The word on the streets is that Big Oil and their associates are sucking every last dollar out of American consumers. Supposedly, gigantic petrol-providing corporations like Exxon Mobil and Shell as well as thousands of gas stations across the nation are in collusion, all as one manipulating prices and gouging customers.

Such assumptions and accusations, although mostly unfounded, are acceptable to a point. Consumers are justifiably frustrated with three-dollar per gallon gasoline prices. At the turn of the century gasoline was selling for approximately half that price. So, as prices escalate and consumers dig deeper to fund a fluid that truly is a necessity to their pursuit of the American way of life, they vent their anger at Big Oil, because, after all, someone must be to blame.

The unfortunate thing about this whole mess is that there is not one entity, not one causal relation that’s to blame. The private sector and public sector are all at fault. From corporate leaders to the political class to end consumers, every person shares some sort of responsibility in creating the oil situation which has befallen upon not only America but the entire world as well.

Ultimately, the parties most responsible for escalating oil prices are the very consumers who are decrying such circumstances. From multi-car families to long commutes to inefficient SUV’s, American drivers are using huge amounts of oil, something in upwards of 25% of the world’s total amount.

If anything, this oil consumption continues to rise despite the initial sticker shock. People are not interested in changing their buying habits, no matter how high gas prices may go, as the perceived necessity of gasoline actually appears to override frugality. Americans have proven to be completely indifferent to higher gas prices: Our society continues to drive gas-guzzlers, ignore car pooling, and pretend public transit systems do not exist.

This same buy-now-save-later mentality is also applied to consumer goods. Americans are buying more items than they ever have and saving less than they have since the days of the Great Depression. Such materialistic pursuits - which to a point are shared by our modernized brethren in Europe - have forced production companies to China and India as a means to make vast volumes of a variety of items at low prices. This has set-off a domino effect which has caused the people of those nations to become financially-empowered, creating a consumer class that in itself needs goods. Accordingly, they, too, are demanding oil now that they are becoming Westernized and addicted to the importance of vehicles to financial and leisure pursuits.

This growing global demand is occurring at an almost impossible pace. China’s and India’s consumer classes – which our consumers created – are doubling, even tripling over ten year increments. This accumulated demand from the world over is the reason gas prices are so high and will continue to rise. It really is supply and demand like the oil executives say.

This is not to say that these oil executives or their predecessors are not at fault. It is odd, if not dirty, that in such a topsy-turvy market they can justify multi-million salaries for they and their leaders at a time when their consumers struggle to make ends meet because of the price of the very product they are supplying them. Note that these are the same managers who failed to make advancements in technology that would have curtailed the growing prices.

The latter is an issue that should have long ago been addressed by our elected officials. With no attention to where the world economy was going, they ignored the tenets of supply and demand and the warnings from economists. Only now that we are in dire straits do they promote alternative fuels. A little preparedness and promotion in the sciences and a realistic – not smoke and mirrors – approach to the environment would have created a more concerted and timely move to alternative fuels. But, our government failed us, even though they knew the oil market fell apart in the 1970’s, foretelling what the future might hold.

There is a lot of blame to go around when it comes to high gas prices. It’s a sad state of affairs with no quick fix in sight. We will be saddled with ever-growing prices for years to come….and it’s the fault of each and every one of us.