Of course, I didn't know there was a name for it, back then...price gouging.

48 hours ago

I had been listening to the news about the possibility that they were going to raise the price of gasoline because of the impact Hurricane Rita posed to the oil refineries in southeast Texas. Now, mind you, the hurricane had not actually hit the refineries, they had just been shutdown. I mean, they were going to be able to reopen in like a week, 10 days. It's not like they were blown into Mexico or anything. Yet, there was an immediate increase in the price of a gallon of gas. What's worse, the press, as they normally do, gave everyone connected to the oil industry (from oil jobber to oil executive) a free pass. The press gave this pronouncement to the public like it was their god-given duty to lecture us that bad times were naturally ahead of us. Did the news agencies attack, with the venom they are so capable of spewing, the oil companies? Did not one journalistic juggernaught take up the cause and question why the price of gas should increase so quickly? No, they just announced it like it was the most natural thing to say.

"Oh, there is a perceived threat to our oil. Mr. and Mrs. America, stand by for an increase in the price of petrol at the pump. You poor schleps who own SUVs, let's see how you like paying $150 to fill your tanks. The price increase is expected to impact the poor the hardest."

Duh.

When it should read:

"Now wait just a damn minute here, Mr. and Mr. Oil Industry Person! Do you take us for fools?? The operative word here is PERCEIVED! Helloo? It hasn't even happened, yet, and you're raising the price? And just why are you raising the price? Is it because it is NOW costing you $such and $such to make that gallon of gasoline? No, you say? No? Because the gasoline that is already in the tanks at the gas stations have already been paid for with the last increase in the price? Because before a drop of the oil impacted by the PERCEIVED threat is even spilled, it will be a year from now? Then why, in Heaven's name, did the price of a gallon of gas increase?"

Well, I suppose it's because they can. Who's going to oppose them? We are all victims of our own success (more on that in a moment). We are hostages to the few who hold the gun. They can produce oil or not produce oil at their discretion. They can perceive there's going to be a shortage or just plain create one. Whatever it takes, they can do it. And nobody is standing in their way. I've seen it over and over again. In my lifetime I have seen the price go from $.22 a gallon to the present.

Of course, it can be argued that this is just the price of doing business in such a wonderful economy. We here in the United States enjoy the fruits of our labors, big houses, big cars, big families, big bodies. If this is success, then we have attained it. We've had to pay the price for all of this - out of control spending and debt, health issues, mortgages, domestic violence. As Pogo said once, "We has met the enemy and it is us!" But on the whole, we are pretty lucky people.

Then along come the automobile and oil industry people. These are the real power people. These are the fat cats that revel in the power they exert. Are they just that much more successful in their business than I am? Well, if I had the breaks and the market they enjoy, I suppose I would be right up there with them. They have control of the government and they have control of the press. They have us as a captured audience, as it were. We cannot escape their grasp.

When did it happen that they took control of us? It must have been while we were concentrating on succeeding. They subtly and sometimes, not so subtly, kept increasing the price of gas. Most times, they'd blame it on OPEC, even though I hear we only get about 3% of our oil from them. But since OPEC are part of the evil axis of power, it's the price of doing business with the enemy.

Having said all this, let me get back to why I was so upset and yakking to my buddies. Why, I asked, does the price of gas jump immediately on just a rumor or an increase of a couple dollars a barrel of crude, but when the rumor is proven false or the price of that barrel of oil plummets back down below what it was before they raise the price of gas, does the price of gas only slowly decrease? So slowly, that, before it reaches the original price, some other calamity hits and bang! the price is inflated again.

What adds salt to the preverbal wound is, no one will stick up for me. Instead, I am chastised because I am too stupid to understand basic Economics as taught to second graders. You know...Supply and Demand...as the supply dwindles and the demand rises, you have to expect to pay more. And why? Well, because thems thats gots is in business to make a profit and by Hell or Damnation, they are going to get every freaking penny they can. Okay, I understand. But, I ask, is there not some self-imposed limit that the those thats gots will reach before their very souls remind them that someday they are going to have to face their God and explain to Him why they were so greedy?

"Wasn't the house in the burbs enough?"
"No, Exhalted One. I absolutely couldn't survive without that house on the beach?"
"I see. What about your car? Wasn't the Escalade enough?"
"Oh no, dear Lord of all that's Expensive. I couldn't face my child if she had to drive to school in anything, but the Hummer H3."
"Hmmm."

I mean, I can appreciate my being on the wrong end of the gas nozzle. It was my choice to pursue my own dream. And I understand that business is business and that economics is economics, but c'mon. If, by raising the price on a gallon of gas 10 cents nets them $100,000, but allows me to still manage to find enough in my couch to pay for it, okay. Why do they have to raise the price by 50 cents? Damn it, Manny. You're not listening, it's pure economics. That's what my friends said. That's what the newspapers and smarmy anchor people told me. I just think it's wrong.

I actually felt a little stupid because by the look of things, I was the only one that felt like I did. One friend even took the time to attempt to educate me by sending me an email. There was a link in the email that took me to the "TooIgnorantToBeStupid.com website and on this page, some self-imposed expert analyst in the financial markets explained in layman terms why the oil companies were not committing a crime. This guy said it was like me owning a house. He said, in his condescending way, that "...you didn't mind when the housing market caused your house to appreciate 110% in the past 2 years, why then are you complaining when the oil company's increase was only 80%? Well, let's see. Because my little 2 bedroom home went from $100,000 to $220,000 and it took 2 years. The oil companies went from $100 billion to $180 billion in 2 hours. And besides, I can always buy a cheaper house...they're out there. I can rent. I can make do. But I cannot buy cheaper gasoline. With the way our local and federal governments refuse to encourage mass transportation (wait, I forgot, who has the real power?), I have to take my car to work. I work such ridiculous hours that it is impossible to carpool and why is it that I have to be reduced to spending my morning and afternoon commutes with people I don't even like? There were some very glaring differences between what this expert was spouting and what my poor, uneducated logic was telling me.

Then, as if to pull me back from the brink of total silence, I heard that there were others out there that were concerned about the prices and how they were going up too quickly. And then someone mentioned the words, "price gouging". Increasing the price way above what would be considered appropriate. Now, I don't see myself in the camp that says the oil companies should have their assets frozen and that Exxon and Shell have no right to raise the price of their product. And I don't subscribe to the notion we should let the government step in and start mandating how much a company can charge for their product. The nightmares these thoughts generate are way too frightening to even comprehend. No, I was just wondering why these companies felt they were obligated to meet some economic model by raising the price of their product, a product that I absolutely have to have, to a price so high that my very way of life is impacted in a negative way. Do they not see what they do? Are they so absorbed with themselves and their need to turn a buck that they cannot see they are hurting people?

Look, I'm not talking about denying me the joy of 4 wheelin' in the desert, or driving my Hummer at breakneck speeds down the highway, or flying around in my private jet. Heck, I think the people who can afford to do those things ain't complaining! It's the regular Joe (or Manny) like me. The guy who has to get up tomorrow and check his fuel gauge, count the coins in the ashtray, calculate the MPG of my 1993 Nissan pickup, determine whether I can eck out one more trip to work and back before having to face paying $35.00 to fill the tank. Okay, I could do the math again and only put 10 bucks in today and another 10 day after tomorrow. You catch my drift. It would be better that I only pay $30.00 to fill the tank. Mr. Exxon and Mr. Mobile would still be able to go 4 wheelin' in the desert before driving down to the airport in their Hummer to catch their private jet to NYC for dinner with Mr. Arco.

Me? I'd be able to pick up 10 tacos from Jack in the Box on the way home.

What do you think of when you hear the word "Hawaii"? Do you think of a far-off place with palm trees, Waikiki Beach, sun, surf, and hula dancers?

Or do you think of inflation, traffic, welfare, traffic, tourists, traffic, crime, traffic, deceit, traffic, anger...well, you get the message.

What Hawaii am I talking about? I'm talking about the Hawaii of 2005, while you're thinking of the Hawaii of 1950.

The story actually begins in the Hawaii of 1893. That's when a group of American (remember, this was before Hawaii was a state) businessmen, along with the commodore of a U.S. Navy taskforce, confronted the Queen of the sovereign government of the Islands of Hawaii. The gave her an ultimatum, abdicate her throne, pledge her and her people's allegiance to the United States, or, the U.S. Navy ships in the harbor would open fire.

Tough decision. Well, the long and the short of it was, the Queen did, in fact, abdicate. She believed she would be able to appeal to the Congress of the United States and their President to set things straight. Sometimes life is just a matter of timing and, unfortunately, for an entire race of people, timing was not on their side. America was on the cusp of an administrative change, lobbyists were able apply pressure to their particular candidate, and the entire Hawaiian affair was conveniently pushed off to the side.

The businessmen had won. No, it wasn't without some damage. The ambassador to Hawaii was recalled and fired, the Commander of the Naval detachment was excused from service, and there was a lot of talk of reprisals against those businessmen. But talk was about all that happened and before long, Hawaii was naturally considered part of United States property. The Queen was placed under house arrest and lived as a prisoner in her own palace, Iolani, for a year. Those businessmen consolidated there hold on the islands and their new-found ownership of the lands and their businesses flourished. They increased the job market...as they needed grunt labor for their fields, and the sugar and pineapple industries increased their pocketbooks.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., the government enjoyed the fact that they had a foothold on the islands, especially when the Japanese started talking expansionism. They sent more and more forces to guard their western flank. How convenient. They got more and more revenue in the form of taxes from the businesses that were growing. The government that was established following the overthrow was taking firmer hold. And all they had to do was continue to ignore the pleas for justice from the people. The attack on Pearl Harbor pretty much pushed the 1893 incident completely off the table. When the battle cry went from Remember the Alamo to Remember Pearl Harbor, the cause of the Hawaiians was all but relegated to the trash bin of history.

Depending on who you read on the details of the between times, you get the idea the U.S. provided some crumbs to the Hawaiian people disguising it as their attempt to "get to the bottom of what happened and set things right." The Department of Interior set aside some land that would figure in the reparations they promised would happen. Of course the prime land, those around Pearl Harbor, Kaneohe, and Waipahu, were confiscated for government use...the U.S. Naval Base and Hickam Air Field around Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Marine Corp Air Base in Kaneohe, Wheeler AFB and Schofield Army Base in Waipahu. There were other installations: Ford Island, Bellows Air Field, Barber's Point Naval Air Station, Makapuu Point (radar site), and others. And, most of that land was vertical on the sides of the Koolau's. And, they set up a commission to oversee the land management, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, of which some say were nothing more than an arm of the puppet Hawaiian government.

It's all in the history books...oh, yeah, I forgot, history books are written by the victors. Well, you'd have to be creative to find the facts. But, for a synopsis, you have only to look at President Clinton's speech at the inauguration of the battleship, Missouri, as a war memorial in 1993. Ironically, the 100th anniversary of the overthrow. That speech contained a formal Letter of Apology from the Government of the United States of America to the People of the Hawaiian Islands. It outlines the events that took place and the subsequent actions of the United States over the previous 100 years...and apologized. It stopped short of making some very important statements. For instance, it didn't say they were going to give all the land back. Boy, would that have upset some people. It also didn't indicate that the U.S. recognized the Hawaiians, at the time of the overthrow, were an indigenous peoples. These are key points now being debated in Congress with the Akaka bill and being argued against by some Republican congressman from Oklahoma. If you can imagine, after all the other stuff, this congressman is actually saying the Akaka bill is racist! Unbelievable.

So, where does that leave us? Well, we have seen Hawaii taken over, by force, by the United States. We've witnessed the rise and fall of both sugar and pineapple as the island's number 1 industry. We've seen the shift of American control of business prior to WWII to control of both business and land ownership to the Japanese. The Japanese! They couldn't do it by force, so they did it by the power of the dollar! Had it not been for the collapse of the Japanese economy, Hawaii might have ceded from the Union and become a complete possession of Japan...okay, that's a stretch. In the aftermath, though, ABC stores (that cater primarily to Japanese tourist) are on every corner in Waikiki. They still own some of the major businesses in the Islands. And the next time you walk into a MacDonalds, look at the menu. It is written in English on one side and Japanese on the other. So, maybe another set of islands to the east of their mainland isn't as stupid as it sounds.

And what have the Hawaiians done in all this time. Unfortunately, I have to say, not enough. During those dark days just after the overthrow, the people looked to their Queen, who looked to the government of the U.S. Then, there must have been mass confusion which allowed those businesses that had control to solidify themselves. The people went to work for them and helped them to prosper unbelievably. Publicity painted the people of Hawaii as carefree and happy to be a part of the U.S. and we all fell for it. Pearl Harbor cemented that relationship and the Hawaiians' cause was nearly forgotten. More and more influence from around the world diluted the population until there really weren't anymore pure Hawaiians. Then, in a flare of anger and nationalist pride, some of the remnants of the Hawaiian people rose up. There were groups that represented every conceivable ideology. Some wanted the United States to pick up their toys and go home...period. There were those who conceded that others owned the land and so they claimed the beaches and the water for Hawaiians only. There were those who studied American laws and attempted to use this knowledge to make lawful appeals to Congress. There were those that decided time was too short and the time to act was now and formed a nation of Hawaiian people on their own.

Who will win in the end? Hard to say. We have made some inroads, but, not everyone is going to be happy when it's all said and done. Some Hawaiians will come out of this morally victorious, some will actually even be new owners of property. But, until we can identify who should get what (and the rules are constantly in flux) and figure out when enough is enough, nothing will really change.

Too bad. Well, I'm glad it's America and not Japan. God Bless America.

Well, okay, then. Here I am world! I will state right off the bat that I am a man of many words...some actually make sense, I think. I hope to use my blog to air out my thoughts. I have over half a century of words swimming around aimlessly. I've never done anything like this...putting my thoughts, my very inner self, on a public forum. Kinda spooky. But, you know, sometimes you just have to say *@%^ it! and just take a risk.

So, I may not be the most interesting guy, but then, who truly is?

Of interest to me? Well, as I said, I've been rompin' and stompin' around Mother Earth for over half-a-hundred years. I think that qualifies me to have develop some interests and engender some beliefs that I hope you might want to refute or support. I have a very thick hide, so you can let 'er rip, if you so choose. While I might be given to an obscenity or two here and there, I hope to keep this blog at a mature level of discourse. I don't have a clue as to what proper protocol is for this stuff, so I would appreciate any and all comments and suggestions. I might be old, but I don't quite know everything...yet!

So, let me post my very first blog entry and see where we go from there.