History Repeating: What We Need to Know About Rising Gas Prices

Monica O’Brien of Twenty Set wrote an interesting piece on rising gas prices. Instead of foaming at the mouth about Big Government, Big Oil, or The Man, she asked you to look at what rising gas prices say about you.

How are you handling this change? Well I’m going to take her advice and this post is my attempt to shift the curve, not the blame and take a lil’ responsibility for the problem, and hopefully educate and inform. (Monica can I make t-shirts that say that? I’m feeling a trip to Neighborhoodies…)

I think Monica accurately assesses the psychological nature of this conflict. It’s tragic how predictable humans are, and yet we all act like we didn’t see it coming. What am I talking about? Have we learned nothing from The Copper Crisis???

Read this New York Times article from 1901.

Okay, I know you won’t so I’ll just summarize.

In 1901, copper, much like gas today, was being “mismanaged” and “manipulated” by the markets, government, and was in danger of running out. (Sound familiar?) See, copper was experiencing a huge boom as a conductor of electricity. You know how the tech boom in the 2000's saw tons of fiber optic cables being installed? Well, in 1901 the big deal was copper. And because we all thought we couldn’t live without more and more electricity, we all thought it was going to run out and that pandemonium would ensue.

What happened to save us from the terrible plight? Innovation. There are these wonderful people called Scientists, I believe, whose jobs require them to study the properties of all sorts of materials and learn how they interact and how we can use them more efficiently. They learned a way to utilize copper so that instead of huge tubes, they could use fine, delicate wires…and the need for copper use decreased dramatically.

Today, such a notion as running out of copper is laughable when we give away copper pennies, some people I know throw them away! This is not a 180 from the 1901 mentality, it is as if the whole copper nightmare never happened. And I’m going to pull out some Nostradamus-style mad-prophecy skills and predict the fate of oil: it will be the same story.

We are humans. We are the most adaptable species on the planet! Has no one noticed this? We will find a way to reduce or eliminate dependency on oil. We will.

And, wait, it gets better. I have a neat little trick for letting it happen sooner.

But first, watch this YouTube video on How to Write Your Congressman.

Okay, I know you won't, so here's the point:

Write, call, shake, or otherwise encourage your state and federal government representatives to to release the rules and regulations to retro-fit old dinosaur technologies and let companies innovate moving forward. Ask them to stop penalizing companies for EPA or DNR regulations that change on an annual basis which do not reflect the actual needs and functions of businesses. Hint: A company will likely pay a fine before they invest in technology they don't need!

For example, a big difference between automobile and airline companies today is that airlines do not have the same environmental restrictions placed on them by the government. Jet fuel is the only substance that can safely propel you around the world (for now.) But by some miracle, airlines have continued to innovate and create new ways to be efficient without government intervention! Holy crap! Airline manufacturers don't actually need the government to tell them to create more efficient design and technology, because their competition already does it and their customers demand it.

The same is true with automobile companies, but the problem is they run the risk of losing their business to government fees for non-compliance before they run the risk of being out-innovated by another company.

In case you weren't sure how to feel: this is total bullshit, by the way.

But, I'm not blaming the government. I'm blaming myself. For not doing enough to get the word out about how bloated and ineffective such structures are. So, that's going to change with this post, and more to follow!

And if you made it this far down the rant, you'll definitely want to subscribe to Shouting to Quiet the Thunder. I've got more where this came from.