As we all know very well by now, at the heart of every world problem is America. The topic of the day "Its America's fault that OPEC has had to raise the prices of oil." According to various sources, OPEC reached a somewhat informal agreement today that they will not reduce the amount of oil that is being produced. Now if you were to read that statement without reading the rest of said articles, you might walk away from the computer feeling at ease. Perhpas you would say to yourself, 'OPEC was going to reduce the amount of oil on the market! That is a bad thing! I am so glad they made this decison!' However OPEC'S decsion is a BAD one. Basically during their talks today they refused to lower the price of oil, decided that it is the US's fault that the price of oil is higher than it was in the past, stated they think that oil prices are stable, oh and tough luck America!
Businessweek reports that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said, "OPEC has worked to give stability to oil prices even as the U.S. moved to invade Iraq and threatens Iran and Venezuela. The Venezuelan leader demanded that the U.S. pull its troops out of Iraq and 'end the threats against the Iranian people.' " "Chavez, a harsh and frequent critic of Washington, called U.S. President George W. Bush a "threat to the world" and predicted his U.S. "empire" would end within a century. . . .We gave away oil for a century to quench the thirst of developed countries." "Iran's oil minister, Sayed Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh, blamed the United States earlier for sky-high world prices, saying U.S. threats against Iran's nuclear program are driving a wave of speculation keeping petroleum above US$70 (euro54) a barrel."
First things first. I am not surprised that OPEC believes the United States is EVIL. They are automatically going to take Iran's side just as it should be known that we almost always take Great Britain's side. But to say that they practically gave oil away to to us in the past is rediculous. Wow. Last time I checked sure oil prices were cheaper in the ninties than they are now, but I would not define $1.80 a gallon as a handout. Seondly, I have no idea what bush jr. has to do with the fact that oil in the past was' handed out to us' and now we are going to pay our dues. Maybe they like Clinton etc . . . so they decided to have mercy on us, but Bush Jr. has angered them to the point of retribution? I am not quite sure . . . I am going to chose to ignore the fact that Chavez called America Bush's empire- because that is another blog in and of itself- and skip direcly to the part wher Iran states that oil prices have skyrocketed due to the attacks we have been making on their country. That argument holds NO WATER! Even before we decided that Iran had a nuclear arms problem prices skyrocketed. That is an absurd excuse.
So, to sum everything up, at least the important facts and real arguments, at the end of OPEC's meeting today they voted to do NOTHING about the instabilty of the oil economy until their next meeting- September. So, we can look forward to keeping our oh so delightful gas prices for at least another three months!
Well, young whippersnapper, I remember a time in the olden days when gas was but 5 cent ta' gallon. That sounds like something my grandparents or even my parents would say. My parents have admitted that gas prices were a lot cheaper in the mid-20th century than they are now. My mom once told me that gas was once as cheap as stamps, about 39 to 40 cents a gallon. This was way back in the day, maybe even as early as 1960. (Yes, I've just revealed that my parents are old) But, if history teaches us anything, (and it does), the price of oil increases as the cost of living increases. When a Toyota Camry costs $50,000, then oil prices will adjust to that increase and be unearthly. And one more thing, after World War 1, most of the Middle Eastern countries became protectorates of the imperialistic Allied Powers. The countries of Great Britain, France, and Russia decided to break up the crumbling Ottoman Empire and turn the different Muslim countries into protectorates. They began to move in their teams of excavators, think back to "Indiana Jones" and "Pitfall Harry", and controlled the oil production and technologies. With this much control on the countries, the imperialists were basically being given the oil, and were recieving most of the profits from refining it. So, the countries who are providing the oil have every right to be mad, just not at the U.S. But every country that industrialized during the 20th century and began to use oil to power machinery and mechanical tools. These countries, with their wasteful spending and "era of good feelings" type attitudes, squandered a lot of the world's supply of oil in less than a century. Oil wasn't even refined in the 18th and most of the 19th centuries; So just think of how much oil we, humans, have used up in one century. For shame, for shame.
-Oz
The number 1 exporter of gas into the US is Canada. As far as I'm aware, they aren't an OPEC nation.
--Mike
actually OPEC cut production by a million, less than a week ago<3 Tina