something that cannot be avoided. And that is where they are all wrong because a large part of this extra overhead could be eliminated if we had a government that would address this critical problem of an impending energy crisis instead of totally evading it.
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