Comparison
The effects of Oil from a Political Perspective At last, even a soaring oil price provides an argument for pushing down wages: the more expensive petroleum becomes, the cheaper labor must become. Small wonder. In capitalism, everything leads to this conclusion. Yet there's apparently even more that depends on the price of oil. Its increase is labeled a "crisis," constitutes an "endurance test" for the euro zone's economy, endangers its economic upturn, threatens America's "economy and security" and the world economy as a whole. Is the entire capitalistic mode of production — which has captured the whole world by its effectiveness and the outstanding qualities of its human rights in combination with its noblest endeavors to combat poverty — really to run into trouble merely because a barrel of crude oil costs thirty instead of fifteen dollars?