It's a racket

Now, I don't usually get steamed up about many things too quickly, but this did it to me today.

It has been a long-running argument over the years on whether the price of gasoline is true or if it is just a big racket, a hoax on the American public. There have been studies over the years by official government sources and the like that says, no no no. I find it strange that almost every year there seems to be a refinery problem that suddenly drives up the price of gas when the American public begins to get back out onto the highway after a long winter.

Here's my thought ... it's a rip-off. Why? Well today we found gas for $3.18 a gallon. I haven't seen that price in ages. My Beloved said, it's Thursday, and gas always goes up just before the weekend. I looked at the gauge and we were sitting just above 1/4 of a tank, and she hates to go below a quarter. We filled up and drove a couple miles down the road as we were on our way to rip ceder shingles off my son's house. It was a wonderful day for it; beautiful weather. Anyway, we stopped at an intersection close to his home. The price on the electronic marquee read the same as the station down the road, $3.18. As we sat there waiting for the light to change, guess what else changed.

Yup, you got it. The price of unleaded gas shot up to $3.55 per gallon. Now, I can see gas going up some, but to increase the price nearly 12% in the blink of an eye is just a sham on the public. It is nothing more than price-gouging, plain and simple. I'm all for free market, but it's about time the oil companies fess up and admit they are in collusion to fix the prices at the retail pump. That's illegal.

Perhaps it's time they are regulated like utilities as that is what gasoline has truly become. If government is that blind to what is happening, then they are part of the problem. Hmmm. Government that doesn't know what it's doing ... naw, that just COULDN'T happen.