I had my annual portfolio review today with my financial advisor. When I first started an IRA account in my late twenties my plan was to be in a position to retire by the age of 50. When I reached my late thirties, I thought maybe I could retire by the time I reached 55. Now I am in my late forties and I think I might be able to retire by the time I am 95.
So we were talking about the economy, elections, the price of gas, etc. today when my friend/advisor said that his complaint wasn't about the price of gas but the price of milk. I agree. Even though I had to wait in line this morning to fill up the SUV, I paid $3.66 per gallon. The other day at Publix my wife paid $3.55 for a gallon of the Publix brand milk.
Now let's think about this for a moment...somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, or the deserts of the Middle East a very complicated piece of machinery is drilling hundreds of feet into the ground to harvest oil. When the oil is brought to the surface it is placed in some kind of container and transported to an oil refinery. A multi-million dollar oil refinery prepares the oil to be used in my SUV. From the refinery, the gasoline is transported thousands of miles via ship and/or truck to a regional distribution center. From the regional center, trucks are filled up with gasoline and delivered to our local gas stations where we buy it to transport ourselves around town and beyond for $3.66 per gallon.
Somewhere earlier this week in Saluda County, SC, a dairy farmer woke up before the crack of dawn and walked from his house to his barn in the backyard, sat on a stool, and squeezed cow teets for a few hours. Later the milk was sent to a processing plant to pastuerize and package the milk before it was delivered to a local store.
Seems to me we ought to be screaming about the greedy dairy farmers instead of greedy oil companies.
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