As everyone has probably noticed, the price of oil has skyrocketed to new highs recently. The main causes have been increasing demand and a weakening dollar. One of the big problems is a lot of people drive like idiots and get poor mileage in their oversized cars. The same guy you see on the news that whines about $4 gas while filling up his Ford F-150 is also the guy laughs at the Prius owners.
Personally I think $4/gallon is still relatively cheap and people will be in for real hurting down the road if they think that’s expensive. So why do I think gas should be more expensive?
Higher prices will curtail demand and force Americans to learn to use gasoline more efficiently. The US government should’ve imposed a $2/gallon tax after 9/11 when everyone was feeling so patriotic. The increase in price would’ve forced people to change their lifestyles and re-consider buying that Hummer. The price of gas then was roughly $1/gallon if I remember and people would have been perfectly fine paying $3/gallon for gas. Another reason is that people blame the oil companies for price gouging when the bulk of profits are enriching OPEC countries. If the higher cost of gas is due to our own taxes, at least it’s enrichening our own coffers.
Begging people to change their lifestyle isn’t going to work. Prices and money are the only tools you can use to influence people’s behaviors.
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