Thursday, September 6, 2001

Americans pay and complain for the things they want
by Chris Diggs
Skiff Staff

If you drive around in a car the size of an apartment complex or live in California this may not be the best of times for you. Hopefully neither statement applies to you. If it does, however, I don’t feel sorry for you.

My mother told me that when she was growing up gasoline cost five cents a gallon.

Today’s cost of gasoline is partially due to inflation (which rarely happens in pure capitalism), the oil cartel (which fixes prices whether higher or lower) and bad business practices by the actual gasoline distribution companies.

But for the most part, the blame falls on the American driver who would rather drive around in a house than in a smaller car or, Lord forbid, an admittedly ugly, yet money-saving hybrid automobile that uses gasoline and electricity.

What are we complaining about? The worldwide average for a gallon of gasoline is $5. However, we don’t mind spending $2.50 a quart for bottled “high class” water, which is equal to $10 a gallon.

But we don’t want to see gasoline, the magical fluid that lets us travel amazing distances in hours that 100 years ago would have taken months to travel, go over $3. No, that would be an outrage.

Bill Maher was correct when he said, “Americans pay for what they want and not what they need.”

For the record, there is no electricity crisis in California. There is a big yellow thing outside during the day called the sun, and all that light is energy, which can be used as solar power. Solar power is always a viable source of energy.

When deregulation began in California, it was an inappropriate attempt in the form of communism. The government decided to limit the price that electricity companies could charge customers, but not the price electricity producers could charge those companies. Just a reminder, communism still doesn’t work.

One of the greatest problems for humanity, especially for Americans, is complacency. Americans, like sheep, will follow the strongest member of a group and do whatever we are forced to do. Most Americans are weak and will follow the person who has power, even if we know what we are doing is wrong.

For those living in California who would like to pay smaller electricity bills, instead of writing their congressmen and senators or organizing a peaceful protest or march, most will probably finish reading about the problem and watch some more TV.

Chris Diggs is a freshman e-business major from Dallas.
He can be contacted at (c.e.diggs@student.tcu.edu).