Will We All Need A Side Gig As The Price Of Everything Continues To Climb And Supplies Of Everything Continue To Dwindle?

Gas Prices Skyrocketing Nationwide

As prices for a gallon of gas reach all-time highs, they did in one of the nation’s major cities, one such area just recorded the highest average price for a gallon of gas ever recorded in American history. The average price of gas in the San Francisco metro area reached an all-time high of $4.75 a gallon. This broke the previous record set in 2012 according to GasBuddy.com. Does anyone remember what gas prices were just a year ago?

August 2021

Big Oil is not happy with the Biden Administration as the White House pushes for more crude from OPEC and its’ Allies. President of the American Petroleum Institute, Mike Sommers, told CNN Business, “You’d think the first place you would go is to the American producers, rather than OPEC, which literally held this country hostage for decades because they were our top supplier.”

“The irony sure is thick, we’re talking about an administration that really, for the first eight months in office, did nothing but try to restrict American development of oil and gas.”

Mike Sommers-President of the API

Some people say the Whitehouse has little to do with gas prices. Taking a look at his executive actions, on his first day in office Biden immediately moved to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change. He also placed a temporary delay on oil and gas rights in the Arctic and pulled the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline that would have transported Canadian oil sometime after 2023. With all the delays and ceases in the use of oil and gas rights, the Whitehouse may not be the only cause of the rise in gas prices but the policies and added regulations can discourage future investment into domestic energy.

As the Whitehouse put pressure on OPEC to produce more gas as we come out of the pandemic, it’s of not to remember that just before the pandemic, the United States saw its’ first year in which the country achieved true energy independence since 1957. This has been fact-checked by act checker group Snopes. Understanding what that meant is easy. It meant that in 2019, the United States produced more energy than it consumed.

So, if you’re driving to work or worse…for work, then things are getting rougher. It’s impossible to know when the prices may decline as OPEC has refused to boost production to help control the meteoric rise in prices. What may be worse, is the number of transportation issues as a result. Most, if not all of the goods that consumers purchase, are transported at some point in the supply chain by using vehicles that depend on gasoline and oil. As the rise in delivery expenses skyrockets, so too does the final price at the stores.

Supply Chain Disruptions

Good old Covid-19. As Covid-19 spread across the globe in 2020 it resulted in major shutdowns of industries around the planet. While most people were in lockdown there was lower consumerism to accompany the reduced industrial production.

Life returns to normal…slowly. Lockdowns became a thing of yesterday and demand for goods returned to normal. That sudden demand created a skyrocketing effect and supply chains that were disrupted during the global pandemic still suffer from enormous challenges as they struggle to make a come back. Worker shortages have added to the stress of keeping up with supply, leaving most businesses to struggle to meet the demand of a pre-pandemic era. Life in the industrial sector was stalled at the point of manufacture of goods as well as the production of raw materials and key components.

Gridlock continues to build and while we’ve all seen images, it’s something to see to understand.

Inflation and Supply And Demand

Inflation will continue to go through the rough as the law of supply and demand takes its’ stranglehold on the world. Understanding the smallest nuances of economics is for guys like Joe Manchin, Bill Gates, Presidents, and CEOs. We understand the effect it is having on our lives as our leaders fail to see the mistakes they make as mistakes.

It’s a good thing there are so many jobs out there. At the rate we’re going, there’s an economic collapse in front of us that is the likes of something we’ve never seen. Perhaps our ancestors, but not our generation, the generation in front or behind us, have experienced what’s to come if things aren’t reigned in. Until there are enough people ready to take the jobs that are unfillable, companies can’t maintain the labor at a rate to keep up with the demand. Until the Whitehouse eases the regulations, the gas prices will continue to experience an uncertain market that backs them. Until, until, until…meantime we wait for the powers that be to get it right!

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