there will be blood

How fitting that a story on people stealing gasoline runs in the Star the same day "There Will Be Blood" opens. Greed and oil are linked then and now.

Apparently, customers have got more irate at gas prices and the station clerks. Some customers have started stealing gas, while others have verbally abused station clerks.

First, this is completely inappropriate. Gas prices may be high, but they have been at the 90+ cent range for almost a year. This provides people the time to calibrate and adjust their budgets. Perhaps I am pessimistic, but I suspect people are unwilling to give up luxuries such as buying Tim Hortons, talking on cell phones, or watching satellite television and, instead, complain about gas price. Assume people drive 500km/week, on a car with fuel efficiency of 10L/100km (like the Malibu), a 15 cent per litre rise increase the cost of gas by $7.50 a week. (Some may note that the rise from 70 cents a litre means a much larger strain on resources. This is true, but with the demand for oil, prices were going to go up, and, now, we need to look at the current level of gasoline prices. 70 cents a litre days are over!)

Many people are living beyond their means and express their dissatisfaction (or fear) at the most obvious price in front of them, the weekly purchase of gas. People are constantly bombarded with the price of oil and see the prices of gas at the stations. Hence, people have equated it as a barometer of their costs. Yet, they ignore items they can trim from their budgets. Cut just two lattes a week to make up the difference. (But people ask: why do I have to give up my luxury to pay for a necessity like gas?)

The victims, of course, are the gas station workers who have the least power. People are content venting their frustration at them instead of voicing their concerns to Big Oil. With oil companies making killer profits year after year, oil execs give themselves generous bonuses.

The solution: use your car as little as possible. Reduce gasoline consumption, provoke real change.