Friday, August 29, 2008

Being Taken Advantage Of

When I lived overseas, I was constantly being taken advantage of because a.) I was white, b.) I was American. The combo of the two means "loads of money" to the third world. It was especially bad in West Africa. Even though I spoke fairly decent French, I always paid more in the market for anything, compared to a typical African.

When we moved to Asia, it was better, but it was still there. The language barrier hurts. But, because I spoke a little Thai, I could tell the folks in the market that I wasn't a tourist and after a while, they got used to seeing me. Since I often was showing people around, they would give me a little better price, but certainly not a "local" price.

Now that I am here in America, I don't get taken advantage of very often. However, today, everyone in America (probably) is being taken advantage of by the oil companies.

Hurricane Gustav is set to hit the Gulf of Mexico this weekend or so. In anticipation, gasoline prices jumped 17 cents in Wagoner since YESTERDAY!

This is uncalled for!

This is just plain wrong!

What in the world can we do about it?

I really, really hate being taken advantage of.

How much have they jumped in your neck of the woods because of Gustav?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

TWO ten cent jumps here in just hours.

I agree, Rick.