The steadily increasing cost of fuel over the past few weeks has been an issue of contention for many Americans. In many West Virginia areas, gas prices have exploded to over $4 a gallon, marking the first crossing of this threshold since the Bush administration in 2008.
Much of the culpability for these dramatic increases in price has been attributed to the Russia/Ukraine conflict which has been making headlines in recent weeks. While international tensions have long been a known influencer in the movement of the economic needle, the current catastrophe faced by working people in regard to maintaining the bare minimum predates the current headline-usurping skirmish by a significant margin.
The fight for lower and middle income households to be able to maintain even relatively comfortable living situations has been mostly one-sided, and has stretched on for decades. In times of conflict, economic uncertainty, and drastic change in our country, it has always been the understanding that the powers that be – whether that be corporations like Amazon, or the US government itself – must protect themselves to keep the system running as expected.
In order to make this work, it is inevitably left to the consumer and the working American to foot the bill in the form of increased prices, utility rates, or general inflation.
Things changed in all facets of life in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced Americans to adapt in ways they never expected to. Preventative measures concerning the virus became, and remain, a hot-button issue. Many employers closed up shop altogether, with a number of Americans briefly receiving stimulus checks to discourage public interaction.
This is America, however, and every second not spent working ourselves into a collective early grave is obviously cause for hysterics in tending to our perpetual economic panic. It was at this point the mixed messaging of “you must stay home to keep others safe” and “you must get back to work to keep the economy going” began – a catch 22 in which, no matter which path one chose, they now conveniently fit the newly established metrics to be defined as either reckless or lazy.
It stands to reason that any good, engaged citizen might fancy themselves at least partially responsible for the state of their country. But at what point does anyone aside from regular, working folks assume any of that responsibility? Are there not a litany of individuals that we pay generously to be able make these decisions and effectively handle these situations?
How is it that regular people continue to be expected to endure the personal, professional, mental, and financial strain for issues that, quite frankly, are well above our pay grade? How have things become so tight as a result of the pandemic that basic necessities such as gas and groceries have essentially become unaffordable, while CEOs have averaged a 20% increase in salary since 2020?
Now we find ourselves approaching the halfway point of 2022. Gas costs over $4 a gallon, and Covid-19 has become a sort of unwelcome house guest that we more or less just try to collectively ignore. We can’t get the elephant out of the room, so we’ve started putting our coats and hats on it and calling that a win.
Another revelation of the lockdown era of the Covid-19 pandemic has been how truly practical the idea of working remotely is. Of course, micromanagement becomes increasingly difficult over increased distances, and the entities paying for access to office locations would certainly rather have these venues filled with profit-expanding pencil-pushers than with no one at all.
So, even during a time when it can cost every bit of $50 to gas up a small, 4-cylinder car, workers are obliged to partake in the capitalistic theater of dutifully tending to abstract concepts that realistically have little to no bearing on their own situations.
The American mantra has always been “work hard for the life you want,” which in theory, is a solid concept. But society has become so enamoured with the idea of appearing to work hard, that it has ceased to matter whether that work is actually accomplishing anything, or whether there may be a more effective way to be doing it.
It has become an issue of clocking the hours, of filling the role of the warm body. So long as the gears keep turning, we pay little mind to what end they’re actually turning. So long as we are comfortable inhabiting the role of cogs in the system, those manipulating the system will of course make that system – and the work being done by us to maintain the system – more beneficial to themselves.
While consumers remain complacent, the costs of gasoline, food, electricity, entertainment, and everything in between will continue to rise until users are quite literally killing themselves just for the privilege of living.
But until such a time that the common man has any legitimate bargaining power of which to speak, we’ll continue lining up to sell off precious days of our dwindling lifespans to ensure our kids don’t freeze to death overnight. Thank goodness the economy is doing so well though, right?