But, Americans aren’t so dumb after all. We started buying foreign fuel-efficient jobs because they lasted longer and cost less to run. THEN, the automakers decided they had better put some good old American quality back into their cars. Americans started buying more American cars again. Oil companies, aghast that people weren’t buying as much gasoline as before, brought the ‘crisis’ to an end.

Enter the 2000’s, and again another energy crisis. No gasoline rationing this time by the government, but at over $4.00/gallon after a meteoric rise caused the consumer to ration their own fuel. Oil companies were reaping record profits from these artificially inflated prices. Higher fuel means higher goods, higher goods mean less disposable income, hell, it meant families were having to choose to drive or eat. Eating won.

People started looking, again, for more fuel-efficient alternatives and they found them. Now, oil prices are hitting the basement again and oil companies just can’t seem to understand why. They don’t understand why people still aren’t driving like they used to, whey they are not buying as much fuel as they used to, why prices are dropping like a rock. It is because they raped us and we are fighting back.

Americans aren’t stupid. We are strong and we will find a way to survive. If we can’t burn petroleum products, we will burn something – even water.

I do think some good comes out of all this, we are finding greener fuels and using them more efficiently, but the way it happened ruined a lot of good people. It did need to happen, but not as fast as it did. And it was all done artificially. The cost of obtaining the oil did not go up, the cost of refining did not go up, the paychecks of the blue-collar workers did not go up. Only the obscene profits of big oil went up like a gusher.

So, I don’t cry for big oil. They should have saved their sunshine for a rainy day.

Want more info on green energy, check it out at Earth4Energy.

I’m assuming that the reason the national average is still hanging in there is because of the ultra-high prices in the Southeast. If that’s the case, then the average should drop like a rock sometime next week.

Anyway, according to oil-price.net, the price for oil is down to a little less than $80.00/barrel. Of course, the experts who were all doom and gloom about high oil prices are down doom and gloom about them falling and how it will hurt the economy. Um, in case they haven’t noticed, the economy is already in a big hurt…

But, I’m thinking lower gasoline prices, while may be bad for the oil companies (who, by-the-way, raked in BILLIONS of extra profits over the past few years) would be good for the overall economy. Lower fuel prices will encourage those who’ve been staying close to home to travel a bit more. This also means staying in hotels, eating out, and spending money that Americans have been a bit reluctant to spend. It should also mean that all other prices (groceries, dry goods, etc.) that went up because fuel went up should start coming down. But, that probably will be feather-like, too.