And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that there was a story last week that perfectly describes what usually happens when government intervenes and decides to junk the old supply and demand form of an economy in favor of a wealth distribution, socialist-type system.
Gasoline prices have been going down, right?
Quick aside: The phrase all the major media was using was they had reached “historic lows.” Not so. I had a picture of my Dad standing beside a gas pump at the old “66” station where he worked in the 1930s and the posted gas price was 35 cents a gallon. So it depends on your definition of historic, I guess.
But I digress.
The president, taking note of the lower gas prices, decided to impose a $10 a barrel additional tax on oil, imported or exported. Note: The government just recently approved the sale of American oil to foreign nations in an effort to help equalize the balance of trade. So there goes that.
The president said he would use the money collected from the oil companies to, effectively, put that fuel industry out of business, as he has done with the American coal industry. He would do that by spending the money to prop up wind and solar power. In other words, he would take what used to be money which accrued to investors in oil and gas and give it to sun and wind, thus asking the oil folks to contribute to their own demise.
It reminded me a lot of the earlier story that computer companies on the west coast were finding it much cheaper to hire Asians and Indians than Americans. So they told the Americans they would be let go, but first, in order to earn severance pay and retain pension funds, they would have to train their replacements!
Anyway, oil company executives agreed with the president that Americans were used to higher gasoline prices, and so, to protect their company incomes and investors, they would simply raise the price of gasoline by 26 cents a gallon, since it would still be cheaper than a year ago.
So everything reaches the logical conclusion that middle class drivers will wind up paying the $10 tax with each gallon of gas they buy.
Democrat Bernie Sanders was highly favored to win his New Hampshire primary contest as I write this. He should do well. New Hampshire’s state motto is “live free or die.” The first part is Bernie’s motto as well... free health care, free college education, free food, free rent, etc. to those who qualify. And everybody qualifies except for those who can afford to pay themselves. And so, of course, they also will be taxed into poverty levels.
And that’s the “die” part.