> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Gas prices leave a poor columnist feeling trapped in a capitalist system - URL: https://www.smdp.com/ryan-hyatt-send-comments-to-editor-smdp-com-dispatches-from-dystopia/ - Published: 2008-06-19T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-25T00:16:39.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import PAYING FOR THE CONSTANT INCREASE IN gas prices can't be much different than being strangled by a boa constrictor. You know it's happening, but what can you do about it? The inability of consumers to collectively lower the price they pay at the pump has become so frustrating for me I am beginning to suspect that to be American is not necessarily to be associated with greatness. Being American is more like being stuck. You see, I’m poor. It doesn’t matter if I live in the greatest country in the world or not. It doesn’t matter if I pledge allegiance to the flag or not. Because I’m poor, I need to support myself to survive. Because I live in a capitalistic economy that has evolved in a peculiar way over time, I need a car to go to and from work in order to support myself. That means I need to buy gas — no matter what the cost — in order to survive. I didn’t create this condition. It was created before me. However, millions of Americans and I make Exxon richer every time we’re at the pump considering this quandary. To live, I must pay more and more because of increasing gas prices. I don’t have a choice, or a vote, that will make a difference. Or do I? Didn’t New England Colonists face similar challenges when dealing with Britain? They paid more and more — without a vote — until they finally addressed grievances by taking up arms against the crown. Hence, America was born. Well, I’m in no shape to take up arms against Exxon. I cannot even afford to pay the gas to drive to their corporate headquarters. My only choice would be to attack on a pogo stick. How did we get here? How did we relinquish our fate to such complex, inexplicable, supernatural forces? Talking about high gas prices is like talking about a Sasquatch. Someone hears something rustling in the bushes. Someone else claims what is emerging is unusual, but natural. Yet only Republicans have the nifty charts to explain why we are paying for our lives at the pump. My guess: They’re taking us for what we’re worth before a real public servant gets in office. Without a yard stick, calculator or power point presentation, my gut says high gas prices have originated from little more than other people’s desire to exploit you and me. Sorry, but I take such an assault on my livelihood personally. When I pay $5 a gallon at the pump, it only seems fair the culprits responsible should pay for the burden they are inflicting. Exxon made more profits last year than any corporation in world history. They can’t afford to help their customers find cheaper forms of energy? In my next novel, “Stay Younger Longer,” a political thriller set in Los Angeles in 2046, California has emerged from a catastrophic earthquake only to be caught in a power struggle between China, triumphant in the Oil Wars, and the United States, loser spiraling into disarray. A group calling themselves Eco-Socialists has ascended to power in the quake’s aftermath. They seek economic, social and environmental justice. In a world caught in the throes of global change, California has become the envy of nations, transforming into a paradise and pushing for secession from the Union. Federal officials realize too late that the U.S. fight for oil with China has been too unpopular and costly. So, Congress authorizes the Corporate Mercenary Act. This allows multinationals like Exxon to raise private armies to secure the world’s last oil supplies so the public no longer has to bear such costs for it. My point here is that if Exxon had to pay for its own oil wars, maybe our government would have a chance to move us in a direction that subsidizes promising alternative energy sources. Perhaps then Exxon could make a new fortune all of us could be proud of. I implore you to assert your consumer rights and make your voice heard. It is time our buying power work collectively to send a message to Washington, Exxon and your next door neighbor with the American flag waving next to his Hummer parked in the driveway. It is time we make abstraction tangible. It is time we demand our leaders make visible those “economic forces” driving high gas prices and do something about it. Worry less about terrorism abroad, folks, and more about the terrorism at home. Otherwise, the complacency of our nation’s citizens may prove to be our greatest enemy. RYAN HYATT is a former Daily Press staff writer and author of “The Death of Rock ‘n’ Roll: A Biography of Darrell Breedlove.” He is currently seeking a publisher and/or movie deal for his next novel, “Stay Younger Longer,” a political thriller set in LA in 2046\. He *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 19, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/061908.pdf?ref=smdp.com)