Oil companies are financially raping the American citizens. Guess what? We are letting them do it. I know the word “raping” may seem too strong and/or inappropriate. I was gonna use “taking” or “stealing” instead. But they’ve been “taking” from us for 40 years and stealing from us for 20 years. I could have used “fleecing”, but they are not wasting their time trying to conceal their thieving ways. Boldly and brazenly they just tell us right to our faces that they’re gonna take our money and it’s nothing we are going to do about it.
The oil companies say that the current prices have gone up because of demand, shortages and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the same the oil companies made an average of almost 300 percent profit from 2020 to 2021. Not revenue, PROFITS! THEY ARE GOING TO KEEP PUSHING THESE PRICES UP TO SEE JUST HOW FAR WE WILL LET THEM GO…….
It’s probably not fair nor accurate to blame one person or group for the current state of gasoline prices in America. That being said I’d like to share some history that many may already know.
“Google” ‘gas price history by year’ and check out the stats. Stay with me now. The average price per gallon in 1929 was 21 cent. From 1929 to to 2000 the price went from 21 cent to $1.51. That’s only a $1.30 in 71 years! That’s an average increase if 2 cent a year. If that trend had continued to the present the price for one gallon of gas in 2022 would be $2.07. That’s right.
Now look at what happened from 2001 until 2010 and then again from 2011 to 2020. The average price per gallon was $1.46 in 2001. By 2010 the price had risen to $2.79. In 2020 the price was $2.24. Two years later the price is now $4.98. In only 21 years the price increased by $3.52, or an average of 16 cent per year!
You ask why I point to the year 2000 as a point of reference? Well, the year 2000 was the year that oil magnate George W. Bush became the president. George W. Bush, his father and all of his long time political allies used their influence to allow the oil industry (HIS INDUSTRY) to financially rape, take and steal from the American people. Look at the data. This is not a coincidence nor a conspiracy. It is simply a fact. For 71 years gas prices increased an average of 2 cent a year. Enter the Bush family and gas goes up 16 cent a year for the past twenty two years. Every excuse in the world has been used to justify the exorbitant and excessive increases. Notice how the prices never decrease at the same rate? Think about it.
Think. How many businesses make MORE money when faced with a crisis than they do when the “market” is good? Oil company profits go up when there is a hurricane, tornado, a shortage, a surplus, a war, a broken pipe line, an oil spill, a damaged vessel, an oil rig explosion, you name it. Any time there is any type of incident prices go up.
Side note: gas went over a dollar a gallon for the first time in 1980. The significance: the same Bush family allies were in the government with then newly elected President Ronald Reagan.