Your $1.70 Involuntary Tithe...

Those who wish to do so will often tithe a portion of their earnings in support of an organization.  

It's often ten percent, but can be any amount.  Whether to a church, or to an organization, or even one of those $11 a month deals.  Those are voluntary tithes.

And I emphasise, "voluntary."

But I'm not the first guy who's figured out we're being screwed every time we fill up our cars at the gas station.  And it costs more to fill up in some places than in others.  And we who live in California are in the "more" category.  So I thought I'd cogitate on the subject with you a bit.

Those a whole lot smarter than me have tried to quantify how much extra it costs the average citizen to live in the now-Tarnished State of California.  I have a possible answer.

There have been various and sundry measures and gauges and metrics to make that comparison in the past.  One of my favorites is one I invented.  I called it "The U-Haul Effect."  That'd be the difference in rental rates outbound versus inbound.  In other words, who wants to come here versus who wants to run like a bandit.  

I came up with that one about 15 years ago (I am a graduate economist, after all!).  To all who have used it, you're welcome.  As an update, the demand is so great, U-Haul is currently paying people to drive their equipment to California since most of theirs is rented and gone.  

I now have another one.  I watched "OPLive" on the Reelz network over the weekend.  It's a show about cops chasing bad guys and catching DUI's in 8 different cities.  Pretty good action and nobody gets pistol whipped.  You'd like it.  But to the point: one of the scenes was set at a Circle K gas station in beautiful South Carolina.  In the background was a humungous sign advertising regular unleaded gas at $3.19 a gallon.  Let me repeat.  $3.19 for a glorious gallon.  And just prior to watching that episode I'd driven past a local gas station.  Here in the Once-Golden State.  It advertised its wares at $4.89 a gallon.

                          $4.89 a gallon!

Seems to me that every time a Californian buys gas he/she/it is paying $1.70 more for that necessity than the citizens in South Carolina.  Or in any of another 30 states.  For the privilege of getting beat up with laws and rules and regulations we don't want or need.  To "save the planet."  That's $20.00 a tank.  For nothing.  Bupkus!  

Think of all the folks who have to commute.  And have to use their cars to get from job to job, every day.  Often in their own vehicles, and often at their own cost.  They're making $10 or $15 a hour to sweat, and then giving it to an oil company.  Which then is forced to meet in the bathroom and share the proceeds with the State of Taxifornia.  

Which has the very highest gas taxes in the Nation! 

We're sitting on a river of oil.  An ocean!  If we could find a leader without his head up his/her/its ass we could drill for it, pump it, pipeline it, refine it and then put it in Mobil's stations and ready for you to buy at $1.50 a gallon.  

I am a graduate economist, remember! 

So perhaps the penalty for all that surf and sunshine isn't $1.70 a gallon.  Perhaps it's really more like $2.50!  

Seems pretty simple to me: they're trying to force us out of our gas powered cars and into battery-operated vehicles.  At double the cost.  Which nobody can afford.  And which they can't even charge reliably.  So they can control our movement while saving the whales.  Errr, the planet.   

$20.00 a tankful in an involuntary tithe to the "Church of Climate Change."  Is this any way to run a railroad?  Oh wait...  Mayor Pete's already screwed that one up, too... 

So why are we still here again?