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Are high fuel prices
necessary? |
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Are high fuel prices necessary? The answer is
definitely, yes. But here's the big "kicker". The dollars are going to the
wrong places. The oil companies are making record breaking profits at a
time our economy is on the verge of depression. The car manufacturers
continue to pump out gas guzzling SUV's, 4 wheel drives, and high
performance engines, and we continue to buy them. Granted, General Motors
earns a greater profit on these vehicles. Profit is not a dirty word.
Every business is entitled to make a profit. My Mother is 96 years of age. In her lifetime she has seen things go from the horse and buggy to a men in space and during her lifetime we have consumed a source of energy that took million of years to create, at a rate that it will be depleted long before predicted. Several years ago, I visited the Confederate Air Force museum in Texas. In one of the buildings there was a cut-away version of an engine produced by Buick Motor Division of General Motors in 1941, which was used to power air-craft. The engine was super-charged and fuel injected. If I am not mistaken, General Motors did not offer fuel injection on it's cars until the late 1980's, and super-chargers in the 90's. What is wrong with this picture? Here we are in 2008. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler are struggling to stay afloat. Toyota will soon become the biggest car manufacturer in the world if they continue at the rate they are going. Toyota? Japan? Isn't that the country that we defeated in World War Two? One of the reasons that we defeated the Japanese was that our air-craft could fly at higher altitudes than theirs. Why was this possible? Super-charged, fuel injected engines. Now let's get back to profit. Wouldn't it make a lot of sense for the big oil companies to "plow" a major portion of their profit into research and development of alternate energy sources? There will come a day when they will no longer be oil companies. They will be energy companies so long as they do not follow the path of General Motors. We cannot place all of the blame on the oil companies and the car manufacturers. The United States consumes a major portion of the oil produced in the world. We are selfish people. We drive motor homes that are larger than the homes of most of the people in the rest of the world. We drive luxury vehicles to work with only one person in the vehicle. Our kids drive to school rather than riding a school bus. We fly from Colorado Springs to Minneapolis and back in the same day for a 4 hour seminar. I could go on for hours. We live for today but tomorrow is almost here. I filled up my Grand Cherokee yesterday, $3.43 per gallon for regular un-leaded. I think that is the highest price I have ever paid in my 69 years. I didn't like it. Then tonight I got to thinking about my 5 month old great-grandson. I've had a good life and have been many places in the world. I hope that he will be as fortunate. Maybe $5.00 a gallon would not be too much to pay. I'm sure that I could cut back on my driving without changing my lifestyle drastically. Maybe one trip a week to the grocery store would be sufficient & I could have gone to the bank, the cleaners, & Macy's by making a circle instead of making three trips yesterday, and I almost forgot; I went to Dick's Sporting Goods last night. It's right beside Macy's. Maybe I'll even get to know my next door neighbors. We could have a cook-out. I'm getting tired of going out to eat so often. |