Chained to Black Crude

CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG!                           September 6, 2013

Chained to Black Crude

At the age of eighteen I was employed at a gas station pumping gas. The price per gallon was 36 cents. Now at that time my wage was $1.75 an hour. If one compares the ratio of wage to cost of living, we were within reasonable parameters. As the years ticked by the cost of living and the wage ratio spread beyond survivable limits. In one of my businesses back in the ‘70s and early 80s, my staff was paid more than the mainstream working class struggles with today! As we all know the cost of living landed on the moon, so comparatively speaking to back then we are in a quagmire of distress.  

It is understood that economics change but what the government and oil companies fail to understand is the working class is the backbone of their wallets.

First: Our illustrious taxing Government; Cutbacks in essential services, reductions in old age pensions, education, and on and on. Yet for their ‘dedicated’ service to the public, they reward themselves with severance packages and wage increases that dwarf most house hold incomes in the upper middleclass. Understandably, taxes are required to support the infrastructure we depend on, but not to be misdirected and wasted on redundant abuse. I have a list of taxes that is too lengthy to incorporate in this article but it is sickening what we are being forced to choke on. Food for our shelves is taxed in many ways before we set it on our table. Taxes paid by the farmer, the trucking companies and, to make sure no one escapes, we are paying taxes at purchase. There are many thousands of children that aren’t nutritionally healthy because many families can’t balance the cost of living with their crappy incomes.

The barter system to me is great. Our country was established on the barter system of trade by the Hudson Bay Company. If I give you an apple in trade for a potato, I have to pay tax on the apple value you received from me and you pay tax on the potato value.  Again I say taxes are required but we aren’t in medieval times…or are we?

Now; the bane of the business man and everyone else, the price of auto fuel. With the fuel prices supporting the billions in profits by them, we are brutally conned to believe the BS they dribble at us for cost increases. Fuel increases mean that a loaf of bread went from $1.25 to $4.00 plus. Trucking is our lifeline to the conveniences of grocery stores and everything else we purchase. Now consider the billions in oil company profits and we are told that the government taxes are the greatest cost per litre. You do the math.

Then there are the people that say the price of gas should go up to restrict pollution and cars on the road. WAKE UP! Better plan to stop shopping at the stores then.

Because of our current cost of living, most average income people don’t vacation, have a newer car and both parents need to work just to break even. Bankruptcies and business shutdowns are at a point that we are going to face the ‘Dirty 21^st’ century. 

In summary, I am not a sheep and can see clearly beyond the smoke screen, but I am only one person in the flock. After ranting on, I was once asked to run in the political arena and attempt to make change. With all true conscience there is no place for me there. My piece is spoken and even though we live in the best country in the world, we need to reinforce the bridge, before it is burnt behind us.

Please… CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG!

Bryce A Baker

www.bryceabaker.com