Transported

 While on vacation, I started to get a little irritated with, what I consider, high gas prices.

I know the politically correct thing is to get angry at the oil companies for making money off of me while I go the places I have to go and they make obscene profits while I do it. I will try.

I did look into it, and found that the oil companies generally make between 6 cents and 8 cents per gallon. Probably not the most lucrative business, gallon per gallon. But they are still making money off of me.

Then I discovered that government makes an average of 48 cents per gallon from the gas I purchase. A little more or less, depending on the Federal, State and local taxes on gas. I wonder if I should be angry with them too?

Of course, they do great things with my money. The feds are currently handing out grants for rail transport type projects. Without the gas tax money they get, they would not be able to show a regular income and they would not be able to borrow money from China so we could do these projects.

We have one of these projects in Tucson. They call it the modern streetcar (pictured below), all paid for with Federal funds, so those of us locally don't have to pay a dime. Yet.

It will go from the University, where there is nowhere to park, to the downtown area, where there is also nowhere to park. The primary purpose seems to be moving college students downtown, so they can go drink at the bars there instead of just at the closer 4th Avenue bars.

Oh, and the local price tag, even though the project is completely paid for by magical federal funds; about 4 to 6 million per year for operating costs that will not be covered by fares and whatnot.

So, I suppose I shouldn't complain about high gas prices. Instead, I should just be angry with the oil companies and look forward to the day when I can pay even more for trains that drive me to local bars, so I can anesthetize my anger.