Ultra-Grand Theft

a.k.a. The Rich Get Richer, And The Poor Get Hosed

Hello again!

This will hopefully be my last "rant" entry for a while, maybe actually start posting some useful information.

So, let's jump right in.

My first beef is with the petroleum industry. I know more about this industry than my education would suggest, since both of my parents have worked in the petrol industry for many years. Let me be recorded as saying, right now, that the gas prices seen nation (and even world) wide are absolute bunk. In the US in particular, the prices being placed on a gallon of fuel (gasoline, Diesel 1, Diesel 2, E-85, etc) are 100% controlled by the petrol consortium. Here's some startling facts and figures (please note, I take no responsibility for absolute veracity of my data, as most is at least a few years old). With OPEC nations 'making the rules' as far as the price of a barrel of crude, where do you believe that the majority of the United States' crude oil comes from? The Middle East? Wow. Good try, but completely wrong. Almost 80% of the United States' crude oil comes from odd places like Canada, South America, and deep-ocean drilling off our own shores. Less than 10% of our oil comes from the Middle East, and the majority of that portion comes from places like Kuwait and Israel. Hmm... So why are we still listening to OPEC? Damn good question. There's some UN legislation squirreled away somewhere that says that OPEC is the final authority. Why should the US and her allies be the only ones to follow UN conventions, when places like North Korea openly insult the UN? Meh, I guess only because if we flouted the UN, we'd be no better than the pocket dictators of Africa, the Middle East, and certain parts of Asia. It royally sucks to be 'the good guys'. BUT, coming back to the price of petrol... Why is it, when the price per barrel (ppb) of crude was as low as it's been for 35 years (about a year ago), the price of a gallon of fuel was reaching epic heights? HA! This one is a fantastic bit of sleight-of-hand if I've ever seen one. Check this out... The fuel-processing companies (Exxon-Mobil, BP-Amoco, Royal Dutch Shell, etc) were absolutely out of their minds, whining 'our refineries in Louisiana, they were all destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and we need to fund rebuilding' etc etc etc, you all remember that, yes? OK. Complete and utter horseturds. Here's another interesting statistic for you... in 2000 (I believe, I'll check the date), the US EPA passed legislation intended to lower 'greenhouse gas emissions' from oil refineries, which had the following effect: some 50% of the oil refineries in the United States either shut down completely, or slowed down production (emissions are calculated as a per-year total, so if emissions had to go down 50%, the same equipment could only run 50% of the time). Since that legislation passed, NOT A SINGLE US OIL REFINERY HAS BEEN BROUGHT INTO COMPLIANCE. Compliance being the ability to run a particular refining process at 100% capacity. In this legislation, new safety measures were to be implemented, and environmental impact abatement measures were to be put into place (i.e. lining spill-drains, improving integrity of holding tanks and processing equipment, all kinds of measures of that nature). Your corner gas station has complied, but NOT A SINGLE REFINERY HAS. Why not? Because, for the oil companies, it's much easier to sit back, wring their hands, and point fingers at the government... something to the effect of 'the EPA handicapped our productivity, and we're trying to pick up enough extra revenue and production to be able to shut down a plant, but it's a Catch-22!' Whine whine, complain complain. Here's the real story... the processors are looking for an incentive package from the government, basically 'shut-up money'. They're looking to have our tax dollars pay for the retrofitting of their plants, so that they can make yet more money off of us.
So here's the short form:
High gas prices = low efficiency plants + EPA restrictions + Processor hand-wringing
It's like the petrol company executives have forgotten that they live here too, and if all their neighbors go broke trying to buy gas, it hurts everyone. I have some ideas about how to hit the petrol companies where it hurts, please see 'Nuclear cars and other frivolities'

My second beef for this entry is the Great and Powerful Media Machine. This encompasses movies, music, print media (books and magazines) and especially Web publishing. Sheesh. What a gigantic mess. Since the advent of the recordable 8-track in the mid-70's, music 'piracy' has existed. Then we had the dual-deck VCR in the 80's, and comgratulations, the video media was no longer sacred (this is, of course, discounting sneaky post-production folks that used the studios' own equipment to reproduce media for personal gain). Then again in the mid-90's, CD-R's broke the previously 'uncopyable' CD format. It's all kinda gone downhill since then, with the widespread acceptance of the Internet, we no longer need to physically exchange media, now it's encoded in a bunch of 0's and 1's, sent at high speeds over copper and fiber lines across the street and around the world.
Now, realizing how widespread this 'piracy' is, let's look at the other side of the coin... 1970, a record was a few dollars, if that. 8-tracks and early tapes retailed at $3-$5 in 1985. In 1995, a 'new' CD cost ~$13. Now, most CD's retail at $16-$25, and you can 'buy' a digital copy of your favorite tracks for an oh-so-reasonable $1.50 PER TRACK! FOR A DIGITAL COPY! Holy SHIT! Assuming 12 tracks on an average CD, that's STILL $20, and you don't even have a REAL CD! Not to mention, music and movie production studios have gotten ever-more-aggressive with protective 'software' to prevent the copying and redistribution of their material. There was a lawsuit against one of the major music studios recently, accusing them of using destructive methods to protect their 'intellectual property'. Basically, the software embedded in the CD, if the software detected that it was being copied, it would create a fatal feedback loop in the computer's processor, causing, at the least, a reboot situation, and at worst, it had been known to literally fry computer components (processors, CD drives, etc).
Now, my beef is that the media producers around the country are, like everyone else, getting greedy. They spend record amounts on production, whether it's exotic locations, the 'best and brightest' in CG effects, the best equipment, not to mention that actors and actresses now are the highest-paid in the history of the industry as are the people working behind the camera or microphone. Watch Entertainment Tonight some Tuesday or Wendsday. New movies, even for all their production costs, are bringing in the highest opening-weekend revenues of any time period EVER. Seems like every movie that comes out during the summer is 'the biggest box-office hit EVER!!!!!!!!!!!11111" Record earnings of over half a BILLION dollars in a single weekend are not uncommon anymore. But with all this, it's still not enough. Rather than blithely ignoring the 'criminal fringe' of folks that make copies of movies or music FOR PERSONAL USE (I make a HUGE distinction between those that download for themselves versus people that do it for money), movie studios and music promoters are cracking down HARD, the most focused anti-piracy push in the history of mass-distributed media. WTF guys? The economy is the worst it's been since the 1920's, and NOW is the time that you choose to go berzerk over what generally amounts to pennies on the dollar? It's like everyone, from businesses to the government, is SQUEEEEEEEZING the little guy from all directions. Prices have never been higher, working hours have never been longer, and skilled wages have made a drastic and disturbing reversal, so it's almost better to work overtime at an unskilled job than to take a 40-hour skilled trade (based on non-union rates).

Until Next Time!