According to the Republicans, the solution to today's oil crisis is the "free market". However, the concept of a free market is a device to increase the supply of goods, not a religion. The reason we use a free market as our main economic system (note: *MAIN* economic system, not *ONLY* economic system, there are large parts of our economy which are government-controlled, such as military, police protection, etc.) is because it increases the supply of goods and services in our economy and allows us to live a better life. The free market is a means to an end -- a better life for more people -- rather than an end in and of itself. The free market is a mechanism for achieving a goal, not a religion. Where it doesn't work, something else has to be done.
If a) a resource has a fixed supply, and b) said resource is necessary for life, then a free market does not work. That is because a) a free market works only where shortages and resulting price hikes can cause an increase in production, and b) a free market only works when people do not die as a result of it. If you do a Marie Antoinette and say "let them eat cake", well, people do not voluntarily die just because you worship dat free market religion. They will riot and find you and cut your head off. Just ask Marie Antoinette's decapitated head. If you can find it wherever it rolled off to.
Oil, at the moment, is close to falling off the edge insofar as a free market being able to work for oil. They ain't makin' no more of dat dere dinosaur juice -- I mean, have you seen any dinosaurs lately?! Meaning that the increase in production that higher prices should cause, is not happening. The question is what to do about it, and that's a question that I don't have an easy answer to other than buying a 60mpg motorcycle to commute to work on rather than a 15mpg Jeep, and living close to light rail so that if even 60mpg becomes too expensive I can always walk to the light rail station and take the train. But this isn't an option for, e.g., truckers, or for farmers who need gas-hog pickup trucks to haul goods from town to their farm, or people who don't live in communities with working mass transit, or... well, lots of people. Why is my neck itching?!
-- Badtux the Oil Penguin
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