Capitalism at $4 a Gallon?

If the Bush invasion of Iraq was a "war for oil," it has been a war for expensive not cheap oil. The crackpot assertions of Bush administration policy planners – that war would "pay for itself" or the U.S. would take oil profits from the Iraqis as the price of their "liberation" – aside, the price of a barrel of crude oil is today at an all time high. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has done absolutely nothing to advance alternative energy programs.

Instead, the administration, which has a "special relationship" with the most reactionary sectors of the capitalist class in the U.S., that is, the energy companies and the large military contractors, has done everything in its power to sabotage international alternative energy programs, which has not only increased the price of oil but has also obstructed international environmental protection policies.

Why is the administration doing this? Mainly, it is indifferent to the consequences to most working families of expensive oil because expensive oil both enriches its backers and also increases their power in the capitalist class against other sectors of large capital. The capitalist class like the working class is highly stratified and while all capitalists defend their larger class interests against all workers, different sectors of capital fight for increased profits and power against others.

 

Expensive oil strengthens both the energy companies and also the military contractors, since it helps to create the catch-22 mentality that military intervention is necessary to keep other countries from gaining control of oil producing regions and making the costs of oil even greater. It is not unlike the old Cold War "mutually assured destruction" argument that fueled the arms race where a country had to build more and more weapons of mass destruction so your enemies would not get the drop on you, and they would do the same so that you would not get the drop on them.

 

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