Ooh, did I actually learn something?
I think I may have finally learned to keep my mouth shut when it comes to 'straightening out' the misinformation people like to pass along to one another. I can usually ignore the random email popping up or other written propaganda, but when it comes out of someone's mouth, there's something just... enticing about blabbing on about how it won't
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Raising taxes was just a point that I was making to those asking to take away the gas taxes. That does nothing, and the oil companies will actually make more as people take to their cars more often. It's more to the point that oil is a finite resource and of course prices are going to get higher as we continue to demand them at the same (and higher) rates as (than) we did nearly four decades ago after the last 'oil crisis'. Since then, we've actually had the fortune of relatively stagnant oil prices.
As for heating homes.. hello! This winter, our heating bill was almost $200 for our little apartment that I kept at a balmy 65 degrees. And back to the lucky part, yeah, I'm lucky I have two incomes to pay a higher price. It's not like I really enjoy paying higher prices or anything, and it's not exactly as though we're Mr and Mrs Bigdollars. It's just that I truly believe that others are willing to ignore costs so long as it doesn't hurt.
When it hurts, when we see people suffering, more people are willing to take a stand to do something about it, even if it's in the everyday. When the demand is there for a solution, it's the nature of a market to meet the demand. We're slowly seeing progress, but as the hope for ethanol wanes (because we're stupidly doing it the most expensive way possible with corn, rather than using the 'leftovers' or even certain grasses that give higher yields), and improved cars are... well... expensive... it seems that something needs to push us further. Maybe people need to see the harsh reality of not making moves toward getting us off the oil teet. Maybe we need to see people sick and dying. It's harsh, but we've known about the oil problem, and have had a number of solutions on the back burner for over four decades. We were happy in our bubbles until now (the past few years) when people are only just starting to suffer. We're not exactly known for being quick movers on this sort of thing.
We can each help in our own ways. J and I are making choices to invest financially in companies that are researching and developing solutions to this massive problem we have on our hand. Others are making choices that impact how they save their money, whether it's in their transportation costs or just saving up for what they know will be higher prices.
I know I am taking a rather stoic, hard stance on the subject, but I don't have faith in us as a people... that we can be anything more than reactionary... and that requires that people be screwed over and pissed for change.
I'm not trying to be all high and mighty - quite the opposite. I don't like it, but change needs to happen. If it needs to hurt someone's pocketbook, if people need to suffer from it - then so be it.
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