Wealth stripped from U.S. economy

Gary C. Young

For the public to have an understanding of gasoline costs at the pump, two sources of information are available. One is the EIA-U.S. Energy Information Administration, and the other is the API-American Petroleum Institute.

Based upon these sources, the cost of gasoline at the pump can be broken down as follows for gasoline costing $3.56 a gallon at the pump: Taxes, 13 percent, $0.4628; distribution and marketing, 8 percent, $0.2848; refining, 10 percent, $0.3560; crude oil, 69 percent, $2.4564.

For an oil company, the manufacturing cost is the sum of refining and crude oil costs, or $2.8124 a gallon, i.e., ($0.3560 + $2.4564). The main cost of gasoline is the cost of crude oil, which costs about $103 a barrel at the present time.

If the crude oil is imported, then the U.S. economy suffers from this outflow of wealth.

It is clear that America needs to produce more oil in the United States if our economy is to improve.

Otherwise, the U.S. economy will continue to decline as wealth is stripped from the consumers and flows out of the country.

U.S. citizens are participants in a great transfer of wealth from the U.S. economy to economies overseas.

Gary C. Young

Cedar Rapids