I’m tired of Americans complaining about gasoline prices. You reap what you sow. Did you really believe that 5% of the world’s population could consume 25% of the world’s energy indefinitely? Did you believe that oil supplies were unlimited, or that no other countries in the world would begin to industrialize? Americans buy huge, gas-guzzling vehicles and use ridiculous amounts of plastic packaging. It was bound to catch up with us.

I’m no fan of the energy industry, but it’s time to stop blaming oil companies, or at the very least it’s time to stop putting 100% of the blame on them. If you want to talk about being ripped off, you should be more concerned with the 25% profit margins of the banking and pharmaceutical industries than the 10% margins the oil industry averages.

Moreover, it’s a supply and demand issue. If gasoline is outrageously priced, don’t buy it, or buy less of it. When study after study shows no appreciable decline in gasoline consumption even at these “high” price levels, how exactly do Americans expect prices to drop? I won’t dismiss the possibility of Enron-style market manipulation (great documentary), but right there’s so much scrutiny on that sector (you know things are crazy when Republicans are considering windfall profit taxes) that these companies would be insane to try anything that foolish.

Bottom line: reduce consumption. Employ some strategies to reduce fuel consumption in your current vehicle, and in the future make more intelligent decisions about fuel economy when purchasing a car. Little things like not slamming the accelerator when the light turns green, only to have to slam the brakes at the next light can help. Besides annoying people like me by tailgating more steady drivers, you’re wasting fuel.

I would love to see a Chinese-style consumption tax. It’s far too easy to overuse petroleum-derived products when you can buy a thousand plastic forks for under $20. Tax plastic utensils 100%. Tax SUVs 20%. I’ve been wanting gasoline to be taxed higher for a long time now, though that’d be politically impossible at this point.

The price of oil-derived goods will go up one way or another. By taxing the crap out of this stuff, we can reduce consumption, drive down demand, and lower the wholesale price. Better, I say, to have it go towards medical research or education than the coffers of oil companies.