The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline has risen here in the last month, from $1.86 to $2.29 today.
Chart from www.gasbuddy.com
Considering the cost of gas has gone up 43 cents in a month without a word on the local news, I have to ask, where’s the outrage? During the last months of President Bush’s second term, there was a constant barrage of stories on the news about how inexcusable the cost increases were, with calls for Congressional hearings to get the oil companies to cease gouging American consumers. Yet, here we are in the first few months of Obama’s presidency, faced with a 23% hike in gasoline prices in one month (34% increase since January 20th) yet there’s no outrage. Why not?
Unfortunately, I dont’ have much of an answer to the deafening silence. All I can come up with is a combination of media apathy, mixed with a large dose of “high gas prices aren’t really a problem for Americans” (from Hot Air) comments during the Presidential election. Maybe media companies are afraid to be too vocal in criticizing the big-O, lest they find themselves taken over by government departments to “stabilize the markets.”
Either way, like all the working men and women of this country, I shall continue to bitch to anyone who’ll listen while at the same time pumping the liquid gold into my car. It’s not like I have a choice; there’s no public transport anywhere near here (and even when I lived in the nearest large town, the bus routes didn’t go anywhere useful) and it’s too far to bicycle. Maybe a horse and buggy would work – perhaps the the Amish aren’t so backwards after all.
