Not Now John

"The problem with capitalism is that "man exploits man." The beauty of communism is that it is the other way around."

Here is one article detailing the latest spike in oil prices. As it notes, the oil companies have been getting tax breaks from the Bush administration, and yet we are getting gouged at the pump more than ever. It is not a case of drivers continuing to use more gas, thereby driving the prices up. The demand for gas dropped slightly over the last year. People in the oil industry are saying there is simply no explanation for the prices, all of the technical indicators are gone and there is just no control on the market Our inventory is the highest its been in many years. So, it seems to be a case of a really bad economy and a desire to continue record profits. This article also notes that most of the usual corrections don't seem to be there. A very weak dollar is part of the problem, but the speculators seem to be playing a big part. "Maybe its just greed." That seems to be a good explanation, with no good investment opportunities left, traders are trying to get rich off of oil, and that is going to have major ramifications.

Energy costs show were capitalism is a failure. Energy is one area that shouldn't be left to a free market, where some get rich and many get left out in the cold, literally. Besides destabilizing personal economics, this enormous jump in costs threatens the national and global economies, and since it doesn't seem to be easily replaceable, it threatens are national security and global security. I don't want to sound too MadMax here, but we have had a strong military presence in the Middle East for many decades, and I don't think that is a coincidence. We've known for 30 years that oil will become a problem and quickly destabilizes our domestic and foreign interests. But instead of following a plan of conservation and developed alternatives, we have successfully ignored the problem.

The word Nationalization is a very scary concept for the free market conservatives. Yet, every time the corporate sector crashes because of immense greed and fraud, the government has to foot the bill - which means we, the taxpayers, end up funding this robbery. The S&L bailout alone cost us $400 Billion It seems that Europe has realized the need for Nationalization, and this is a concept we should further investigate. Not only would we quit being robbed of public (taxpayer) money , but the nation as a whole could benefit from the profit. We should start by Nationalizing the energy industry - yes that means taking oil off the free market. Besides stabilizing the economy, we would increase national security and global security, and profit could be funneled into R & D for alternative energy sources, thereby increasing future stability and security. At the very least, there should be a legal end to speculation.

Just how bad does the economy have to get for Ben Stein (who recently said we should be thanking the oil companies) to publicly admit that the only solution is going to be taxing the rich? That realization must have been a painful experience for him. At least he realizes that a significant part of the problem is the weakening dollar. This is an idea that has escaped intellectually-challenged people like Sean Hannity, who seems to still think the economy is great and that the value of U.S. currency is irrelevant to a recession. Of course he only says that because Bush bears the responsibility, and if a democrat was in office, his viewpoint would be quite reversed.