Oil At $200 Would Mean What?…

by BWK ~ January 22, 2008

Oil at $94 has meant gasoline at $3.15 in the USA, with not much true complaining. Sure, people bellyache, but there are no riots in the streets. Nobody is burning down the gas stations like in Iran or Burma when the prices rise. Not part of the culture, I suppose…….. Not just now, anyhow.

Oil at $200 would mean what??? $7.50 per gallon of gas? Hey, it’s $8 in Britain and Germany already. So Americans paying for $200 oil would just be British without the funny accent. And yes, peoples’ behavior would change. Carpools and mass transit would see a resurgence. People would think that big cars suck, and maybe children would throw rocks at them. Businesses might have to offer “gas insurance” like they offer health care, if they want the workers to show up in the morning at some locations. Or run van-pools to pick up workers who cannot afford the commute. (Guess what…. some businesses already do exactly that.)

Much transport would be more expensive. If there are any oranges left after the recent Florida freeze, they will be mucho pricey. Truckers would drive to Wash DC and blow their horns in front of the Capitol Building…. and all that noisy air would accomplish exactly nichts (as the Germans say).

Who can afford expensive oil? Rich people, of course. Will the economy keel over? Parts of it, yes. The parts of the economy that rely on cheap and available energy would be sucking for air. So some rich people will become poor people.

Polticians would scream about oil prices, but you know what??? They cannot do a damn thing. What will the next president do? Pull a Nixon and slap price controls on oil at the well head? What oil at what well heads? In the USA it is almost all stripper wells anyhow. The rest of the world is where the oil is located. If the US wants oil, it has to pay for it. And if the US did attempt price controls, the rest of the world would just get its jollies watching the US Prez make an ass out of herself. (Her? Not any more, huh? Still, sublime irony if it was Hillary and she pulled a Nixon.) Will a left-winger like Hussein Obama — last seen ordering his morning coat for the innauguration — do price controls? Hey, his vast experience as a Chicago “community organizer” (ie, a pimp for politicians instead of girls) and state legislator, and the big 2 years in the Senate (mostly spent running for Prez) tell us nothing. But stranger things have happened. Ward-healer and noble Democrat Harry Truman, after all — a complete unknown out of the tough neighborhoods of a large, Midwestern city — dropped an atom bomb on Japan. And when the little pricks failed to surrender fast enough, he nuked them again.

Most likely, in the face of high oil prices the US gov will just pour more barels of green ink into the presses and print currency. For a time, at least, there will be “money” in the economy for the liquid folk to buy their expensive gas while the nation winds down. The poor? Hey, you ever heard of Jesus? “The poor shall always be with you.” So what would Jesus do? Inflate the currency, I guess, and try to pull a loaves & fishes on whatever oil is still left. Instead of turning water into wine, our Powerful Politicians will talk about turning other stuff into oil. Burn whatever you can. Even the living room furniture. It’s the paradigm, after all. And at the end of the day……………

Who knows what will lie at the end of the day. Again, to quote that Jesus guy…….. “Where the corpse lies rotting, there the vultures shall gather.” Luke 17:34.

Best, BWK