Coke vs. Oil
What I'm wondering is why it hasn't ALWAYS been this way. Consider that gasoline is a nonrenewable, volatile chemical, requiring an enormous industrial infrastructure to refine heavily contaminated precursor chemicals buried deep underneath one of the most volatile and unstable areas on earth and shipped across seas full of pirates where any mistakes cause huge ecological disasters. Total volume demand is much higher for gas, and its demand curve is relatively inelastic. Coke, by contrast, is renewable and inert sugarwater. What I want to know is why gas isn't TEN TIMES more expensive than Coke.
