I saw a CNN survey last night that asked “Who is to blame for outrageous gas prices?” Amazingly (ok, not really) only 15% of responders said “consumers”. Only 15%. Some responders probably gave their response while talking on their 17th cellphone in the last 3 years (it has more features!!) and adjusting their tri-zone air-conditioning in their 12mpg Suburban. Most responders to the survey blamed big oil, congress, or the ever-popular “anyone but me”. The first step in fixing a problem is admitting you have one. It seems that Americans aren't even close to admitting that our energy-wasteful ways are the real problem. And what's really funny is, gas is still way cheaper here than in Western Europe. So okay, they make a salary and have expenses, and we do too. They somehow live quite nice and have been for all thee years with much higher gas prices. How DO they do it!!! So maybe, just maybe the average American cry-baby needs to take a good self-examination of their personal finances and see if they really need that 12mpg SUV, or if they absolutely have to upgrade that 25 inch TV that works fine to the new 52 inch plasma (need need need, greed greed greed). I think they'll find that with a few adjustments, they can still live better than 95% of the people on Earth AND have plenty leftover for these 'outrageous' gas prices. What a bunch of fiscally irresponsible whiners we are.

And before you all get angray at me for exposing some of the ugly truth, yes, I realize that ALL Americans aren't like this. I have sympathy for truly poor folks who are getting hit extra hard by these gas prices. But the facts are, most Americans are solidly middle class ($50,000 household income). And FAR FAR too many of that majority are fiscally irresponsible (see the $40,000 SUV in their garage). Life is full of choices and too many Americans make the wrong ones in their quest for more/bigger/better/more features. They are now reaping the consequences. And it's only begun.

The difference is, Democrats see the enormous profits being taken by OPEC, speculators, and the oil companies as a redistribution of wealth upwards and away from everyday Americans–a wrong to be righted. It's not a hard sell, politically speaking, even if it realistically offers little more than an opportunity to vent. (Though, if you listened to those analysts speaking to Congress earlier this week, it seems that changing the rules for oil-futures speculation might have an immediate and dramatic impact on gas prices.)

Meanwhile, Bush and McCain think the solutions are to help the oil companies tap into more Black Gold and to starve the federal highway budget with a gas-tax holiday. Feed the corporate beast, starve the government–it's the Republican way. Unfortunately, both these sets of ideas ignore the larger issues of greenhouse-gas emissions and the stupidity of remaining economically dependent on Ahmedinejad, Hugo Chavez and the House of Saud. (Not to mention the Iraqi bumblers we're propping up.)

Analogizing Big Oil and Big Google is not appropriate. Their revenue sources are a bit different, aren't they? I don't remember paying to run my fruitless searches for “gas bargains L.A.” (I'll tell you what, though: if any advertiser wants to slap its logo on my car and pay my gas bills, I'm all ears.)

20% of our oil use is for “stationary” uses, i.e. non-transportation. Electric power generation, heating, running factory equipment, etc. Surely substitutes could be found for that 20%. That would greatly lessen import demand.

But even in the process of weaning ourselves away from oil we need more domestic oil. Government has done little to incentivize domestic supply. I had a terse argument with an Obama fund raiser on the phone the other day when he pushed the windfall profits tax on oil companies. Why single them out? Google is making windfall profits. Why not sic the taxman on them? Beyond that, you tax something, you tend to get less of it. So don't claim the aim is to increase supply.

Then there's the other brilliant Democrat strategy: Sue OPEC. Yeah, that'll bring 'em around. LOL. Liberals. Always a goldmine of unintentional comedy. Even Al Franken was never THAT funny.

It isn't even good politics. I know many Democrats who favor domestic drilling. Oh well, the national polls show this. And yes, the same percentage favor measures to conserve through fuel efficiency standards and biofuels, as do I. (Though corn ethanol is just about the dumbest way to do it.)

Of course, “investment” requires the availability of money, and individuals and corporations in our society have been well-trained to be very…stingy in their willingness to turn their money over to others without immediate reward. That will have to change, at least for awhile. Perhaps Bill Richardson's “Space-Race” model is only half the bargain; for much of the country (and the world), perhaps the other half is going to have to be a World War II-like period of temporary austerity and common sacrifice. Perhaps there's no one who can sell the American people on such an effort–but if there is one person in public life right now who might be able to do it, we're quite fortunate that he's currently running for president.

It's a matter of priorities. Every year that we prioritize finding one more way to drain the oil lizard over the development of alternative energy sources, we make the mountain higher that we'll eventually have to climb. (Sorry for the mixed-cliche metaphor.)

I doubt that the billions around the world who have come to expect motorized transportation and electricity (seven hours a day in Baghdad!! Woo-hoo!!!) will resign themselves to a return to an agrarian society, or even the steam-driven first century of the industrial revolution. Solutions will be found, eventually, unless we destroy ourselves first.

Being it so, the Powers always try to maintain their status quo via any available way, including war, as politically preferrable (shows who's the boss) and cost effective measure (keeps the machine running), which in turn keeps the public docile and manageable. In fact, that's just where we stand today.

As I see it, the situation asks for a sacrifice, not one that in the end cleanly reinstates our current wasteful levels, but a change of paradigm to a lower consumption model if we want -in the long run- to survive. I fear we are not strong enough for that.

Recall a couple weeks ago how, on Tuesday, oil reserves were starting to fill up, US consumption was lagging back as people got more wary of unnecessary fuel usage. The pundits were all calling for normalization in a couple months time. And it appears that those gain were all due to user caution. It worked, or so it appeared. That Friday, with worldwide instability and China's unwavering need to fuel, the price shot up $10 more per barrel in a single day, bringing the overall P.P.B. to a staggering new record. The US did everything it was supposed to and it seemed to be working, but in the end in a global economy, it didn't matter.

This is all to say that as the GOP fights to cling to old ways, and Lord knows former oil man Bush only sees progress in black gold, for the sane ones left it is clear that we're no longer the big dog in this fight, and if we persist in staying on this course, we'll be mauled.

I don't suppose a price spike of $20. P.P.B. will drive that point home either.