Failure of Will

Today I read in the Sacramento Bee an article on the increase in gasoline prices. It seems that as the economy improves, demand is once again going up throughout the world and prices are rising. We may see the $4.00 per gallon of a couple years ago.

Meanwhile, the state of California, in a short sighted attempt to raise more revenue, went to a “flat tax rate” on instead of a percentage for its sales tax on gas. This means more revenue right now, but the amount cannot increase as the price of gas goes up.

Unbelievable! In other industrialized nations, gas taxes are very high, and variable. What this means is as the price of a gallon of gas goes up, say from $5.00 to $6.00, the amount of tax goes down so that the actual cost of a gallon of gas stays about the same. As the price of a gallon goes down, the amount of tax goes up, so the price stays about the same.

The trade off for this price stability and relative stable revenues is revenue for mass transportation, highway repair; etc.

Not in California: We see a tax system that actually adds to the volatility of gas prices.

Most countries began taxing gasoline at a high rate thirty years ago. Because Europe does not have native gas reserves, they realized that they simply could not tie their economic vitality to gasoline. So, they taxed at a high rate, working also to stabilize prices, and drove millions away from cars as their primary mode of transportation.

The United States, in contrast, because of access to cheap and supposedly endless petroleum reserves, allowed the price of gasoline for the consumer to rise and fall according to supply and demand.

The results of this were prosperity and convenience at first. But now, as cheap petroleum ends, and world demand goes up due to other economies growing, the prices of gas are damaging the American economy.

Americans were sold on the idea that a forty mile commute, stuck in traffic going 15 miles an hour, was somehow a desirable life style. Moreover, the petroleum industry has morphed into a greedy political and economic giant, refusing to face the reality that the American energy glutton lifestyle must change. It is ironic that the industry’s profits will continue to soar, as world demand goes up. However, the oil lobby stubbornly resists all American progressive efforts to change transportation modes to lessen individual reliance on cheap gas. In short, the oil companies want Americans to stay in their cars on the freeways until they literally bankrupt themselves.

So, California actually cuts their tax on gasoline in the middle of a chronic budget deficit.

California was the leader of the United States in lifestyle advances. The commuter, suburban lifestyle was copied in all but the most densely populate areas. Home buyers thought nothing of purchasing a home a hundred miles from work. Gasoline was cheap and cars were easy to purchase. Urban sprawl has been the standard; shopping centers were located miles from the center of a city, destroying downtown areas, spreading people away from one another.

Bus and train systems were junked in favor of private automobile travel. And, freight transportation was shifted from trains to truck; all in the name of efficiency.

The result of this madness is a system of transportation that relies completely on cheap gasoline and diesel that are running out.

This leaves the United States and an incredible disadvantage relative to the world economy. Other nations have transportation systems that are dramatically more efficient and less reliant on cheap gas. Many Europeans, for example, do not even own cars, but rely on public transportation to get to work. Cities have not sprawled, so commuting to work is often a walk.

Now don’t misunderstand; as fuel prices increase due to dwindling supply, other nations will suffer as well. The diesel to run trains will be more expensive, air travel will suffer; etc. But, the dependency on cheap fuel is so much less, that economic damage will be far less than in the United States.

A dollar increase in the price of a gallon of gas will wreck havoc on the American economy, changing political power, causing unemployment and huge dislocations the American way of life. A two dollar increase, which will happen in the next five years as “peak oil” becomes apparent, will force Americans to look for alternative transportation methods that simply do not exist: passenger train travel is a museum piece in California in most areas.

And, the state government, bowing to conservative anti-tax FANATICS, has actually cut taxes on gas. This has eliminated the best method to force Californians out of their cars and to fund mass transportation.

Americans just don’t have the will to change; and petroleum companies intend to keep it that way.

And, conservative nihilists, who hate government in every form, push to rely on the free market to resolve this dilemma. These fanatics are backed by a petroleum lobby, intent on virtually enslaving Americans to a system that will ruin lives and what is left of the economy.