Oil, the American Achilles Heel

Re: Oil, the American Achilles Heel


Well don't limit yourself to two sentences. Let it all out. Otherwise what can we talk about?

guidedog:

30 years ago I worked for an oil company in NJ. It was at the time of the first "oil crisis". From one day to the next the price of home heating oil rose from $.42 to $1.42. The reason was given that there was a shortage. However, in January when the temperature in the NY area spiked to 72 degrees (the annual January thaw) home heating oil which expands at 60 degrees was running out of the vent pipes of the storage facilities on Staten Island.

The rise in the cost of gasoline and all other oil based fuels gave way to a rise in the cost of virtually everything else in our economy creating the need for a second income in most middle-class families.

Consider this: in the late 1950's and throughout most of the 1960's most families got by fairly well on one income. When the oil crisis hit and the price of everything (gasoline, public transit, food, clothing, etc.) needed by the average household began to rise like a Titan rocket, something had to give.

I'll go back to my initial example of the rise in home heating oil. I lived in New York at the time. A place where most private homes used #2 heating oil to keep warm in the winter. The homes had 275 gallon storage tanks that got filled about every other month. At $.42, the 275 gallons cost $115.50. When the price went up a dollar over night that same fill cost $390.50.

To give you an idea of what people made in terms of income at that time, I finished my tour of duty in the Air Force in 1971, graduated from college in the summer of 1972 and started my first job in Manhattan that fall at $10,000 per yr. That was a lot of money for the time. Many of my friends made half that. Many of my friends parents raised families on $6000 to $8000 per yr.

The Government even found it necessary to put a windfall profits tax on the books. But the damage was done.

guidedog

I hate to say I told you so and I hate going back to the past even more, but it's the 1970's all over again. Ever rising gasoline prices causing a stagnating but still inflation prone economy. If you were around then you would remember the prime rate at 14% and interest rates for the rest of us at 18 to 21%. This at a time when usury laws were still on the books in many states.

Today, a repeat of this scenario would put interest rates on credit cards up to 30+%. It's too convenient. Sadly, the sheeple in this country have lost the spark that made this country great.

Apathy is a big part of the problem. People don't complain to Congress, they just pull up to the pump, pay the $2.50/gallon, and drive off muttering to themselves. With no significant public outcry, and huge energy industry contributions to political campaigns, there is not only no motivation for Congress to take action, there's a good deal of motivation for them to look the other way.