Oh No! Gas Prices Are Falling!
Every time the price of oil drops, the demand for that same product increases and the demand for alternate fuels, decreases. Why are gas prices falling?
China Daily reported that “oil dropped more than 6 percent to below $88.00 a barrel on Monday as a global market rout churned concerns that faltering fuel demand could slow further.”
In other words, we aren’t buying enough, so it’s time to lower the price. But can anyone other than the people vested in that market honestly say that we don’t use enough oil?
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In his new book “Hot, Flat, and Crowded”, Thomas L. Friedman writes “When I asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, why his company didn’t make more fuel-efficient cars, he gave me the standard answer: that GM has never succeeded in telling Americans what cars they should buy.” Thomas goes on to say , “But what the Detroit executives never tell you is that one big reason the public wanted SUVs and Hummers all those years was that Detroit and the oil industry constantly lobbied Congress against raising gasoline taxes, which would have shaped public demand for something different.”
European countries have been imposing high gasoline taxes for years, and when I was serving in Germany in the early 90’s, a gallon of gas was $6.84 a gallon, and that was 20 years ago! The result is that European countries have demanded smaller and smaller cars.
As of this writing, Gasoline in Denmark is about $9.00 a gallon, compared to $3.65 in the United States. (Up from $2.50 a year ago and down from $4.50 two months ago.) It seems like $9.00 a gallon gas in Denmark would decimate it’s economy right? Since 1981, there economy has grown 70 percent while energy consumption has been flat. In 1973, Denmark got 99 percent of it’s energy from the Middle East. Today, it gets zero.
We’ve become spoiled in the United States. We have grown up thinking that the oil that runs everything from our cars to our industrial complex, is cheap, inexhaustible and politically neutral. But we have come to an age where we realize that oil is in short supply, expensive, environmentally damaging and a political nightmare.
So with these realizations, instead of following the success of countries like Denmark, Brazil and Germany, we continue to lower the price, to fuel the demand, to use more of what we are running out of.
The Republican saying “Drill more, use less” doesn’t work. If we want more of the same Environmental devastation, financial crisis, repeated bailouts, and political situations like wars, terrorism and starvation, then all we have to do is…nothing.
I say it’s time to raise the price of Gasoline in this country. It’s time to drive this economy toward a sustainable energy program that will benefit our economy, our lives and our environment.
Photo courtesy of WiseOwl via Creative Commons License
“But part of that stifling comes from keeping gas prices at a false low level.”
So by NOT imposing arbitrary taxes on THE PEOPLE, the government THE PEOPLE elected is keeping gas at a FALSE low level? That’s dumb.
–> “Thomas goes on to say , “But what the Detroit executives never tell you is that one big reason the public wanted SUVs and Hummers all those years was that Detroit and the oil industry constantly lobbied Congress against raising gasoline taxes, which would have shaped public demand for something different.” <–
Excuse me for pointing this out, but when did it become the government’s place to dictate via taxation or any other means, what “the people” would or should demand in a free market? What Thomas suggests is nothing more than a government dictated marketplace.
Why on earth would I want a pool of self-absorbed, deeply corrupt politicians dictating what “the people” want. Might as well invite the Kremlin to have a say.
Being a normal person, I happen to *like* lower gas prices.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Key graf- “In other words, we aren’t buying enough, so it’s time to lower the price. But can anyone other than the people vested in that market honestly say that we don’t use enough oil?
This shows your complete ignorance of the market for any product.
LOL Denmark! A huge country full of open spaces and a population which has family and business connections thousands of miles away from home. Or not.
“which would have shaped public demand for something different.”
Excuse me, but what business does the government have shaping the public? Under the US Constitution, the government is instituted to protect our rights, not tell us how to live. Who are you to tell us what we should do, how we should live, what we are and are not allowed to enjoy?
Do you think you know better than us? Do you think government knows better than us? Consider the incompetence of our elected politicians, and the even worse incompetence of the bureaucracy that runs the government’s day-to-day operations? Why should these people run our lives? Government has been assigned certain limited responsibilities: national defense, crime prevention, enabling trade, etc. The moment that government tries to move beyond these limited purposes, it inevitably causes more problems than it solves.
It’s frightening that so many people believe that government’s purpose is to make everything “right”. It’s even more frightening that people believe, given government’s track record, that it actually can.
By the way, if you want to pay more for gasoline, feel free to do so. If you want to make other people live the life you want them to, mind your own damn business.
“So with these realizations, instead of following the success of countries like Denmark, Brazil and Germany, we continue to lower the price, to fuel the demand, to use more of what we are running out of.”
Who’s “we”, Kimo Sabe? Something like 88% of all oil production is controlled by governments other than the US, many of which are openly hostile to the US, so I don’t see how the US or US-based oil companies would have the power to lower the price of oil.
Supply and demand, eh?
“but I bet they are still wasting money by filling their carts with Soda, Captain Crunch, 9.00 dvd’s, and 5 gallon, buy one get one free, jars of pickles.”
If it wouldnt be much trouble, can you compile a list of things you feel is ok for us to buy with our own money, so that you don’t feel we are wasting it?
SUVs became popular because they were classified as trucks, and therefore were exempt from the regulations that had made small cars more unsafe. Small cars have always been relatively unsafe (even in Europe) and will continue to be, because we can’t change the laws of physics.
Rising oil prices has a disproportionate affect on the poor. And they affect the poor first and hardest. Not really a very progressive idea you’ve got there, Adam.