Gas prices take the shirts off our backs

Go to a store that sells clothing and head for the shirt display. Pick a size and color that pleases you. Look at the price tag. If it looks too expensive, you still have other choices. Leave the store and go to another clothing store and look for a shirt there. If you look at a few stores, you will probably find a shirt that will suit your style needs and budget. If you wait a bit a sale will occur somewhere and you can get a better deal on your shirt, and you still have other choices.

You can go to a thrift store and buy a used shirt, maybe less choices in style, but probably a better buy, and you still have other choices.You can borrow a shirt from a relative or friend. Finding a fit, in the preferred color, will be even more iffy. There is no cost involved, and you have to give it back but you still get a shirt and you still have other choices.

You can surf the Net, and look at dozens of shirts and prices. Find your size and a color that you like, click on Add to Cart. Type in a credit card number and in a few days, you will have a shirt without leaving your home, and you still have other choicesYou can go to a fabric store, buy some cloth and buttons and make your own shirt. It might not look as sharp as a store bought shirt, but it's a way, and you still have other choices.

You can wear some old ratty shirt you already own, faded, maybe worn, maybe a button missing and you still have other choices.If I did some more searching, there are probably other ways to get a shirt. Depending on your gender and the continent on which you reside, sometimes you can go without ever having a shirt!

The point here is that in a free market kind of capitalism like we are supposed to be living in, we have lots of choices on how we buy stuff. Like the search for the right shirt, we can shop, look around, look some more, wait for a sale, buy used, borrow, make our own, or even go without. And it doesn't have to be a shirt. It can be groceries, a hammer, dinner, a car, a trip to Hawaii. It can be flowers for your sweetie, a horse, a package of pencils, or a better cell phone deal. The list can go on and on, including thousands of different items and each and every one of them we have choices about how and when we buy them, or if we buy them at all.All except one.

Gasoline.When its time to fuel up, our ability to choose how we spend our money and do our business stops being ours. The right to speak with your wallet ceases to be an option. Only a handful of companies, own or supply ALL of the gas stations, yet two years ago these companies made profits exceeding $123,000,000,000 (THAT'S $123 BILLION!). That is PROFIT ... meaning money made after all expenses. I know that our favorite gas station is really owned by some local guy or company, but we all know that the same gas station sets its prices based on the prices set by the parent oil company. Like almost everyone I have one choice ... buy gas at the price set by someone somewhere else or do without. Big choice right? It never goes on sale. I can't make it myself. If I borrow it from a friend, I'll still have to buy it to replace it from the lender. I can't use used gas for my cars, and I can't get a deal by ordering over the Net, because I can only buy it from a local station at a set price. Please don't give me advice on how to save fuel. Whoever you are, I already know more about tire inflation and clean air filters than you do and both my cars get over 30mpg. And ethanol/gas mix is bull too. It costs no less and gets me worse mileage, worse performance, and does bad stuff to my vehicles' fuel system. And almost as an insult, there are NO fuel shortages. ANY POSSIBILITY of a rainstorm or political change ANYWHERE, is guaranteed to raise gas prices, yet there is no set cause for lowering the same prices.

Everything I buy is affected by fuel prices. Ninety-nine percent of the necessary stuff that comes into my life is hauled by big trucks, which use lots of fuel. All of those costs are passed along until they get to ME, and YOU. Most of the time we don't have anyone to pass these costs on to. We end up being the end users of goods. And we end up eating all the extra expense that slid downhill to us, because we consumers are at the bottom of the slope. It's a dreadful thought isn't it?!Almost all of us are fairly static in the wages we can make. A small raise occasionally is the best most people can expect. But as fuel driven costs escalate, we see microscopic raises (if any) vaporize before our eyes. Save for the future? Buy a home? Provide a means for the kid's college education? Retirement? For many people, these goals are slipping away, through no fault of their own. How can we fix this dreadful situation? Just like the steps at the beginning of this writing, we have choices.

Probably the hardest of all, find and elect a President that has some idea of the meaning of courage. One that is able to recognize that this fuel-price disaster is devastating most normal people in the country... people like you and me...Joe and Jane Average Citizen. The last few Presidents were sorely lacking in these traits.Elect a Congress that can see the same dilemma.

Pass laws that oil companies are REQUIRED TO FOLLOW TO THE LETTER.Please bear in mind that I am a fervent Capitalist, that I'm not talking about something like nationalizing the oil industry. We need laws that will get control of the petroleum industry. Gasoline should have a set price that we all can count on. How does $2.50/gallon for 5 years sound? That's about what gas cost two years ago, and the oil companies cleared $123 billion. They get their obscene profits and we can budget our fuel costs using a guaranteed set price for 5 years.

All petroleum that is sourced from any United States federally leased territory (on or off shore) MUST be processed, every step, in the United States, and every drop of petroleum product processed must be sold in the United States. No lame arguments about the weak U.S. dollar compared to overseas currencies, because there would not be overseas currencies involved. The oil companies pay their bills in dollars as we buy the gas they produce in dollars.No more government subsidies. If they turned over $123,000,000,000 profit ANY year, they don't need any free money from the U.S. government. I took home less than $31,000 last year, and guess what? I paid all of my bills with my money. So can Big Oil.

When natural gas or electricity, is about to raise in price, there are notices and hearings by Public Utility Commissions that decide if and how much those fuels can raise. Natural gas sometimes comes from the same hole as oil. Why isn't there some regulation on how much gasoline can streak up in costs to you and me? This is crucial, but then again, it would take courage from government leaders.I understand other countries that were previously under-industrialized are now on the gas (pardon the unintended pun as this is not a funny matter) and using fossil fuels like they have never before. I wonder how much oil extracted from U.S. territory is being sold to those countries. I'm OK with Big Oil doing business overseas, as long as Big Oil is drilling in overseas territories. If they can cut deals with the Chinese and Indians to get free subsidies and sell them their own oil for $123,000,000,000 profit next year, more power to them. Do you think the Indian and Chinese governments will go for that? Me neither.

When they make an electric car that will go 300 miles between charges, re-charge its batteries in the same time it takes to fill a gas tank, last 100,000 miles, and costs $30K, please notify me, as I will be one of the first buyers. Hydrogen cars must be too impractical to fuel up because they seem to have fallen off the hot new stuff menu. Hybrids still need gas. So for the immediate future, we will mostly be driving gas cars, no matter how high gas prices rise... and wearing used shirts so we can afford a fill up. I HATE wearing used shirts!

Russ Bohn is a resident of Athol.