This is a contribution from Bud Hebeler who runs Analyzenow.com

We’re actually paying less than we did for gasoline in the past if you look at inflation-adjusted amounts.

See http://www.randomuseless.info/gasprice/gasprice.html. (I don’t know who created the chart. I just googled gas price history and got this as the first item.)

Of course most of Europe has always had much higher gas prices. I can remember paying more per gallon in Europe years ago than we are paying here now.

Those that are complaining about the producer’s high profits should consider that the government makes many times more via gas taxes than the producers do in profits–and the producers do all of the work while the government just sits back and collects the money.

Environmentalists have been increasing the barriers to self sufficiency for as long as I can remember. I remember the ridiculous increases in government regulations when Boeing was helping to build nuclear power plants. We couldn’t even use a piece of rebar that had a small scratch on it. (Can you imagine what it costs to handle 2″ diameter rebar so that it doesn’t get scratched?) Then there were all of the fears about the Alaskan pipeline killing off the caribou. It turned out that the herds actually increased because they liked the warmth of the pipes. Between our coal and oil resources we could easily be self sufficient and preserve our self-inflicted wild spending if there weren’t so many environmental restrictions. Not that restrictions are all bad, but they certainly are much more aimed at being PC instead of using good perspective.

The real problem is that we’ve all become spoiled with a standard of living that we can’t afford. Increased productivity lets us buy more as does not saving any money further fueled by huge increases in our debts. Our children and grandchildren will have it worse. I’d like to see a Congress that didn’t spend all of its time interrogating athletes who may have used drugs or industry leaders who we all agree probably make too much money. They should be working on the real long-range problems like the national debt, Social Security, funding Medicare, realistic trust funding for the growing number of retired government employees with COLA pensions, reducing our national government overhead, applying more practical limitations on developing energy self-sufficiently, rebuilding our deteriorating roads and bridges, etc. Instead of paying attention to the future lives of our children and grandchildren, all they can do is pander to the groups tha t provide the votes to stay in office. From that standpoint, there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats. We are all greedy and the law makers are more interested in preserving their jobs than the future of this country.

I like to tell the story of my boss, T A Wilson, head of The Boeing Company. When the company was in really deep financial trouble with too much debt and a bad economy, T called us into his office and said, “We’ve got to cut costs ourselves or otherwise the shareholders will send in someone with pince-nez glasses and ice water in his veins to do it for us.” We need some congressmen with the guts and foresight like T A Wilson who can save a country instead of a company.

Bud