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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOn Gas Prices
Gas prices have rocketed up. Listen to the howls of anguish.
Some of them legitimately evoke sympathy: The single parent juggling three part-time jobs with a total daily commute of 70 miles and the narrowest margin in their budget between survival and disaster.
Some of them, not so much. (Looking at YOU, sad little men compensating for your unacknowledged low self esteem with your giant internal combustion machines.)
Who's "responsible" for this "disaster"?
Could be P*, another sad little man with unacknowledged self-esteem issues and far too much power to inflict misery on others to compensate.
On the other hand, it could be greedy-ass petroexecs, grifting as hard as they can at every conceivable opportunity, knowing that the party will run out of beer sooner or later.
But you know what this really reminds me of?
(Some of y'all already know that my esteemed spouse and I have a lot of experience in the world of addiction, treatment, and recovery.)
Right now, the "free/Western/industrialized/whatthefuckever" world reminds me of a person with addiction who walked all unknowing into an intervention session.
And they have NO plans to give up The Drug.
They CAN'T.
They NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED it, to manage their (long litany of terrible, important-sounding ISSUES.)
Besides, if they didn't have The Drug, they just couldn't FUNCTION! There's nothing else that will work to keep them going!
Or, at any rate, all the stuff the loving intervening family and experienced intervention professionals are offering is like TOTALLY not even possible to replace The Drug. Would take WAY too much pain and effort to make the change.
CERTAINLY can't afford to do it right NOW. Maybe down the road, yanno?
Yes, okay, The Drug is a problem, in some ways. Yes, okay, maybe the person with addiction would be better off without it.
Yes, maybe SOME people manage without The Drug just fine. But those are not the kind of people the person with addiction is. The person with addiction is DIFFERENT and they NEEEEEEEEEEEED The Drug.
No substitutes acceptable or accepted.
Not now, anyway.
Yes, well, it's possible The Drug might go away altogether someday, and that would be horrible, but THIS IS NOT THAT DAY.
And the person with addiction is gonna go right on doing whatever it takes to get The Drug.
And blaming and shaming everyone and everything that increases the difficulty of successfully getting and using The Drug for their own misery.
Yep, it's exactly like that. I'm-a havin' those flashbacks.
And I know how this ends, eventually. One of two ways, anyhow:
1. Person with addiction gets some kind of help, treatment, support, etc. and gets off The Drug; or
2. Person with addiction eventually dies of some addiction-related consequence.
So there we are.
Shall we go back to figuring out who's to blame for $5 a gallon gas?
Or shall we start investing in our own independence from fossil fuels?
We keep getting offered this choice.
Our track record on making it ain't too great, though.
wearily,
Bright
ProudMNDemocrat
(16,468 posts)For they need gas to power their big boy trucks so they can fly their MAGAt flags and partake in Convoys.
Ironic if you ask me.
Moostache
(9,895 posts)For DECADES we have known that oil is a non-renewable resource (crackpot schemes and conspiracy theories not withstanding). We have subsidized the supply of cheap oil and gas with the largest military expenditures in the history of the planet. We have maintained Empire USA for the past 40 years in response to the 1970s gas shortages and shocks, but we have done NOTHING to move to alternatives.
Walkable living spaces are a joke in the USA...exurbians mansions and estates and suburban McMansions and subdivisions are only part of the problem. When someone commits to a 50, 60 or 70 mile one-way commute - either by choice or necessity due to housing costs and ancillary factors, it feeds the beast further.
Our solutions to high gas prices are the same as they have been for the past 40+ years - massive increases in public transportation corridors, electricification of shipping and delivery trucks, fuel economy standards in the 60+ mpg requirements, federal toll roads on Interstate Highways for non-electric vehicles after a phase in period, and major investments in geothermal, solar, wind and hydro electic power for consumer use.
Nothing surprising or new there...much of which was part and parcel of "Build Back Better"...so where are the counter attacks against Fox saying this? Why is the administration NOT bludgeoning Fox talking heads and GOP hypocrites for this situation? I don't know, so if anyone can fill me in...I'd appreciate it, because right now I'm at a total loss.
Auggie
(31,054 posts)specifically, "small-ish" family farms.
I know many of these folks. High fuel prices couldn't be coming at a worst time as planting season starts heating up. Their costs go up, but wholesaler/retailer prices stay the same. They need immediate help, one way or another. Price supports, caps on prices, whatever.
markie
(22,755 posts)that doesn't make farmers the bad guys... it is that the addiction is universal, and we are all in this together... even farmers can use renewables and learn new techniques... (I have farmed, I know)
Auggie
(31,054 posts)The carbon footprint of family farms (non-livestock) are relatively small. I'm okay with family farms using fossil fuels -- society gets food in return (plus, they've already invested hundreds of thousand of dollars in their machinery). Perhaps as equipment ages out it can be replaced with greener solutions.
I work with these families too. I've seen their innovations and witnessed their new techniques. Give them a break.
inthewind21
(4,616 posts)20 BILLION in Farm Subsidies just last year.
Auggie
(31,054 posts)Response to Auggie (Reply #8)
inthewind21 This message was self-deleted by its author.
inthewind21
(4,616 posts)The link you provided does show there are indeed subsidies being given in CA. What the link isn't specific on is WHO OWNS the farm. As I stated, 20 BILLION just last year in Farm subsidies across the country. Lots of programs for $$
https://www.farmers.gov/coronavirus/pandemic-assistance
https://farmers.gov
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/14/donald-trump-coronavirus-farmer-bailouts-359932
Auggie
(31,054 posts)Last edited Wed Mar 9, 2022, 05:26 PM - Edit history (1)
these will be ancient history by the 2022 harvest.
The key words are family farms.
See post #9.
Kaleva
(36,145 posts)One of the corporations you have listed, C J Ritchie Farms, is run by the Ritchie family. The farm was started by Clarence J. Ritchie back in 1947 on 40 acres.
"Upon returning to Visalia, Clarence began his farming career by renting 40 acres of open ground. Through hard work and guidance from his friend and mentor, Dick Shannon, Clarence grew his farming operation to include not only cotton, corn and other annual crops, but also grapes almonds and walnuts, amongst other things that would sprawl throughout Tulare, Kings and Kern Counties. In the early 1970's, Clarence brought his sons into the operation and later his grandsons. For Clarence, it was a great source of pride to work alongside his family each and every day."
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/visaliatimesdelta/name/clarence-ritchie-obituary?id=17939988
Auggie
(31,054 posts)Kaleva
(36,145 posts)My father's farm, which never had more then 20 milking cows on it, was incorporated. The farm was 180 acres in size.
Dial H For Hero
(2,971 posts)machines. Mind you, I would hardly characterize a Porsche convertible as "gigantic".
hunter
(38,263 posts)...after about an hour I was just a couple of cars away from the pumps when the station's tanks went dry.
OMG. People went insane. There was one clerk manning the station behind bullet proof glass and people were banging on the windows and doors demanding he turn the pumps back on! I managed to get out of there just as the police were arriving.
Yep, that's an addiction.
We should have listened to Jimmy Carter. But then we elected that asshole Ronald Reagan who promised to keep the drug pipelines open, even at the cost of democracy around the world.
I suspect Trump would have kept the pipelines open by allowing Putin to roll over the former Soviet Union as he pleased, destroying every democratic institution in his path. With our implicit support of Russia the people of Ukraine would have been crushed within days, their democratically elected leaders imprisoned or killed, but at least we'd still have cheap gasoline and Trump's idiot supporters would be cheering him on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_oil_crisis