13 People Discuss Who They Believe Is To Blame For High Gas Prices

Unless you live under a rock (or just don’t drive), you probably know by now how high gas prices have soared in the last few weeks. In fact, they’ve now hit the highest national average in history. However, there isn’t one clear reason why.

The world has experienced a lot in the past few years—we mean a LOT—so it can be hard to pinpoint one exact reason for the high gas prices. In a recent Reddit thread, people shared their reasons they believe the gas prices are so high, and who or what is to blame. While there are some nuanced responses in there, most people joked about the situation—nothing like putting a little humor into a sad reality!

Here are some of the top things people are blaming for the high gas prices.

  1. The Numbers, Of Course!

    “I blame the numbers on the signs in front of gas stations. If the numbers were lower, then the prices wouldn’t be as high.”

  2. Our Reliance on Oil

    “We should never have become as dependent on oil as we are. But they had the money to bribe whoever they needed so here we are.”

  3. Our Reliance on Cars

    “Cars were originally supposed to be a luxury item. Decent quality public transport shouldn’t be a city thing.”

  4. The President

    “With all due respect, the little sticker someone placed on the pump told me that Joe Biden is, in fact, responsible. He was pointing at the price, clearly saying – and I quote – “I Did That.” Am I to believe these well thought out and researched stickers are false?!?”

  5. Increase in Demand

    “Higher demand, lower supply.”

  6. Speculators

    “Speculators everywhere who make a ton of cash pushing the prices up at any whiff of disruption.”

  7. Fossils

    “We wouldn’t be in this mess if fossils didn’t exist.”

  8. Covid

    “Remember when demand plummeted and gas/oil prices fell through the floor? This is the pendulum swinging back the other way. It will eventually steady again, but this rise was/is to be expected.”

  9. Greed

    “Greedy governments wanting to seize other countries, greedy state officials banning energy independence for cuts from oil tycoons, greedy populations for waning free money to be printed that their kids have to pay off. It’s all greed.”

  10. People Being Back to Work in an Office

    “Oil companies decreased production when everybody started working from home and have not increased it as far as I’m aware, even though a lot of people are back to work and traveling.”

  11. A Random Celebrity

    “Clearly Ryan Reynolds.”

  12. War

    “Nothing drives up this stuff like some global tensions. With no end in sight currently, I’ve heard from some places that price per barrel could pass $300 USD in a few weeks.”

  13. A General Societal Failure

    “People seem to want gas guzzler cars and there’s some weird mass-psychosis about gas prices. They want to buy big tank-like SUVs. And then they complain about the gas prices. We’ve seen this systemic increase and decrease in gas prices play out for decades now. Gas prices spike up! We saw it in the 70s. We saw it in the 80s. We saw it in the aughts. We saw it in the teens. We’re seeing it now in the 20s. What moron goes and buys an 80,000 truck on a 7-year payment plan and can’t afford the gas to keep it running? It’s astonishing just how dumb people are.”

What do you think is to blame for the high gas prices?