Stop complaining about gas prices already!

Gas prices are soaring, no doubt. The most recent spikes are simply due to the fact that a bunch of idiots drove into gas stations nationwide in effort to save about two or three dollars on a tank. The ironic part is that these idiots are the exact reason why some stations (in Metro Atlanta) were charging over five dollars per gallon. Conclusion: The idiots didn't save money by filling their tanks, they spent more. Now here's the deal, the recent(not hurricane related) spike in gasoline has to do with other issues.

China's economy is growing like a fetus! Because of China's relatively recent growth spurt, the U.S. is finally having some competition for oil. And, of course, prices are going up as a result. Many bigwigs could see this coming for years, and that's why they own many stocks in companies like Chevron/Texaco, ConocoPhillips, Shell, and others who are making about 100 BILLION dollars(Yes, 100 BILLION) in profit per year. However, the funny thing is that prices for crude oil are not increasing as fast as prices at the pump! That means that the blame for such recent increases in price cannot be blamed solely on the OPEC cartel. In fact, OPEC is trying to ease prices.

Back to the oil companies, it will only get better! These same companies, with their enormous profits seem not to be able to invest any money or effort into creating more oil refineries increasing production. How ironic it is. So what to we have here? We have these companies creating an artificial gasoline shortage so they can reap in billions every time we run into tough times or every time there is a natural disaster like Katrina and Rita. You see, as demand increases for a product, most companies try to increase production. Not oil companies! They know that people will need oil no matter what(especially with every new city designed to make you drive everywhere), so if they lobby to make it almost impossible to open new oil refineries, they win by creating these artificial shortages making gas prices skyrocket.

So, you ask, why am I writing all this? Because the consumer has power. Do you want gas prices to fall? If so, here's the only option.

Quit using so darn much fuel! Drive less! Car pool with friends from work. Move closer to work. Take a bus if possible, or ride with someone as much as possible. Buy a more efficient vehicle. Move to cities or towns where everything you need is within walking distance or at least short driving distance. If you drive 25 miles to work and buy a car that gets 30 miles per gallon as compared to 15 in a truck or SUV, you save $100 per month in gas in driving to work alone! Doing simple things like this will not only make it cheaper in the short run, but if everyone starts to do this, guess what else will happen? Gas prices will drop dramatically because nationwide demand will decrease immensely. Refineries will actually keep up with demand, and oil companies will be forced to drop prices to get rid of costly inventory. All these experts on the radio and TV get fancy-shmancy shows and tell us to do things like keep our tires inflated and to park at Taco Bell instead of going through the drive-thru only to save us a whole nickel. Real gas savings is created by driving less and having a vehicle that gets significantly better mileage. Sacrifice some horsepower to drop gas prices and help the environment a little by causing less global warming(and quite possibly less powerful hurricanes and storms).

The key here is that people need to quit complaining about gas prices and simply change their ways. Complaints should be made in the form of driving less and getting more efficient vehicles. That way, the complaints will actually be heard!