OIL PRICES-UNNECESSARY PAIN FOR MOST!
Everywhere I have been this week from the barbershop, Honda service center, charity bingo, the golf course and grocery store all are concerned about the price of gasoline. In addition to that, I have many friends who know I spent several years in the petroleum industry that have sent me “E” messages of concern.
Monday morning I had a service appointment at the Honda dealer in Lufkin Texas, some 62 miles away, at 8am. This required me to roll out of bed at 6am to make this drive. This was the only available appointment they had when I called on the previous Friday. My first Honda Pilot was one of the first cars I ever purchased that never had to be returned to a dealer for repair or warranty work before it had 3,000 miles of driving. My second Pilot I was taking in for routine service had 59,016 miles when I arrived and this one has never had to be taken in for “Customer Service” as American car manufacturers call fixing things that escaped the factory un-detected.
I average 24 miles to the gallon which means my trip Monday took about 5 gallons of gas. This relates to about $18 which is double what it costs when Obama took office. Most tell me that is the price I have to pay to enjoy living in a Texas county that has one of the lowest tax rates in the State. I accept the fact that I choose to escape the DFW area over 20 years ago for a peaceful retirement setting. Believe me it is heaven compared even to Lufkin. Thankfully the reduced taxes I pay more than offset the increased prices of gasoline I pay.
While I waited for 90 minutes to get the normal service professionally accomplished, I was joined by a young man and a young lady who were also having their cars serviced and the conversation about the price of gas flashed on the TV screen. This created an instant conversation of how the increase was hurting these two young people. The young man was new to the workforce and was enjoying entry level pay. Most people in this part of Texas have to drive some distance to work and the 100% increase in gas was quite severe on this young man.
The young lady told me she was raised in Lufkin Texas and was happy to be able to live outside the large urban areas like Houston. Her dilemma was that her work required travel of some 68 miles every day and the price of gas was causing her to by-pass service for her car and praying it would survive until the costs of living was reduced to previous levels. She could not afford to move closer and when the service manager showed her the air filter that was far beyond serviceable and healthy, she told him she could not afford a new filter. This was the filter for fresh air for the interior passengers to breathe.
The irony of this message is, I was 23 years old, had served four years in the Navy, was married with two children before I ever owned my first car. Gasoline costs about $0.19 cents a gallon and if I could have made a trip around the world for $25, I could not have made it 10 miles.
Two messages are imbedded in this posting. Everyone in this scenario worked for a living, none ever received welfare and none ever drew unemployment which is becoming rare in America today. Charities helped people when I started out in life and many of the young gratefully gave their life to protect our freedoms.
Both of these young people could have probably applied for some form of welfare but they had not. Sure we have people who need assistance, but we have far more that exploit the system to drag down the economy and have never worked a day in their lives. These are the people that elected our current President and the Congresspersons that promote this welfare society to assure re-election.
We have enough oil to eliminate unemployment entirely, pay off the National Debt and increase the living standards for all Americans to enjoy. But we don’t as our political leaders had rather improve the living standards of the people in South America and the middle-east so they can destroy our freedoms with our money.
There is no oil shortage in America, what we have is a shortage of “Common Sense” and too many power hungry people in Washington D.C. who live off of the poor people they say they protect.
C Brewer
A Conservative View 