By Ye Olde Scribe
Elderly curmudgeon who likes to make others laugh while giving the Reich Wing a rhetorical enema.
Elderly curmudgeon who likes to make others laugh while giving the Reich Wing a rhetorical enema.
Americans have become accustomed to low gas prices relative to other countries. Our economy and social structure has evolved around that lower gas price. I have heard said that our gas is in some ways subsidized (through the tax breaks to oil companies(?))
One argument for higher prices is that w/o them the average American will not conserve.
What do other folks think?
The problem here is our economy, our jobs, our lives are tightly tied: shrink wrapped, by the transportation/gas industries. We don’t have the infrastructure we need and distances are different than, say, England. I’m all for changing what we can of that and innovative solutions to the fact many live out in places that, without convenient transportation, would only create more unemployment, poverty.
We need a Manhattan or space like projects to change all that.
But for now, when rip off artist “speculators” game the system at our expense I’m all for releasing the reserve. Last time that happened the price of gas dropped like a rock tossed off the Tappan Zee bridge. We do whatever it takes to keep them honest.
I’m for all of the above and more. Innovative approaches to reducing gas and vehicle usage by individuals, business and municipalities. I still have a lot to work on in my own life, made more complicated by no longer living alone.
Some progressive ideas I’ve seen include businesses giving employees bus passes in place of parking passes. That allows for the building of less parking lots, while still providing parking for those who live out of public transit areas. Car sharing by individuals, or in car share plans, or friends/neighbors who combine weekly errand runs. And of course personal reduction of driving by planning errands together.
And my favorite – shopping locally when possible. High gas prices may reinvigorate the local markets if we stop traveling 30 miles to save a nickel on a can of soup. Which might even drive more employment opportunities back into neighborhoods.