Ken Stiefel – 8/25/05

This page was last updated on August 25, 2005.

Mark your 2006 calendars; Ken Stiefel; Beaver County Times; August 25, 2005.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“A recent article made a point that today’s gasoline prices are still lower than they were in 1981 when adjusted for inflation. Adjusting figures for today’s inflation, the price of gasoline in 1981 would have been $2.93. The actual average price in 1981 was $1.45.

“Explain how this logic affects people living on fixed incomes who do not receive a cost-of-living increase each year and cannot vote themselves a pay increase.”

[RWC] I think Mr. Stiefel missed the point of the article. All we’ve been hearing about is that gasoline prices are at “record highs.” I suspect the article Mr. Stiefel referred to was simply trying to point out that in constant dollars, the price of gasoline is lower than it was in the early 1980s. No one is saying gasoline is cheap, just that current high prices are not really “record highs.”

“Add to this group the thousands of workers who lost their good-paying jobs, along with their pensions and health insurance. They may find other jobs; however, for the most part, they are low-paying jobs with no benefits.”

[RWC] Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan doesn’t buy the claim that new jobs are of lesser quality than lost jobs. Testifying before Congress in 2004, Greenspan said, “We’ve not been able to find a significantly meaningful change in the quality of the jobs being produced relative to the quality of jobs being lost for the nation as a whole over the last year.”

“Both of these groups have a very difficult time keeping up with inflation. The effects of higher gasoline prices cause a rippling affect on so many other products.”

[RWC] This is true for all products and services, but I wonder if Mr. Stiefel makes this connection when people lobby for cost of living increases and increasing the minimum wage.

“The oil industry continues to make staggering profits in the billions. Corporate executives continue to underfund employee pensions, cancel employee health insurance and outsource U.S. jobs to other countries without being subjected to any accountability.”

[RWC] What is wrong with the oil industry making profit in the billions? Sheer volume guarantees profit in the billions. Total world crude oil production is roughly 30 billion barrels (1.3 trillion gallons) per year. A profit of only $0.0008/gallon would result in a total profit of $1 billion. That’s less than 1/10^th of a cent per gallon.

What accountability is Mr. Stiefel writing about? Other than complying with laws, business managers are accountable only to the business owners.

“Can we truly believe that the Bush administration has no control over these matters? It has made no attempt to assist the U.S. airlines during this fuel crisis, and now as the price of gasoline continues to climb, the farmers and truckers are feeling the effects to a greater degree, along with a large majority of consumers.”

[RWC] What control does any president have over the price of oil? The only people with any control are consumers and producers.

What “fuel crisis?” The price is higher than we’d like, but have any airlines been unable to purchase fuel? Essentially, Mr. Stiefel appears to be lobbying for corporate welfare.

“State legislators and corporation executives continue to care for themselves. We may not be able to vote out the corporate executives; however, everyone should continue to remember the late-night vote by the majority of our state legislators that gave them an enormous pay increase plus many other benefits.”

[RWC] What is Mr. Stiefel’s problem with business executives? If business owners don’t like how a manager is running their company, they can fire him.

“Mark your 2006 calendars and vote your minds come May and November 2006.”

[RWC] I agree to a point. We need to vote based on facts, not emotion.