Welcome to Gasoline Heaven...

And welcome back from your Memorial Day weekend!  If you spent two minutes complaining about high gas prices with your friends and family this weekend, I’m really very glad to hear it. And I challenge anyone to describe a more exciting scenario for the progressive movement than rising gas prices. And not just rising prices, but all time, adjusted for inflation high prices!  I do have a hard time expressing just how happy this makes me.  Here’s why:

The 1973 energy crisis crippled the US economy in the short term because the US government had left us unprepared to handle a scenario in which oil was not readily available. Today, aside from the fact that we import a whole lot more oil than we did back in 1973, we stand in the exact same position: same automobile engines, same mileages standards, same archaic mindset, same pathetic politicians who can’t seem to bring themselves to change society from walking toward the same cliff we were warned about over 30 years ago. For example, politician Chuck Schumer (D-NY) decided to play the tough guy a few weeks ago by calling out the oil industry:

The looming question is, are they putting money into maintenance and keeping up refineries as they should? Or are they happier with lower production and higher prices?

What is he talking about?  Schumer, clearly not a true problem solver, is thinking backwards suggesting that the oil industry should solve our long term oil crisis by...producing more oil. The fact that higher oil prices matter to us is not Exxon’s fault (see the laws of supply and demand). And it’s not Saudi Arabia’s fault. And it’s not Al Qaeda’s fault either. It’s our fault. And it’s our responsibility to change. This is why higher gas prices are great - because they force change. Out of necessity comes invention, right?   It's either that or 1973 all over again one day, and when it happens it will be far worse and will probably be permanent.

Oh yeah, side note here: in the process of decreasing our oil consumption we can contribute to solving a long list of environmental problems and health problems. And we can stop our economy from depending on enemy nations. Does this appeal to anyone?