Thursday, March 1, 2012

Post-It Notes On Gas Pumps

No doubt, if you've been on any social networking site or have looked through a few various web sites you've come across an image of a post-it note on a gas pump. It says something along the lines of gas prices being high is a direct reflection of our current administration, and that everyone who had voted for "hope" and "change" and every other single word advert that came out in 2008. Of course there have been some pro-democrat and pro-Obama responses to this, but both sides have the entire picture horribly wrong. When I say wrong, I don't just mean incorrect, but also jaded and horribly ill-informed and under educated. I was a biology major. My training and education in economics begins with my own personal budget making and ends with principles of macroeconomics from my freshman year of under grad. I know that I do not have the background in local, national, and international economics to make an accurate assessment of the underlying causes for increasing or decreasing gas prices. I know there are directly proportional to the prices of crude oil, and that those prices fluctuate not only with political climates, but also consumer demand and manufacturer supply. That being said, I could not be more amazed at the stupidity of these individuals attempting to cry foul and rally the troops in support or opposition of our current administration. When Clinton was in office, gas was well under $2.00 a gallon in the Bay Area of California, and it remained that way into my high school years when Bush Jr. took office in 2000. Under Clinton's administration various international and political events occurred, as they did under the administration of Bush Jr. Yes, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars started during Bush Jr.'s administration, and one would obviously conclude that the strain that both of those events put on international relations and the global economy, gas prices went up. But also, despite every political climate and international event, time went on as well, and economies improved and worsened, and inflation occurred as it always does. Inflation increased the price of gas as well, and then we add some corporate greed into the mix, and various increases and decreases in consumer demand, and we see even more how volatile the price of gas is. Then for some reason (note my lack of economic knowledge here), following Obama's inauguration in 2008, gas prices dropped down by quite a bit. The factors that contributed to this sudden decline are as numerous as the factors that contributed to its sudden increase at various times from 2000-2008. Then the US suffered a recession, and many other nations suffered hard economic times as well (we still are suffering, this isn't a past event quite yet). I do remember from my econ class however that when an economy takes a nose dive, its currency can devalue. That combined with normal inflation can make things quite more expensive. As a result, and as a result from many other factors, gas has crept back up again and is now nearing $3.70 a gallon in the Midwest. However, I also don't recall a gallon of milk being almost $4.00 as well back in 2008, or 2004, or 1999 for that matter. I also remember at the end of the 90's when I could get a value meal at a fast food joint for about $5. Can you see what I'm saying here? Ragging on one administration or another for increasing gas prices is like blaming the current administration for traffic on your morning commute. Because everyone knows, if the economy wasn't recovering there would be fewer people with jobs, and then there would be fewer people commuting to work, and I wouldn't be stuck behind this damn Honda right now. Damn administration and their traffic supporting policies. So the next time you decide to start making A relate to B when there are 1,000 other contributing variables, think twice. It only makes you seem less intelligent. As for the people who jump onto the bandwagon because of these battle cries....if person A is an idiot, and person B follows them blindly, I think that makes person B even less intelligent, if not a lobotomized lemming.

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