Almost anyone with a set of wheels to their name knows that gasoline prices have taken an astronomical rise since the polar vortex swept through the Southern states. Various articles in the newspapers attribute this to damage to the production infrastructure. Let’s show by a raising of wallets, your feelings on the direction of future pricing once production returns to normal.

A. Price will drop $.50 back to pre-vortex rates.

B. Prices will rise another $.50 now that the oil companies have pulled their bluff.

Where are our politicians when we need them?

A. Keeping warm in some big business pocket.

B. On a fact-finding junket in Hawaii about global warming.

Back around 1974, OPEC cut production of oil, creating a shortage. The government put a cap on what the oil companies could charge to prevent gouging. With the companies sniffing out the stimulus checks, the government needs to monitor that one segment of the economy does not keep the rest from developing.

The courts have ruled that the functioning of the system is more important than the individual.

LARRY MEITZNER,

Rogers City