The Shadow
After paying $5.19.9 per gallon for non-ethanol gasoline in Covington on June 8 at the same pump that I was paying $2.43 per gallon before the “War on Fossil Fuel” was launched, I began thinking about other inflated prices I’ve been paying.
Black Label Bacon was $3.99 per package at the Kroger Store in Clifton Forge before the “War on Fossil Fuels” began taking its toll that has driven both gasoline and diesel fuel prices to historic highs, but now the price as of June 8 for the same size package of Black Label Bacon was $9.99 at the same store.
The blame game for inflation has become a political football that is being kicked around like a soccer ball with various scapegoats being attached to the problem such as corporate greed, Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine, and the supply line interruption.
How does a nation go from being energy independent by exporting more oil than it was importing less than two years ago to becoming a nation importing more oil than it is exporting while fuel prices are being driven to historic highs?
When gasoline prices and diesel fuel prices soar, farmers raise their prices because tractors are used in farming and because crops are harvested and trucked to markets.
With higher prices being paid for fuel, higher prices consequently are being charged for food because of the increase in prices it takes to deliver food from farms to canning factories and other destinations.
The domino effect is responsible for inflation, and no better example can be found than the rising cost of fuel leading to the rising cost of food items, building materials and other commodities.
Pre-COVID-19 economic conditions compared to post-COVID-19 conditions remain a stark contrast worldwide.
In the U.S. where the Green New Deal has triggered “The War on Fossil Fuels,” much to the chagrin of those invested in the energy sector, pipelines have been canceled, lands previously open for drilling for oil and gas have been blocked by changes in government policies from exploration and red tape has been added via government regulations that make the exploration for fossil fuels and the removal of them far more costly than necessary.
Recalling days past when the limbo craze set in and people bent their backs to ease their way under the bar, the opposite of going low has become the dread of the day for those whose backs are being broken by fuel prices going higher and higher.
While the current economic recovery in the U.S. is about the return of workers to the workplace to equal pre-COVID-19 numbers, the wage increases for workers is encouraging, but those wage increases also contribute to inflation.
When employers increase their wages to hire workers, the goods being produced come with a higher price tag to compensate for the increases in wages.
The vicious cycle continues, and prices for food, housing, fuel and the purchasing of the necessities required for living have driven inflation to a 40-year high, reminding those who lived through the Carter Administration that inflation can provide opportunities for some to become wealthier than ever while many, especially those Americans living on fixed incomes, become poverty stricken.
Utopian pipe dreams do not feed hungry children and babies who need infant formulas that are painfully unavailable to mothers who are unable to breastfeed.
