Cry Me a River

I'm getting a bit tired of all these stories about "pain at the pump" because unfortunate Americans are now paying $4 for a gallon of gas. Yes, it sucks when prices shoot up. And it's true that poorer people are harder hit by these kind of price spikes because gas makes up a larger proportion of their expenses than for rich folks. It's also true that I paid $6.08 per gallon this weekend and I live in one of the poorest countries in the world. It's not as if Americans haven't known about the volatility of oil prices for decades. It's just that we've chosen to do nothing about it. Worse, actually, we've chosen to spend a lot of public money on things that ensured that Americans become increasingly dependent on oil and, therefore, increasingly vulnerable to these kinds of price fluctuations. Rather than calling oil company executives to Capital Hill to excoriate them for making too much money maybe we should, you know, stop giving them tax breaks, subsidies, and a strong hand in setting the country's energy policy.