In this respect we are in between a rock and a hard place, but for the record I find the only thing that I actually trust less than a government is a corporation. As flawed as the system is at least we can still elect government officials or at least the lesser of two evils and have some minute measure of control over them. Every corporation in the world larger than a mom and pop shop has pretty much become nothing more than an institution of maximizing greed above all else to the detriment of their community, country, and the rest of the world. Most of the time the only alternative is to go buy a product from an equally bad corporation that knows you have no choice because nobody is better than they are. The system makes sure of that. Unless you engage to the race to the bottom, buy off government officials, and become as bad as the next business you're cast aside in a system that doesn’t work for you. We live in a world where people are actually punished for doing the ethical and moral things in business. I'm always surprised at the number of people that hang onto an economic system like it's a religion, like unhindered capitalism for instance, yet unlike a religion they have constant proof staring them in the face it doesn't work. People, especially the poorer ones don't even have the choice that the proponents of unrestricted capitalism like to hold up as a highlight to itself. Not unless you count choosing to die as a choice. The system doesn't reward people that deserve it. It rewards people that earn money off the blood, sweat, tears, and even the lives of others, while giving those people the least amount they can possibly get away with. That's the reality of the world. Changing it would be nice but both the government and the corporations are in lock step with each other and fund and support each other so that it makes it pretty much impossible anymore (outside of maybe violence anyhow) to stop. It's a vicious cycle that fuels each other and gives all the power to them, the few, while screwing the rest of us.
If we were actually going to do the right thing we would have seeked out alternatives to energy a long time ago for the betterment of everybody, and told the oil companies and foreign oil powers to screw off. Sure it wouldn't have been easy, and it would have been more expensive then, it would have took a tremendous amount of resource, and would have taken time but I guess that's just another failure of capitalism. Nobody even took alternative forms of energy seriously until people saw there might be a future profit in it. Too bad it could very well be too late by this time. We were unwilling to do what we needed to do. Our vaunted economic system let this problem occur because it, and the people under it that are forced to be this way along with our greed, couldn’t be in something that didn't involve maximizing profit and taking the quick and easy route. It was too easy to keep destroying our own planet and eventually us in the process if it brought in the money faster and was cheaper for us. You can't have an entire system who's functioning needs everybody's mutual greed to survive and have good things come out of it in the very end. The world doesn't work that way. At least if you want to make things better. Someday to survive we are going to have to understand that milking every last possible cent you can out of this world isn't the most important thing in life. We are also going to have to realize that we all need to make sacrifices, every last one of us instead of screwing each other over and backstabbing everybody else besides yourself because you feel it's the only way to get ahead. Who knows maybe it is the only way to get ahead, but that's why not doing it is a sacrifice.
The price we pay for energy now and in the future and how it's utilized and who gets it is just one of the consequences to the type of world we live in. Unless we all change the way we do things nothing is going to get better for a long time. I don't see Star-Trek like technology coming about any time in the remotely near future to save the day.(And even if there was some corporation would want you to pay ridiculous amounts for it even if it cost them nothing so only the wealthy would get it). We are going to have to make what we have work as best as we can for everybody.
If we were actually going to do the right thing we would have seeked out alternatives to energy a long time ago for the betterment of everybody, and told the oil companies and foreign oil powers to screw off. Sure it wouldn't have been easy, and it would have been more expensive then, it would have took a tremendous amount of resource, and would have taken time but I guess that's just another failure of capitalism. Nobody even took alternative forms of energy seriously until people saw there might be a future profit in it. Too bad it could very well be too late by this time. We were unwilling to do what we needed to do. Our vaunted economic system let this problem occur because it, and the people under it that are forced to be this way along with our greed, couldn’t be in something that didn't involve maximizing profit and taking the quick and easy route. It was too easy to keep destroying our own planet and eventually us in the process if it brought in the money faster and was cheaper for us. You can't have an entire system who's functioning needs everybody's mutual greed to survive and have good things come out of it in the very end. The world doesn't work that way. At least if you want to make things better. Someday to survive we are going to have to understand that milking every last possible cent you can out of this world isn't the most important thing in life. We are also going to have to realize that we all need to make sacrifices, every last one of us instead of screwing each other over and backstabbing everybody else besides yourself because you feel it's the only way to get ahead. Who knows maybe it is the only way to get ahead, but that's why not doing it is a sacrifice.
The price we pay for energy now and in the future and how it's utilized and who gets it is just one of the consequences to the type of world we live in. Unless we all change the way we do things nothing is going to get better for a long time. I don't see Star-Trek like technology coming about any time in the remotely near future to save the day.(And even if there was some corporation would want you to pay ridiculous amounts for it even if it cost them nothing so only the wealthy would get it). We are going to have to make what we have work as best as we can for everybody.
And what you meant was that gasoline is $4, heading to $5. If oil was only $4 a barrel right now, we'd be loving it 
