Charles Lumia: April 2008 Archives

Why Oil Prices are So High


  1. The first reason I will mention, is that Oil is priced in US Dollars. That's why when you see the value of the dollar fall; you see the price of oil rise. The people that produce the oil are generally getting US dollars in return for their product. As such, when the dollar falls, they are making less money on their product, even if the amount of dollars that they receive for their oil is equal, and so the price goes up. This applies to the people buying and selling the oil beyond the producers as well, who are also simply trying to profit. There are of course several other reasons why oil continues to rise, and why the dollar continues to fall. I was just pointing out why the dollar and oil currently move together.    
  2. The second reason is that many people are and have been investing in Oil as it has had quite a run up as the US Dollar has dropped like a rock. Investors, having a good feeling that the Federal Reserve would continue to cut interest rates, have continually bought into Oil to make some profit off of the amazing bull-run that it has had. 
  3. The third is an ever increasing growth in the demand for Oil. This isn't the 1970's where we can simply stop using as much Oil here in America, and prices will fall in relation to our drop in demand. No, these days the entire world is using more and more Oil. As countries continue to develop and expand into modern times, there is an ever increasing demand for Oil. This is the key reason that Oil will never again be as it once was.


Those are the three main reasons as I see them. There are of course other factors behind the rising price of Oil, such as turmoil and lack of security in many Oil producing lands, to things such as the weather, which can cause rather large jumps in the price of Oil in its own right. But those three issues that I listed above are the key factors behind the current of Oil; they should be known and understood by everyone.

We all realize that Oil usage is a problem for us here in the US, and that we need to find a viable alternative, regardless of the current price of Oil. The heart of the issue is how we move from our high use of oil, to something better. Clearly the way that the US as a whole operates has to change, the whole car culture that we have built and glamourized to the rest of the world has to change. People need to realize how ridiculous it is in the first place, they have to realize that it is not sustainable in the long term, and that something has to be done about it, and the sooner something is done, the better off all humans will be.

I don't have all of the answers myself. But it is clear to me that more public funds need to go to public transportation, and other, better forms of transportation. A huge amount of money is spent rebuilding roads in the US every year so more and more cars can drive on them. This is an utter waste of public funding and in reality should not be done. That money should be spent towards better forms of transportation for all people, not just those that own cars. Sadly a majority of people want better roads, so they can drive their SUV's and other vehicles down the street.

Driving is a part of our culture and it's what most people want to do, but that in no way makes it right or good for the future progress of our country, or humans as a whole. I realize that driving has given people much more freedom than they previously had, and that is not a bad thing in any way. But it is an undeniable fact that there are and were better options to allow all people the freedom that they want and deserve, that is completely sustainable for a very long length of time. I can't blame past generations for wanting to drive and to exercise their freedom to travel around on their own will, as they didn't have the insight that we do in our current time. But now that we do have such information and understand that driving huge vehicles all over the country on expensive roads is a waste of resources and is not sustainable in the long term, then something must be done about it.

Every day that passes wherein people continue to go with the flow and majority feeling is setting back humanity as a whole. It's setting back our future generations by hurting our stability and our environment. We have to step up as a people and bring it to an end. We have to sit down and put our minds towards progress, rather than selfish deeds, for the good of our country and the world. We have to realize that suburban sprawl is not necessary and has only led to us having to rely more and more on our vehicles to get us away from and back to our homes.

There are better, more modern forms of transportation available to us right now. They are more efficient and are more sustainable in the long term, which will lead to a better life for our future generations. Anything at all will help; simply moving away from overly large vehicles that are completely unnecessary would be a huge improvement. And I do realize that we are beginning to move in the right direction, but there is undoubtedly resistance in many areas that we need to overcome. It has been too long already and it is time to help our fellow citizens along.

Think of this: How many people in America owned guns in the early days of the colonies, up to the revolution and through the 19th century? I don't know if there are actual statistics available, but even without any statistics I would be more than comfortable in saying that a large portion of the population owned and used guns regularly without issue. Those were different times, a completely different culture from what we have today. The same basic idea can be applied to various countries in Europe: You have countries with rampant gun use, ownership, and general knowledge, such as Switzerland, and then you have countries with heavy handed gun laws, such as the UK. The reason that you end up with different statistics of gun usage between those two countries and the US is due to culture. The people are very different.

Another issue that was just brought up a few posts above this one is that a large majority of gun related crimes are happening in poor, uneducated areas. Areas with a completely different culture, way of life, and way of thinking, than other areas just a handful of miles away in many cases, which are not having the same issues with gun related crime. That isn't something that is going to be fixed by pouring money into the problem areas either, it's an issue of general education of young people in our country. And not just public education, but parental education and guidance as well, perhaps even more importantly.

School shootings on the other hand, are another issue entirely:
They are caused by emotional issues on the part of those committing such crimes. First of all, anyone that would even have the thought of doing such a thing is not well mentally. They should be given proper mental treatment before it comes to bringing a gun to their school and ending the lives of many innocent students and teachers. There's a huge issue with the treatment of those with mental health issues in the US, it's not just the crazy homeless guy that needs proper treatment, at one point that guy was in school and very likely had the same exact issues, but they went untreated and that is how he ended up. People need proper mental treatment, in my opinion it is a far bigger issue than the physical health of the public, which is generally all that is mentioned by the politicians and everyone else.

About this Archive

This page is a archive of recent entries written by Charles Lumia in April 2008.

Charles Lumia: May 2008 is the next archive.
