Gassing about Gas

Of course, things in the world being the way they are right now, it comes as no real surprise that one of the major topics of conversation both on the news, around the watercooler and, frankly, anywhere is the rising cost of petrol over here in the US. Now, i'm sure i've commented before on how the price of petrol over here seem to fluctuate wildly and sometimes on a daily basis. I'm sure i've also covered how i often point out to my American colleagues on how much petrol is costing back home in England right now (of the order of $10 a gallon, i think) and let them know that we do have it lucky over here in that sense. However, the problem lies elsewhere in that the cars have generally bad gas mileage over here compared to other places in the world. And also that people like to have the big cars that squash pedestrians as soon as look as them which doesn't help. They haven't quite got the economic sensibilities yet.

However, the main gripe to bear over this (and keep in mind that i walk to and from work every day so it's not that much of an issue for me) is that fact that the oil companies are walking away with record profits - that are set to keep on increasing it seems. How could it be such that in the volatile world environment that is pretty much with economies teetering on the brink of recession, can the oil companies be getting away with this? You would've thought that someone high up there would maybe suggest cutting some of us down here a little slack, but then i guess if there pockets are so well lined that they can afford their own prices, then they don't really care. And it's not just the gas prices that are the problem - of course, everything is going to slowly creep up in price. At work, we're trying to minimize orders to cut down on shipping costs. And the response is to try and increase production (of oil). Great in the short term but sooner of later it's going to run out. We need to start preparing now for that day and at this rate, it'll be here far sooner than they think.