I’m all for globalism but not for completely relying on certain countries for specific and strategic products . For example , we and the rest of the world get lots of our semiconductors from Taiwan. If China gets Taiwan , we’re screwed And for the rest of the d&d, they get their drugs from South America and fentanyl from China they want open borders with Mexico so they can make sure they can get their drugs while eating vegan chicken nuggets and listening to Demi Lovato @Jontro
The reason why gas prices are high is because of the free market. We are FINALLY coming out of a pandemic (knock on freaking wood) and OPEC is pricing it's oil around demand for travel increasing. We have the ability to bring costs down by simply driving down demand. Staying at home sucks, and I want a road trip as much as anyone, but it's in my power to do my part to prove future pricing speculation incorrect. Right now the oil CEO's are banking on this demand, and therefore if Springtime demand is much much lower than they are supplying for then there should be an excess come the Summer and prices should plummet. So what you are spending over the normal rate now for basic around the town travel should be offset later on assuming the market comes back down to earth. My dad worked in O&G his entire career, and I learned alot about the nature of how they ramp up production based on speculation, and demand. He's been telling me for months that the industry is going to try and capitalize on a re-opening of the economy and it'll be a good year to look for jobs in oil & gas as they were holding off for two years, and running lean. The good news here on this forum is the unemployed Engineer and plant worker market should be rectified if it isn't already, and Houston is going to have a very good year. Our city of Houston does really well in these conditions even though longterm I think most people even here in Houston wish we had a much cleaner and diversified local economy.
