Reputable and unreputable outlets instill in us that oil shortages justifying gasoline price hikes are justified. The price hikes are a fraud.
Gasoline fraud
As I watch the news about inflation and gasoline prices, the price of a barrel of petroleum, I cannot help getting irate. Shenanigans, corporations, and politicians-on-the-take hurt us all in real-time. Their fraud will affect the personal financial well-being of most because they use these tools, oil, and inflation to take back all that the ordinary person fought for decade after decade.
Mostly everything that these economic terrorists are doing is legal. Supply and demand are natural. Wars, pandemics, and climactic disasters are real. These occurrences can create shortages. And when there are shortages, inflation is justified on the products and services in short supply.
Forget much of what the mainstream media, neoliberal politicians of any party, and business schools are telling you. They are vested in our model of capitalism, which ultimately creates income inequality and wealth disparity, as those with access to capital can grow much faster than those with little or none. Ironically, the real engines of our economy are the average American citizens, read most who have limited or no capital.
It’s easy to blame the post-pandemic demand and war for our current inflation rate. The reality is that our plutocracy, read oligarchy and bought politicians, created the pathways for this fraudulent inflation and high gasoline prices.
There is no shortage of oil. Those in power won’t tell you this on CNBC or mainstream media, but common sense alone is enough to see it if we think for ourselves. Russia’s oil is replaceable through various methods that we decided to keep offline. Venezuela is a country swimming in oil. It has the largest discovered reserves in the world. In the past, we used Chavez and now Maduro as scapegoats to keep their oil off of the market.
China, where citizens have few rights, is one of our largest trading partners. How can comparatively tiny Venezuela not be allowed to participate commensurate with its oil reserves irrespective of its form of government? The pariah, Russia, continues in commerce.
One has to understand the dynamics of our form of capitalism. Russia, China, Saudi Arabia are relatively big and powerful countries for different reasons. Our corporations could not possibly get paid-off politicians to force too lousy a deal.
But in the case of Venezuela, the corporatocracy will never allow a Democratic Socialist regime where the population by decree shares in the profits from their natural resources. It is too close to home, and Americans may start demanding the same on our public lands. So we wait until we coerce a government willing to betray its people and join the oil barons to take the Venezuelan oil. This statement is not a defense of any wrong deeds by Chavez or Maduro. Our corporatocracy is complicit in some much more catastrophic to humanity.
So, if we claim inflation is primarily because of oil supply, then you understand why I call it fraudulent. But there is more. After the pandemic, Americans realized they could survive with a simpler life. They were not going to go back to work as much for slave wages. The corporatocracy had to pay a bit more. But the wage component of inflation is nowhere close to the inflation rate. Ultimately, we have inflation because we are devoid of pricing power. We have a few corporations that control the basics, energy (oil, etc.,) healthcare, and others. They set the prices because they can, and the small business person and every American transfer their wealth to this legal form of robbery.
It is all a fraud. Anyone who believes in democracy and free enterprise understands that the government should nationalize primary industries. Utilities, energy, and healthcare are too crucial to life to leave in the hands of selfish profiteers. Everything else should remain under free enterprise. The corporatocracy then could no longer extort P\private businesses.
Some would say that the above would limit innovation. That is categorically false. Those of us who invent and create and serve are not the ones who make the mega-profits. Why do we need to be manipulated by those who only see us as widgets to create bonuses and shareholder value? We don’t. A private manager is no better than a manager who works for the government or non-profit. I would wager the converse.
Remember, the maligned United States Post Office is a government-operated business enterprise. Even with the sabotage from Republican politicians, they deliver efficiently and cheaper to every single address in America. The private sector FEDEX, UPS, and others use them to deliver mail they cannot deliver profitably. That should tell you something about the misinformation in this country.
It is time that America forgets the tropes and starts thinking about what is best for us all. They have brainwashed too many of us for much too long.