Slip-Sliding Away
 "If
(Osama) bin Laden takes over and becomes king of Saudi Arabia, he'd turn
off the tap,'' said Roger Diwan, a managing director of the Petroleum
Finance
Company, a consulting firm in Washington. ''He said at one point that
he wants oil to be $144 a barrel'' -- about six times what it sells for
now.
----------
If you're confused about what he meant by "six times what
it is now" keep in mind this bit of conjecture was printed in the New
York Times on
October
14,
2001.
Yeah, tell me about it.
Please go read the whole story here.
The story is amazingly prescient, positing both the invasion of Iraq
and Israel's waging outright war against the Palestinians for their territory.
The central issue, though, is the price of oil. Osama obviously understood
that the way to cripple the West, and America in particular, was to radically
raise the price of crude oil, and we're currently experiencing its implosive
effects. In addition to the steep jump in the price of consumer goods
we will
likely lose Chrysler,
and possibly even
Ford and GM as well.
So you have to ask yourself - if bin Laden understood this economic
cause-and-effect relationship why
didn't someone in government, like good old "Shotgun" Cheney?
The better question is: What if government officials knew this would
be the result
and didn't care? Perhaps it suits their ultimate purposes to kill the
American auto and airline industries and everything tangential to it.
Considering
the way
the government has
been crossing off the Bill of Rights one amendment at a time since 1982
it's clear the government thinks we've had too much freedom these past
two hundred and thirty-two years. Perhaps this blatant manipulation
of oil prices is just a grand attempt at destroying the last vestige
of
the
middle
class.
It's not that hard to believe, either. In the view of the corporations
that run this country the vast non-affluent rabble that clogs their streets
exist
merely
to be
used
and
discarded.
Pay them as little as possible and work them to death. If decent health
care, higher education or quality food is beyond their means, that's
their problem. And competition? Don't make them laugh. This rise in oil
prices
will
gut the small businessman like a brook trout.
We all dream we can reach a better tomorrow if we elect the right people
to public office, but the corporations build the voting machines, too.
You may think I'm painting a bleak picture, but I'm not. I'm taking a
photograph. And more than just our heads have been cut off.
=mike=
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