Why does gas cost $4.00/gallon? “All consumers know that when the producer names the tune, the consumer has got to dance.”

Our modern prophet, Gil Scott Heron – a Southern man – has since gone to his reward – may he rest in peace.

His prophetic lyrics, however, remain as poignantly truthful today as ever.

The truth of his song “B Movie” remains even more point-on today than when he produced & recorded it in 1982.

“What has happened is that in the last 20 years, America has changed from a producer to a consumer. And all consumers know that when the producer names the tune, the consumer has got to dance. That’s the way it is. We used to be a producer – very inflexible at that, and now we are consumers and, finding it difficult to understand. Natural resources and minerals will change your world. The Arabs used to be in the 3rd World. They have bought the 2nd World and put a firm down payment on the 1st one. Controlling your resources we’ll control your world. This country has been surprised by the way the world looks now. They don’t know if they want to be Matt Dillon or Bob Dylan. They don’t know if they want to be diplomats or continue the same policy – of nuclear nightmare diplomacy. John Foster Dulles ain’t nothing but the name of an airport now.” -excerpt from “B Movie,” by Gil Scott Heron, 1982

The Real Reason Gas Costs $4 A Gallon

Categories: Trade, Government

11:23 AM, April 2, 2012

OPEC – Oil & Petroleum Exporting Countries; BILAL QABALAN/AFP/Getty Images

In his latest column for the New York Times Magazine, Adam Davidson cites Gal Luft, an oil expert who dismisses political proposals from the left and the right to lower the price of gas. We asked him to elaborate in the following post.

When in December 2008, 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl asked Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi how much it cost Saudi Arabia to produce one barrel of oil, he didn’t blink: “Probably less than