MB Civic

Using a hypothetical price of $ .32 per gallon in 1961 and an inflation calculator applying the CPI (www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi), the price today would be $2.00 per gallon. Another inflation calculator (http://data,bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl) calculated the price at $2.14 per gallon. Both are well under the $3.00 per gallon currently seen in many areas of the nation. Of course, the government taxes on a gallon of gasoline are much higher than in 1961.

While I am not an economist I remember a few things from my Economics 201 class in 1969: 1) Under all economic theories we cannot have full employment-“the poor ye shall always have among you,” 2) the law of diminishing returns-kind of the way government works, 3) monopolies are bad, unless you are a stockholder in a monopoly.

As a recent retiree, in the 15 months of drawing my annuity, I have seen its value decrease by approximately 5.7%, if I can believe those inflation calculators. Therefore, I too, am concerned about the continued effect of increasing oil prices on the diminishing quality of my lifestyle in retirement.

Of course, it is argued by many that the United States relies on too much foreign oil. That is probably true. But it is what some of the foreigners who supply us with oil are doing with the money we pay for that oil which concerns me.

Ever hear of CITGO? It is a Houston company with more than 14,000 gas stations around the country. It used to be an American company. But here is how its own web site describes the company:

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, CITGO is owned by PDV America, Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. In the 1990s, CITGO was purchased by the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. CITGO is based in Houston, Texas, and continues to be a leading refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals, refined waxes, asphalt and other industrial products. Servicing cities to serving the world, all in less than 100 years.

Presidente Hugo Chavez, the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, CITGO’s owner, deserves scrutiny by Americans for his views of the world. Some quotes taken from an article in the self described “Australian radical newspaper,” Green Left Weekly, reveal Chavez’ frightening worldwide goals which he espoused at a conference in Caracas last year.

Chavez compared his plans with those of Karl Marx, “Either we really change the social and economic order, we give real form, viability and outlet for socialism, we say now we must have a new, renovated socialism of the 21st century, or we decide that life finishes on this planet. We no longer have the long time that Karl Marx had, or any other fighter of that. ” He further stated, “I believe it is time that we take up with courage and clarity a political, social, collective and ideological offensive across the world — a real offensive that permits us to move progressively, over the next years, the next decades, leaving behind the perverse, destructive, destroyer, capitalist model and go forward in constructing the socialist model to avoid barbarism and beyond that the annihilation of life on this planet.”

What is so dark and ironic about this is that millions of Americans daily purchase gasoline at CITGO stations, with the profits from those purchases going to the government of Hugo Chavez which he uses to export his communistic ideas espoused above. He is using America’s capitalism to fund his global offensive of communism.

Last year China attempted to purchase majority shares of America’s Unocal oil company. The outcry by the public and American politicians squelched that plan, for now. But the silence is deafening with regard to CITGO and Venezuela, the fifth major oil producer in the world.

Our dependence on foreign oil has been a political issue for at least the past 35 years. Should the United States depend less on foreign oil? Yes. Can the United States depend less on foreign oil? Yes. Should alternate energy sources be developed? Yes. Can alternate energy sources be developed? Probably.

This country has led the world in technology advances since the commencement of the industrial revolution. We still can. And while liberals decry the SUV, those cars are getting better gas mileage than the family sedans of my youth.

But how we see things, the perspective, is important. I researched several road tests for cars from the 1950’s and 1960’s which I found in my library of collector magazines and Car and Driver Magazine ‘s online road tests for several current models. (see matrix below)

From this sample, with the exception of the 1956 Ferrari, all of the older cars had large displacement engines which produced less than 1 hp per cubic inch. In the newer cars, with the exception of the Chrysler 300 C, each engine produced greater than 1 hp per cubic inch. And with the exception of the 2005 Porsche, all the newer cars obtained higher gas mileage than the big displacement engines of the past.

Regarding the SUV’s sampled, each produced less than 1 hp per cubic inch similar to the older vehicles sampled. And each had a higher lbs/hp ratio than almost all the other vehicles. However, even the SUV behemoths generate higher miles per gallon figures than almost all the older cars.

So, why complain about the high oil prices? We are better off, technologically, today than we have ever been. And the future prospects of enhanced efficiency through technology are positive. Our nation has continually proved the old saw, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Again, put high gasoline prices in perspective. Many people pay $3.00 for a cup of coffee; $100.00, or more, for a pair of tennis shoes; $1.00, or more, for a bottle of water someone has filled for us.

You know, it’s the craziest thing to buy water at the grocery store. Why, we used to go to the store to buy soda pops-not water.

And the cost of that water is ridiculous. The water coming out of the faucet, here in Texas we call it a hydrant, at my home costs three hundredths of a cent a gallon. But an eight ounce bottle of water typically costs $1.00. That means a gallon costs about $16.00. Now that is nuts. And many of the same people complaining about paying $3.00 for a gallon of gasoline are burning more than that to run to the store to buy $16.00 a gallon water.

Or how about that $3.00 cup of coffee. That means a gallon of that stuff costs about $48.00. And I don’t think those places give you a free refill.

We will never return to the good days of the past. I am, however, confident that the people of this greatest nation on earth will overcome this time of hardship. We are a flexible and innovative people. Twice in the twentieth century we saved the rest of the world from tyranny.

President Reagan called America the ‘shining city on a hill.’ If this city is destroyed, the world will lose its best hope for liberty. And I put my bet on people choosing liberty.