Social Engineering Through Gas Pricing

A couple days ago, I posted on my Facebook page some comments about gas prices and how government officials initially say one thing (want higher gas prices) and then, ultimately, say something else during an election year (want lower gas prices.)

http://www.facebook.com/people/Peter-T-Young/1332665638 

The gist of the piece dealt with prices – some say prices are getting too high.

I was shocked to read that others believe we “NEED” to raise prices, “to force us to drive less & carpool & ride public transit & bicycle more...” or “the only way we will look for alternatives is if gas gets too expensive.”

Huh?

Sorry, we are not lab rats in need of social engineering.  We are humans with free will and a brain to decide between right and wrong.

While I agree price can cause pause in purchasing, are we so weak individually and collectively that we cannot restrain our use of the car and gasoline?

In addition, the suggestion that simply raising the price of gas is the answer to our use of the automobile ignores secondary ramifications of this price fixing.

Stuff we buy gets delivered to the stores selling it.

When we increase the cost of doing business for those delivery folks, prices on the items they deliver will also automatically rise.

Or, are we expecting the delivery folks to suck it up and cover the cost, putting their businesses in jeopardy?

If we simply raise gas prices (without affecting the cost to produce it,) who gets the financial windfall?

People complain the oil companies are already gouging us and making too much.  Are we suggesting they get these added profits?

I suspect not.  In fact, I suspect people believe it should go to the government.  But why them?

What logical reason is there for the government to benefit from this social engineering?

We already have enough examples of government waste to convince us they are the wrong group to receive this premium.

Sorry, I don’t buy the idea that we need government to artificially raise prices to a point that will cause us to end up doing what we already know is the right thing to do.

Likewise, I do not agree that government deserves a financial windfall (at the expense of all of us.)

If you feel strongly enough that you are driving too much and wasting gas, then take some personal responsibility and buy a hybrid, drive less, ride a bike, take the bus, car pool or any of the multitude of options available to you.

If you know of others wasting gas, talk to them and inform and encourage them to be more responsible.

Please don’t ask to raise my prices because you and others can’t control yourselves and you want government to take control of your actions.

Summer Jobs

When we were old enough, we were expected to get a job during summer vacations (in our younger years we went to various summer camps – I’ll talk about that, later.)

In addition to getting a job, we paid “rent” to our parents.  We had the use of a car and usually ate at home.  It wasn’t that they needed the money (however, feeding growing children does put a drain on a family budget – and it reinforced a valuable lesson.)

The “rent” was based on how much we earned; we generally paid $75 to $100 per month over the 3-month summer.  It taught us the value of money and reminded us that stuff isn’t free.

One summer while in Kona, a friend from California stayed with us – we looked for jobs with similar schedules.  We both got busboy jobs at the Kona Inn (it was still an operating hotel, back then – it’s now a shopping mall.)

Interisland Resorts gave us great training on customer service, table protocol, work ethic and responsibilities of work.

However, that job wasn’t enough to keep us going financially, so we continued to look for additional work.  Nothing else was available – until we came up with a brainchild idea of being bellmen at the Kalanikai.

At that time, Kaliko Chun and her family owned and operated it as an apartment/hotel (it’s now an expanded condo project.)

One of the challenges with our idea was that Kalanikai did not have bellmen and had no intention of creating the job description.

Undeterred with this, we offered to work for free and would only get paid through tips.  All we asked was that they let us know when the groups of guests were scheduled to come in, so we could work our Kona Inn schedule around that.

We created our own “uniforms”; actually, my mother sewed us matching aloha shirts.

It worked out great, we got added work (and spending money,) Kalanikai was able to better service their customers and guests did not have to lug their bags up to the second floor (with no elevators.)  (I wonder if Kaliko remembers this – I’ll ask her the next time I see her.)

The over-arching lessons of these experiences was identifying needs and finding solutions to fill them, learning responsible work ethic and recognizing that things in life aren't free.

Of course the best part of the day, after working hard, was going down to Ocean View Inn for a chopped steak plate with three scoops of rice.

The image shows the Kona Inn as it used to be back then.  It was a great place to work and seeing it always brings back good memories.