Here in California, we will be among the first to enjoy $7 per gallon gasoline, but it’s still cheap at twice the price.  I understand the financial pain of paying so much money for gas.  But neither inflation nor recession are the fault of the Biden administration.  The underlying economic conditions are worsening all over the planet, caused by climate change and attendant disasters and pandemics, exacerbated by Putin’s war on Ukraine.  The good old days are not coming back anytime soon, and times are going to get increasingly hard for everyone, world-wide.  

     During times of declining prosperity, the gap between rich and poor always tends to widen (and the more severe the economic decline, the wider the gap).  Socially and politically, everything moves to the right, as our planet descends to the dystopian reality of George Orwell’s world of 1984.  So just don’t act surprised that all of this is happening.  These fluctuations are all in accordance with immutable natural law, and there is nothing we can do about it, short of systemic change (which is what I’ve been advocating all along, of course).  

     But all of this rapidly declining prosperity, world-wide, makes it all the harder to adapt to changing realities, like the price of gasoline.  When I read the news that OPEC is going to reduce the amount of oil pumped out of the earth by two million barrels a day, I rejoiced.  Of course that will drive the price of gas way up at the pump, but that’s exactly what’s got to happen if we are ever going to get weaned off the oil tit.  Crank down those valves on the oil wells and watch with satisfaction as the price of gas soars up to $12 a gallon, $18 a gallon, $24 a gallon ~ until finally oil is only used for highly specialized industrial uses that can pay the high prices.  Burning off 12 billion years of accumulated fossil oil in a few generations is way beyond stupid ~ it is criminal.  

     And the electric alternative won’t be all that much cheaper ~ with trains, buses, trucks, subways, boats, and aircraft all running on electric power, it will be many years before the alternative supply chain will be able to cope with the demand for all this electricity.  But the fastest way to encourage everyone to make the switch to driving an electric vehicle (if not a bicycle, to really occupy the high ground) is for the price of gas at the pump to move upwards at a steady and relentless pace.   Of course, the whole fossil fuel industry should be heavily taxed in compensation.

     I recognize the unfortunate unintended consequence of all of this ~ Putin will receive bloated payment revenues from the sale of his oil and gas, enabling him to continue his criminal assault on the planet, localized most heavily on the heads and bodies of the Ukrainians, but affecting everyone on the planet, make no mistake.  The only way to really hurt Putin’s oil revenues is to stop buying his oil.  

     So, bring it on, OPEC !  Keep pumping out less and less of that oil, leaving more of it in the ground, and help this world to get beyond burning up the world’s dwindling supply of oil as fuel.