Gas price panic?!?!?! WTF?!?!

I pre-apologize for writing about this topic. I know that is has absolutely nothing to do with what my blog usually talks about, but I already wrote it on my facebook, and I just wanted to get my opinion out... consider it a random blant ;D If you do feel the need to say I'm wrong, though, feel free to =) I love a good debate! Also, if you have anything to add, I'd also love to hear it!

... okay... so everyone is freaking out about gas prices going up... doesn't anyone know that America has extremely low gas prices compared to most of the rest of the developed world?? For example, in Belgium, people pay over $7.00/gal. People in Denmark pay almost $9.00/gal. People in the Netherlands actually PAY $9.00/gal, and people in Turkey pay almost $10.00/gal... Yes, the price of gas seems expensive right now, but maybe the increase in the price of gas is a good thing. We have such bad habits with using excessive amounts of gas. We use it for EVERYTHING! Maybe if the gas becomes much less desirable, then we will FINALLY begin to take things like electric cars and alternative energy more seriously and actually USES THEM more! Maybe we will finally become a bit more self-sufficient and drill our own oil, or make more of our own energy instead of importing it (which costs even more oil and energy in and of itself)

I was talking about this to my father. And he said that if we stop buying up so much oil for Saudi Arabia and other countries, they will be required to lower their prices for oil because they want to make it a more desirable product. This would, in turn, cause the price of gas for ALL of the other countries to lower. This would just make many countries and their people very, VERY happy.

Now, going back to the reasoning behind why gas prices are so high in other countries, it's time to put on your thinking caps and listen up, cause I have a economics lesson for you first off to kind of give you guys some background information that you’ll need to understand this (cause it’s really… complex #.#)

Have you ever wondered why, even though our country is in loads and loads of debt, we have never been bankrupt? Theoretically, our entire economy should have just collapsed a long time ago because we have so many loans and so much debt. The only reason we haven't is because the US is special. America is unique because our currency is known and the ‘world’s reserve currency’. What this means is that the USD “forms the basis of the world’s financial system” so “it is what banks around the world hold in reserve against their loans.” Now, because the USD is our countries currency, we are “the only debtor in the entire world that can legally print U.S. dollars”. We are the “owners” of the most important currency in the business world, today, so we get special privileges, one of them being that if we owe money, we can simply print more money.

Now you are probably wondering how all of that information ties back into world gas prices. Well, “America is the only country in the world that doesn’t have to pay for its imports in a foreign currency.” This is because items, such as gas, can only be bought in USD. “Let’s say you’re a German and you want to buy oil from Saudi Arabia. You can’t just pay for your oil in German Marks (or the new euro currency), because oil is priced in dollars. So you have to buy dollars first, then buy your oil.” This is what happens to the countries mentioned earlier (Denmark, The Netherlands, etc.) They are required to exchange their currency for the USD, which means that the amount of money they are required to pay is higher then what we, as Americans, need to pay. We do not have to exchange our currency.

So we should be extremely happy that our gas prices are as low as they are. We don’t have to deal with half of the issues with buying oil as so many other countries do. We don’t have to exchange currency, or have to worry about not having enough money because we can just make more. We are so snobby when it comes to gas prices, when we should be using all the angry energy to find new ways to get around using oil. And that is my rant for the day =) sorry it’s so long, but I got a hold of all this information and wanted to share it with all of you along with my interpretation/opinion about it ^_^

Thanks for reading it~~~

♪o｟＾∇＾｠o☆ ～珊珊

P.S. All of the quotations are from the research video created by a man named Porter Stansberry. You can find the link to his hour and sixteen minute long video titled 'The End of America' HERE. Please do note, thought, that I just used this video because I found some of the information given in the video to be extremely interesting, and thought provoking... and I am a total nerd child, so this is what I do when I'm bored. Also, I've only watched the first 15 minutes or so, so if there is anything offensive, I'm sorry. VIEW DISCRETION IS ADVISED!!!