Reality vs. The Real World

I spent a half hour on hold this past Thursday waiting for the guest host of The Ed Schultz Show to get to my call. He was taking calls about gas prices, and there was a somewhat predictable stream of calls before mine. Most blamed OPEC and the big oil corps, some blamed Washington for preventing domestic drilling, some blamed the newest bad guy in the oil price story – the dark figure known only as the speculator – while one caller actually had the balls to indirectly blame American culture. The very nature of most talk radio is populist, so of course the guest host wasn’t having that. Working class Americans were just trying to get their kids to school and themselves to their jobs, and they just can’t afford these high prices.

Then came my turn. Previously Norman Goldman, the guest host of the show, posited that speculators had to be the explanation for the rise of prices. I explained to him that it was not speculation, or even some grand conspiracy by the oil companies that was driving up the price, it was worldwide supply stagnation. He didn’t like my explanation and told me that I shouldn’t think like an economist while people were hurting, I should think like a human being. In other words, the host of a national ‘progressive’ talk show was not interested in the facts, he was interested in finding someone to blame. Once the bad guy was labeled, he repeatedly said that government needed to ‘do something about it.’ I explained that part of the reason prices here were so high is precisely because other governments – particularly in Asia – have been ‘doing something about it’ by subsidizing consumption.

The phone call was probably fruitless as far as advancing awareness of peak oil – I did not mention the term. But it was instructive to the extent that all parties including the host were not interested in an explanation that was as boring as supply and demand. I think this is important because this is exactly what America is up against as prices continue to rise. Most people only seem to want someone to blame (other than themselves and their own behavior) and government to intervene and fix the problem. The sad fact is that there is no one person or group to blame, things just are not going to be the same and people are going to need to change the way they consume liquid fuels. Unfortunately not a sexy answer in comparison to the alternatives.

Americans may get what they want in one shape or another in the next few years, but there is no explanation as to how subsidies for consumers will even address the actual problem or how they will be paid for. On this 4th of July weekend, as we leisurely go about our lives, I wonder how much longer this frame of mind will continue to dominate American society. And I wonder how much more suffering we are causing the very people Norman Goldman wants to help by prolonging this way of life in one way or another. I realize I may not seem like I give a shit about Americans that are struggling. In a way I don’t but that is due to the fact that information is available to them (all over the internet now, and in all forms) and they don’t seem interested in finding it.

As always, we are fucked, so you may as well get used to it because things aren’t going to get rosy anytime soon.