What’s the one thing that has the greatest effect on a president’s popularity that he has least effect on?
That’s easy.
Gas prices.
A little more than two years ago — at the depths of COVID-19 — I was able to fill my gas tank for less than $20. I didn’t find myself praising Donald Trump for keeping prices low. He had almost nothing to do with gas prices.
This afternoon it cost me nearly three times that much to fill the same gas tank.
That’s the most I ever spent to fill my gas tank, but I didn’t find myself cursing Joe Biden for allowing prices to climb so high. He had almost nothing to do with it.
My friend Mick is something of a lunatic politically, but he’s not always off base. I’ve heard him say we should nationalize the oil companies, that a necessity like gasoline shouldn’t be a for-profit part of our system.
With prices well north of $4 in Georgia, a lot of Peach State residents are getting hurt, especially those on fixed incomes. My wife and I are on a fixed income as retirees, but we benefit from two factors. First, we have a pretty good fixed income. Second, we don’t have to drive all that much.
In California where we used to live, gas prices are considerably higher. It didn’t suddenly cost more to find oil, to refine it or deliver it, so if there’s one thing true about all this, it’s that rich folks will get a lot richer by gouging average folks.
I wonder if people are ever going to realize that so-called “free market capitalism” not only isn’t the basis of our freedom, it’s actually taking it away. Only the fact that most Americans never get to see other countries up close keeps them from realizing our “freedom” is a lot less than theirs.
You know what the one thing most Europeans countries don’t have that we do?
Mega-wealthy people.
It’s not a fluke that Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bill Gates are Americans.
And it’s certainly not a reason for us to be cheering “U-S-A, U-S-A …”
No matter how high gas prices have gotten, we’re still paying less than anywhere else in the world that doesn’t speak Arabic. The difference is that in most of those other places, prices are higher because of taxes that go to pay for working-class bemnefits.
Here the money just goes into some rich asshole’s pocket.
And we’ll blame Joe Biden.
When did we get so stupid?