Conservative Friends, Capitalism, and "Getting It" about the Price of Gas

A friend of mine who identifies as conservative said that he is happy the midterm elections are over so we can "work on the economy and inflation." I don't know what he means by that and neither does he. Someone asked him what he meant by his statement and his answer was to "look at gas prices." 

Let's look at gas prices. 

He and I have talked about gas prices before. He understands that the price is mostly based on supply and demand, but that there are other factors, too. His conclusion is that if we increase supply by glutting the market, the prices will drop. What he doesn't know is which company is going to pump enough oil to drop the price of a barrel below its production costs just so he will pay less at the pump. When I asked him if we should pay the oil companies to glut the market with gas so that he would pay less at the pump, he said he hadn't thought about it that way. I told him that we already do that in several different ways. That is partly why we pay less per gallon than most of the world. However, the main reason that gas prices are high is due to price gouging by the companies. 

He says he "gets it," but he doesn't really get it.

Why I Care and You Should, Too

Despite that I am an old man, I have vested interests in the future of this country, not to mention the world and the planet. Those vested interests are my children and grandchildren, and perhaps eventually their children, too. 

I wrote about my frustration discussing conclusions that people my age seem to make in a post titled If You Are Over Forty, We Are Likely Political Enemies. It is my opinion as a progressive voter that people who disregard the existential concerns of young people do not warrant consideration for their selfish concerns.

Population Math, Gravity, and the Political Revolution

I was born in 1958. The world's population hit three billion people in 1960. The world's population is over 7.5 billion today. Based only on those numbers, we can determine that roughly seventy percent of the world's population must be younger than me.

However, every person who was alive when I was born who has since died, which is likely two-thirds or more of the three billion people alive back then, has been replaced by someone who is also younger than me. That means that I am among the oldest one billion people in the world.