How Gasoline Burns my Cookies

(and I don't even eat cookies)

The Liberal double-whammy is going to be a new phrase of mine. Here is an example (as brief as I can keep myself).

Today's gas prices. They're up another 11 cents even here in the Great State of Texas in just one week alone. Why? Because there is more and more demand in this country, and no more supply. Let's look at both sides of the equation, because liberals are screwing us both in supply and in demand.

The supply side is easy to see. First of all, liberals hate supply. Supply gets goods to the poor, the downtrodden, the very voters they depend upon. If people are supplied with what they need, they don't require government hand-outs.

How are they screwing us over gasoline supply? By the incredibly frustrating stance regarding our own oil. This country has tremendous oil reserves, and the ability to get that oil efficiently and with little to no damage to the environment. Despite this, we take as little advantage of our own natural resources as Mexico. For the same basic reason: corrupt government with a vested interest in keeping the poor in their poverty. Again and again liberals use "well meaning" cover stories such as protecting the environment (and they have to misrepresent both the environment and the damage in order for those stories to fly) to deny us our own oil. The net result? Poorer people can't afford gasoline. Poorer people like ME. My family falls into the Largest Tax Bracket (not paying any because we don't make enough money). Tell you what. Make me pay flat taxes, but let us drill for our own oil. I may even end up behind - but I will be blissfully paying my taxes as I sail through the gas station where it's once again below a dollar a gallon for 87 octane unleaded.

How are they screwing us over gasoline demand? Oh, you really shouldn't get me started on this one, but while they love to lambaste oil companies for record profits, they ignore the way those profits are made. Stay with me here:

Al Gore Style "Diet Coke" Illustration
I will try to make this as simple an illustration as possible. Let's say you make a fantastic drink. Let's say it has a snappy name that rhymes with Frapple. It's delicious, and it's expensive. Like, $2.50 a bottle (one serving). People everywhere are buying it. You crank up production, making more Frapple. People would rather drink it than Poke, Repsi, or even water. You have a fantastic quarter, selling one Frapple to every American, or 300 million Frapples. Congratulations, you just made $750million in gross receipts. Let's say you make $1 profit on each bottle (simplified for number purposes, make it as small as you want). You made a record-breaking 300 million dollars. Next year, the population has grown to 305 million people. You didn't change anything, except now you made $305 million dollars. Record breaking. Obscene? No. The result of greater demand.

"Diet Petrol"
When was the last time you used less gasoline? Honestly looking at it, how often have you driven less, used less electricity, heated your home less, etc? Not to mention: if you used fires to heat your home, aren't you belching more carbon into the air than a power plant would to provide you with heat? That digression aside, let's say there are 280 million people in the United States (as there were about two decades ago). Let's say the average person bought 10 gallons of gasoline a week. That's 2.8 billion gallons of gasoline a week. Let's assume there are 52 weeks even in a liberal's year. That's 145.6 billion gallons of gas a year. Let's divide that up into quarters, as "big oil" must report quarterly to the government. We're at about 36.4 billion gallons of gasoline per quarter. Over a decade ago. With fewer people. And no truckers. Just 10 gallons a week in your hybrid. Let's say (just for argument's sake) "big oil" makes about 20 cents per gallon (which is, I believe, a reasonably accurate estimate from what I remember reading from oil-antagonistic sites.) Set aside the fact that the government typically makes over a dollar per gallon, which is therefore five times what "big oil" makes on their own product (remember, the government doesn't do anything to earn that money, just taxes it) and let's say that was $7.2 billion for that quarter. What happens if Americans use the same amount of gas, "big oil" makes the same amount of profit per gallon, yes the F****N' government taxes the same amount per gallon, but we add Americans. Now there are 300 million of us instead of 280 million. The numbers run like this: 3 billion gallons a week, 156 billion gallons a year, 39 billion gallons a quarter, and $7.8 billion in profits. It sounds huge, and it certainly is a record, but it is because more people are buying the product, not because the amount per gallon has increased. I haven't even touched inflation, which points out we are paying half what we paid in 1979 (who was President then? was he a liberal?) if you adjust for inflation, so yes the numbers look huge, but due to inflation they should always go up!

See this chart for research:
Historical Oil Prices

How does this relate to liberals? Besides, of course, the pointed barbs I have used in the past couple paragraphs? They themselves estimate more than 20 million illegal immigrants are here in this country. Aside from the fact that they're using our schools, our social security, our medical systems, they are driving cars (whether they carpool or are driven by someone else) and using our resources. Yes, they may very well add to our economy, but they are also adding to the cost of goods because, just like us, they consume. They are people, not statistics, and they eat, drink, sleep, drive, etc. That increases demand.

I am not suggesting that you can simply remove 20 million people from our economy (though I do believe something must be done, even if it is not easy or politically correct) but if you did, demand would go down.

Liberals are 180 degrees out of phase with reality. They do damage at both ends of the problem, they are never the solution, and they would do more damage if they could.