We've had a 100% increase in the cost in only about a year. They say there have been problems with the oil rigs out in the Gulf due to Katrina and Rita. Okay. But I ask you:

How come we never had such horrendous price increases in previous hurricane years????

Think about it. The oil companies have had to evacuate their rigs many times. But gas didn't jump from .30 to .60 during Betsy (1965), did it? Or during Camille, or any of the others that swept through the Gulf.

The national media keeps trying to soothe us (I almost wrote "pour oil on the waters") by saying we're paying less for gas in adjusted terms than we were in 1981. To which I say:

Crap. There is one hell of a big emotional difference between paying 12.00 to fill up, and paying 36.00.

Okay, it might even be true. But other costs have skyrocketed too. In 1981, I paid $250.00/month for a very nice 2-bedroom apt. in a suburb of NO. According to the website "How Much Is That Worth Today," that's equivalent to $440 today. Which is exactly what I'm paying -- for a *one-bedroom* in a *less desirable* part of town! To get the equivalent apartment today, I'd have to go to $550 - 600 or more.

The other point that absolutely no one is making is this: We're not getting the same mileage out of a dollar purchase of gas. In 1977, I recall paying .50/gal, and getting roughly 15 mpg from an average car, a Ford Maverick. So I paid a dollar to go 30 miles. Today, the price of a gallon has gone up 6 times. Yet we're not getting 90 mpg, are we? No. We're paying 3.00 to go maybe 23 miles, if that.

How to fight it? On a personal level, move closer to work, or work closer to home. Walk whenever you can to the grocery and drugstore. Don't drive your kids to school; they can take the school bus or public transport, or walk, if it's only a mile or two. Get a more fuel-efficient car, if it's time to trade in. Rethink and combine every trip as if there were rationing such as we had in WWII. And don't buy anything else from the oil companies' greedy little convenience stores; buy only gas -- get your candy bars elsewhere.

Rant mode off for now.

__________________
* *
-- Paul W. (The Benzadmiral)
('03 Buick Park Avenue, charcoal/cream)
Formerly:
'97 C230, smoke silver/parchment; '86 420SEL, anthracite/light grey; '84 280CE (W123), dark blue/palomino