The supply does not get to make the demands.
I'm getting tired of constantly hearing people's moronic theories about why gas prices suddenly spiked over the last few months. Everyone is looking for someone to blame. The reality is that there is that the blame lays squarely on us, the consumer. Period. Full stop. End of discussion.
But let's examine this for a moment. First we had the sudden drop in gas prices that just happened to coincide perfectly with the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. People stopped driving as much. Because they stopped driving as much they stopped using as much gasoline. Gasoline, like milk, has a finite lifespan. Therefore, in order to keep their product from spoiling in the silos, the gas companies began dropping prices in order to incentivize people to buy more gas. Once the lockdown ended and people resumed their previous driving habits (i.e. wasteful, see below) then prices climbed right back up again. Welcome to basic economics, folks - and be amazed at how many people don't have enough brain cells to gronk even this simple concept.
Now if we step back to embrace a larger calendar of the last 30 years or so we can spot a trend so obvious that you can see it from Pluto: The SUV Craze. When, exactly, did this begin? Coincidentally right around the time of Gulf War 1, when Bush opened up the national reserves to the point where gasoline dropped to below $1 a gallon for the first time since (? I have no idea?). With gas that cheap hey, why not go out and buy a truck the size of a tank that gets even worse fuel efficiency?
But let's now zoom into the cue ball smooth surface of the average American brain and see what's going on inside it. It turns out that the USA is jammed packed with over paid, over weight, under educated white males who live in a state of perpetual anxiety about the masculinity that they're obviously lacking. Their mates are, generally speaking, over paid, over weight, under educated white females who live in a state of perpetual fear of every other human being on the planet. On the plus said at least we can say that they're made for each other. Both groups express their fear & anxiety primarily via various forms of hostility, and this manifests itself through various outlets such as joining hate filled religious groups, hate filled political groups and media entertainment that subtly (or not so subtly) revolves around hating particular nationalities and/or ethnic groups.
They also express their anxiety financially through the sorts of purchases that they make, with the male being the bigger spender here. Because logic and effort are distinctly Un-American virtues, he will not cure his flaccid level of masculinity by going to the gym and working out to lose weight & gain muscle. Don't be absurd! No, you see, masculinity can be acquired through simply acts of worship. You can buy masculinity simply by buying their culture's chosen objects of masculinity. The icons, the symbols, the totems of masculinity. Naturally this includes gigantic trucks and the racks of guns to mount in the back of them. For the female tribe member you can sell the same obnoxious vehicle simply by pitching it as being safer and intimidating to other drivers, which is very important when you have the driving skills of a orangutan on quaaludes and keep your cell phone glued to your head from the moment you start the engine until you arrive at your destination.
Now you may be rolling your eyes right now because this all sounds like a rant. Fine, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm right and the proof is that every advertiser and marketing agent in the country agrees with me on this. They are the ones who dictate what kinds of cars get manufactured and in what quantity. What is the result of their analysis? Here's a hint: The Ford Motor Company no longer makes cars. They now only make trucks and SUVs. When was the last time you saw a Dodge pickup truck that wasn't a "Ram?" These people are professionals. Their job is to know their audience and they know it well. Their audience is exactly the people that I described. Anything else that they make; any other vehicle they produce, that's just a side project at best. A way to pad out the thickness of their catalog or, more realistically, pay lip service at some pathetic attempt by the government to make them raise their standards. If they make a vehicle that actually gets more than 10mpg they don't care if they never sell a single one (which is why American economy vehicles tend to be complete crap). Their profits are all in those $50K+ penis extensions and they damn well know it.
The level of addiction/desperation this consumer base has to these totems of masculinity is quite telling - and nowhere more obvious than in all their whines and complaints about current gas prices. Because at the end of the day the most logical and direct solution to higher gas prices is to simply trade in for a more fuel efficient vehicle. Yet to suggest this will invariably get a reaction akin to you suggesting that they cut off their own tiny little testicles - because, psychologically, that is exactly what you're suggesting to them. Therefore they fall back to their moronic conspiracy theories that have nothing to do with reality just so that they can avoid even considering the unthinkable idea that they actually take some fucking responsibility for the situation and admit that maybe the reason gas prices are so high is because they're constantly wasting so much of it. Because it simply can't be their own damn fault. Nothing is ever their own damn fault, you see. There is always someone else to blame, no matter if it's high gas prices, getting laid off work after showing drunk six days in a row or even a bald tire finally going flat.
In the end these high prices are the end result of an American consumer population that insists on owning & driving vehicles levels of magnitude larger than they need, which in turn get shitty mileage, which in turn means more oil in consumed per day, which in turn decreases overall supply and - as the ghost of Adam Smith will scream as it smacks them upside the head - drives up the price of whatever supply remains. The solution is just as simple, too: More fuel efficient vehicles will result in less fuel being consumed and the price of fuel dropping. That's not just a theory, that's a fact that was proven during the Covid-19 lockdown.
And sadly... that will never happen, because none of that address the root of the problem, which is the consumer and their fucked up psychological issues. Their fears of inferiority and their fears of a lack of masculinity and/or personal security. The roots of all that are deep and worthy of a fifty page report in itself that frankly I don't feel like bothering with, but needless to say that I have absolutely zero faith that any kind of solution will be found before civilization itself collapses.
So get used to the high prices, because unless science really does invent a pill that make men's dicks bigger then they're just going to keep going up until the last drop has been sucked out of the Earth and burned.
But let's examine this for a moment. First we had the sudden drop in gas prices that just happened to coincide perfectly with the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. People stopped driving as much. Because they stopped driving as much they stopped using as much gasoline. Gasoline, like milk, has a finite lifespan. Therefore, in order to keep their product from spoiling in the silos, the gas companies began dropping prices in order to incentivize people to buy more gas. Once the lockdown ended and people resumed their previous driving habits (i.e. wasteful, see below) then prices climbed right back up again. Welcome to basic economics, folks - and be amazed at how many people don't have enough brain cells to gronk even this simple concept.
Now if we step back to embrace a larger calendar of the last 30 years or so we can spot a trend so obvious that you can see it from Pluto: The SUV Craze. When, exactly, did this begin? Coincidentally right around the time of Gulf War 1, when Bush opened up the national reserves to the point where gasoline dropped to below $1 a gallon for the first time since (? I have no idea?). With gas that cheap hey, why not go out and buy a truck the size of a tank that gets even worse fuel efficiency?
But let's now zoom into the cue ball smooth surface of the average American brain and see what's going on inside it. It turns out that the USA is jammed packed with over paid, over weight, under educated white males who live in a state of perpetual anxiety about the masculinity that they're obviously lacking. Their mates are, generally speaking, over paid, over weight, under educated white females who live in a state of perpetual fear of every other human being on the planet. On the plus said at least we can say that they're made for each other. Both groups express their fear & anxiety primarily via various forms of hostility, and this manifests itself through various outlets such as joining hate filled religious groups, hate filled political groups and media entertainment that subtly (or not so subtly) revolves around hating particular nationalities and/or ethnic groups.
They also express their anxiety financially through the sorts of purchases that they make, with the male being the bigger spender here. Because logic and effort are distinctly Un-American virtues, he will not cure his flaccid level of masculinity by going to the gym and working out to lose weight & gain muscle. Don't be absurd! No, you see, masculinity can be acquired through simply acts of worship. You can buy masculinity simply by buying their culture's chosen objects of masculinity. The icons, the symbols, the totems of masculinity. Naturally this includes gigantic trucks and the racks of guns to mount in the back of them. For the female tribe member you can sell the same obnoxious vehicle simply by pitching it as being safer and intimidating to other drivers, which is very important when you have the driving skills of a orangutan on quaaludes and keep your cell phone glued to your head from the moment you start the engine until you arrive at your destination.
Now you may be rolling your eyes right now because this all sounds like a rant. Fine, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm right and the proof is that every advertiser and marketing agent in the country agrees with me on this. They are the ones who dictate what kinds of cars get manufactured and in what quantity. What is the result of their analysis? Here's a hint: The Ford Motor Company no longer makes cars. They now only make trucks and SUVs. When was the last time you saw a Dodge pickup truck that wasn't a "Ram?" These people are professionals. Their job is to know their audience and they know it well. Their audience is exactly the people that I described. Anything else that they make; any other vehicle they produce, that's just a side project at best. A way to pad out the thickness of their catalog or, more realistically, pay lip service at some pathetic attempt by the government to make them raise their standards. If they make a vehicle that actually gets more than 10mpg they don't care if they never sell a single one (which is why American economy vehicles tend to be complete crap). Their profits are all in those $50K+ penis extensions and they damn well know it.
The level of addiction/desperation this consumer base has to these totems of masculinity is quite telling - and nowhere more obvious than in all their whines and complaints about current gas prices. Because at the end of the day the most logical and direct solution to higher gas prices is to simply trade in for a more fuel efficient vehicle. Yet to suggest this will invariably get a reaction akin to you suggesting that they cut off their own tiny little testicles - because, psychologically, that is exactly what you're suggesting to them. Therefore they fall back to their moronic conspiracy theories that have nothing to do with reality just so that they can avoid even considering the unthinkable idea that they actually take some fucking responsibility for the situation and admit that maybe the reason gas prices are so high is because they're constantly wasting so much of it. Because it simply can't be their own damn fault. Nothing is ever their own damn fault, you see. There is always someone else to blame, no matter if it's high gas prices, getting laid off work after showing drunk six days in a row or even a bald tire finally going flat.
In the end these high prices are the end result of an American consumer population that insists on owning & driving vehicles levels of magnitude larger than they need, which in turn get shitty mileage, which in turn means more oil in consumed per day, which in turn decreases overall supply and - as the ghost of Adam Smith will scream as it smacks them upside the head - drives up the price of whatever supply remains. The solution is just as simple, too: More fuel efficient vehicles will result in less fuel being consumed and the price of fuel dropping. That's not just a theory, that's a fact that was proven during the Covid-19 lockdown.
And sadly... that will never happen, because none of that address the root of the problem, which is the consumer and their fucked up psychological issues. Their fears of inferiority and their fears of a lack of masculinity and/or personal security. The roots of all that are deep and worthy of a fifty page report in itself that frankly I don't feel like bothering with, but needless to say that I have absolutely zero faith that any kind of solution will be found before civilization itself collapses.
So get used to the high prices, because unless science really does invent a pill that make men's dicks bigger then they're just going to keep going up until the last drop has been sucked out of the Earth and burned.