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Dave Ramsey’s Rant About The Price of Gas and Government’s Role In Our Lives – UPDATED

UPDATE: I've transcribed the audio.

I listen to the Dave Ramsey Show on a regular basis on my commute to and from work.

Today I heard a portion that especially stuck out in my mind and I think Dave is completely correct in what he said.

Please note: I'm posting only a portion of the free podcast version of the show . The full version is freely available on iTunes or Dave Ramsey's homepage (or this direct link).

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Transcript:

...51 minutes after the hour, open phones this hour. Triple-8-825-5225, I'm dave Ramsey, your host.

Ken in Michigan says, "Dave, how do you feel about the gas price situation? I think it's just criminal and I can't believe the government lets it go on."

Well, um... I'm not happy that gas prices are high. Uh... I don't think it's criminal and I don't think it's the government's job to fix our lives. I think we make choices in the marketplace that cause these things to happen. And what will happen is: as gas prices go up, one of three things will happen.

- People will hold their nose and pay the price.
- Or, someone will come to the table with viable alternative fuels that are actually used and the gas people will wish they hadn't been so greedy because they will dry their own market up as people leave them for whatever the other fuel is.
- The third possibility is that it becomes so valuable or it becomes such an issue that the consumer suddenly says, "Well, I think some of the things Al Gore is screaming about, I'm not as concerned about, I want lower prices and so I want you to drill over here and over there: where I didn't want you to drill before and now I'm more concerned about gas prices than I am where you drill or what guppie is disturbed when you do drill."

And, you know... one of those three things will happen when gas prices go up. In other words, the government doesn't fix your life, Ken. And business charging more for something is not a crime. You choose whether you're going to interact with that business on that basis. We as a group of people choose. And if we don't like the way the oil companies behave we have to come up with other alternatives; and we will, we always have. We, the American people.

But it's not caused enough pain to push out new inventions or to push aside environmental concerns (whether they're valid or not is not the discussion), to create more drilling. And when that happens then, you know, that's what's goin' on.

But, Ken, you really, really, really don't need to seek the government to fix economic or to create economic justice for you. You will be frustrated your entire life if you wait on the President or Congress to create economic justice for you.

When you feel injustice, and that's what you're saying, the best way to solve that is change your life. Change your situation and how you interact with that injustice. But what happens at your house is a lot more important to the economy than what happens at the White House. And if you and me and everybody out there in our houses make a decision to do something, there's not a thing that Washington can do to stop it. But if we all sit around and wait on Washington to fix our lives then we create politicians like we have running right now, all three of them, for President running around telling everybody how they're going to fix your life. And honestly, all three of them are lying to the extent that they are telling you they're going to fix your life. Your life is not going to be fixed by Washington, Ken.

That's part of being a grown-up. So to sit back and say, [grumpy sounding voice] "The mean old, greedy old, oil companies are pickin' on the little man. The little man just can't get ahead and the president, we need to elect a president who'll stop that." I gotta tell you, that's what the French call a "bourgeois mentality" - it's a poor man's way of thinking. And if you want to be poor your whole life, keep thinking that way. Because while you sit around wait on Washington to fix your life, you're gonna become poor.

And by the way, if they do fix your life, you're gonna wish they didn't. Because it's gonna make you poor, because they never do anything with excellence except build roads and military. But no social programs are done with excellence. You wanna live in their housing? I don't want to live in their housing. No thank you. I mean, look at the service that is provided. Do you want that level of service in all areas of your life? Please! The government could take over the gas stations, then there'd be no gas, because that's the level of service they provide in most cases. Now, there's rare exceptions and if you work for the government, It's possible that you're a person that provides decent service, but you know that there's a lot of your compatriots that sit around with their finger in their ear while we're standing out here in a line somewhere waiting on you to fix somethin.

Please, Ken, don't encourage the politicians by thinking that you are looking to them for economic justice. You're looking to them to solve an economic injustice. You solve it. You change what you drive. You change how you consume. You change your income. You change your life. And when you do that, then you won't sit around and say it's "criminal," 'cause it's not criminal, it's not criminal. Sorry.

Again, it's just the open market functioning. Is it criminal what they charge to buy a pencil? Why..why is it criminal what they charge to buy gas? Is it criminal what they charge to buy a shirt? Why is it criminal what they charge to buy gas? Why..why is that... it's not criminal. It's not even close to criminal. It's just that you don't like the price.

So, I..I would change my rhetoric if I were you, It'll change your life. I would change my mindset and how I approach this, it will change your life. Folks, we have GOT to take, in this culture, we have got to take personal responsibility and reinsert it into our character. Controlling our own destiny and the destiny of those we love and we're responsible for and reinsert it into our character. And until we do that, we're gonna continue to get the crap we get outta Washington on both sides of the aisle. I mean, it's just sickening to watch these people, runnin around saying all the things they're saying; how they're going to fix your life. And what's even more sickening is to watching bunch of lemmings following them. And really starting to believe that any one of them are gonna change your life. I'm not cynical, I'm just responsible for me, and I don't expect John McCain, Hillary Clinton, or Barack Obama to fix my life. And if I did have that expectation, I'm getting ready to be... disappointed.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show.