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Home of the Panic Attack
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9/13/2005
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Last Wednesday afternoon was yet another testament to the fact that as much as I like to pretend I don't, I do, in fact, live in a city of between 3 and 5 million legally retarded crybabies, and we are collectively governed by a douchebag of staggering proportions.
Fortunately I am only reminded of this when there is an ice storm, power outage, hurricane, or in this case, rumors of a gas shortage that the citizens caused themselves. I got to watch a self-fulfilling prophecy play out before my eyes.
I guess I just thought that more people would have the capacity to think logically enough to realize that even if everything was operating 100% smoothly and every gas station in Atlanta was filled to capacity, THERE STILL WOULDN'T BE ENOUGH FUEL FOR EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD IN THE CITY TO FILL UP EVERY VEHICLE AND CONTAINER THEY OWN.
Which is the main reason I loved seeing artificially inflated $5 a gallon gas prices, and I hope the gas station owners and oil companies got rich off of the ignorance of the masses. I would have loved it if the governor had kept his mouth shut and let the market dictate how many people really needed to top off all four of the family cars, the lawnmower, and the leaf blower.
Instead, he declared a state of emergency, forcing store owners to freeze prices. When you aren't talking about a shortage of something like baby formula, this is a horrible thing to do (and even in the case of baby formula, higher prices ensure more people get what they need)- not only for the painfully obvious supply/demand/scarce commodity/distribution of wealth reasons upon which a free market depends, but because people who are so reactionary as to fly into a state of panic and start crowding gas stations and blocking roads NEED to feel as stupid as possible the next morning when they realize they bought $1000 worth of fuel last night that is now worth $600.
Yes, there were many accounts of people who went to Home Depot and bought dozens of gas cans so they'd have their fuel supply for Armageddon, and I saw with my own eyes people bringing their boats and RV's in to gas them up. Do you think maybe there would have been gas for other people if the prices were $10 a gallon instead of $4?
The correct answer is yes.
It is actually scary to think that a mere rumor of the outside possibility of a fuel shortage could cause adult human beings to react en masse in such a way. Fuel is neato and we all like to drive our cars, but let's assume we had to cut down on how much we drive for a few weeks. People would have to use public transportation, carpool, telecommute, or *gasp* get off their dead asses and actually walk somewhere.
I know, it would be like Mad Max up in here with people being forced to interact with one another and get exercise and stuff. Oh the horror.
It worries me to think what people would do if we thought we were going to run out of something that was actually necessary, like food or clean water. Think about that one the next time you go buy four more generators and 10,000 gallons of bottled water because you heard it might snow this winter. You aren't reacting to a problem, you are causing it.
 Dusty
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posted by Dusty at 10:00 PM |
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16 Comments:
Cheers :-)
-H
KenVille
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