Oil and Card - Yin and Yang?

Gasoline (or Petrol - depending on which side of the Atlantic you are) prices are biting so hard now that gas station owners and consumers are planning a rally to demonstrate their grievances. See press release http://www.prweb.com/releases/Gas/MasterCard/prweb1063174.htm

Looks like oil prices are so pervasive in our lives that we can trace almost all our travails to fossil fuels. This protest is against the high interchange rates of Visa and MasterCard that are adding to their profits. Well, good to note there is at least one other industry (apart from oil giants) that stands to benefit from the high oil prices.

When I think about it, I see a lot of similiarities between the oil industry and cards industry. Both have cartels dominating them. Both make money by huge volumes and can pretty much fix prices as they want. Both operate on basic consumer necessity - one of energy and the other of money/payments/exchange. Of course, at this point in time, we can't do without either of them!  Both industries are constantly threatened by 'wannabes' - Oil by alternative energy fuels, credit cards by mobile payments, PayPal,etc. But both continue to laugh all the way to the bank and show no signs of slowing down. Both these industries now seem to dominate all aspects of our lives. And both industries lead the league table on 'hate' groups and communities on online world!  The Oil industry has the  best performing stocks; so has the credit card industry with share prices of Visa, MasterCard and Amex doing great even in these troubled times. Both seem to operate on a seemingly endless market place.

So, our modern day philosophy centres around the Ying and Yang of oil and card!