Here we go again
For some reason (which I haven't quite figured out yet), the home page whenever I access the Internet from work seems to be that ninemsn page, which is usually a complete waste of pixels on any monitor anywhere in the world. However, the big headline they were running there today which I saw for the second or two it took to upload the next page I visited was another whine about fuel prices. They seem to be claiming it's going to hit $1.30/litre. Given that I'm not likely to have any reason to verify this, I suppose I'll have to take their word for it, even if the source is somewhat questionable.
What I want to know is why all the whining? Well, we all know the answer to that one I suppose (i.e. the media just whines about what everyone else is whining about so they can sell newspapers). However, this doesn't explain the obvious contradiction here. I don't need to read their article to know that at least somewhere on the page, someone is going to be calling for government intervention to peg the price increases. Now this is where I have a problem.
Virtually from the time we're born these days, we're constantly being told that capitalism is wonderful, and communism is inherently "bad". I don't seek to take any position on that particular argument here, it's just what we're told. After all, market forces are supposed to take care of everything, supposed to determine the equilibrium price that will provide the greatest benefit to society, those who can't afford it will just have to work harder, which will in turn benefit society, right? Either that, or they'll just have to go without, which means more for everyone else, which also benefits society, right?
So why then, are so many people whining about this? Essentially all that is happening is that market forces (i.e. supply and demand) are simply having a global effect on the world price of crude oil, which is in turn pushing up the price of petrol. We've known it was coming ever since the US started selling it's industrial revolution to countries like China. This, ladies and gentlemen, is just capitalism doing what capitalism does. So basically, the message is this: quit whining. Either start looking for alternatives (something strangely absent from these media whines most of the time), or just pay the costs, and long live capitalism!
posted by Chris L @ 1:46 pm
1 Comments:
The word is that prices do not dare go any higher or we would revolt. Sure, we Canucks can be revolting, but actually revolt? Highly doubtful.
The thing is, when people "revolt", it's often through useless actions like "buying gas tomorrow instead of today" (I've actually had people e-mailing me to participate in those things). The net effect of that is nil.
I agree that we have choices. How about just not buying the stuff? Unfortunately, many of us here in rural Canada have to have a car; however, the choice of many are those huge SUV's.
... And if Canada's anything like Australia, it probably costs 30-40 cents/litre more in the country than the city. Perhaps this is something that could be addressed (here goes "government action" again), through some kind of "equalisation tax" on the city supplies with the revenue being used to keep the country prices at the same level.
Of course, given that most people live in large cities, I can't see that ever being a vote winner. I guess we can just expect to see more of the same in the foreseeable future.
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