$4 gas in 2008!!!! (interstate, cost, rating, elections)
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Because it's all about money and how to separate you from yours. I'm amazed that whenever they talk shortages and the price goes up, no more shortages. I know that might be the free market at work, but demand doesn't hardly drop even with a massive price increase. That makes me suspicious.
For myself, I work from home 1 day per week now. Maybe I'll increase that to 2 if prices go to insane levels. Otherwise, I still have to drive even if gasoline goes to $8 per gallon. I'll have to cutback on other things. I will however have a problem with oil companies if all these extra profits only go to the CEO and senior management. I would expect massively more efforts into exploration, drilling and refinery bulding.
have you given thought to what you will cut back on? I see you are in chicago land, you near the L, that might be a good fall back plan, no?
I've totally come to realize that the free market laws of supply and demand do NOT apply to gasoline! If I could remember back to my Econ classes, there's a word for a good like this which is in demand no matter what the price is, inelastic good, is that it???
Anyway, I DO think that demand will slowly slack as the price increases as more and more people like myself make the decision to relocate to an area where I can actually walk to work or ride that moped if I wanted one. I totally expect over the next 25-30years the population of the larger cities and their suburbs currently considered crime infested husks to deplete to historic lows as people flee to other "safer" cities with lower costs of living where they can purchase a home or condo right next to work.
Only then will we begin to see demand drop off and gas become more a free market good. If we want to continue the lives we have right now, we will need to have the government step in and regulate the price until the Hubbert foretold extraction price to energy value ratio gets upside down. Then our culture just folds up on itself because there is no longer any economically viable means to produce more gas. We NEED these horrible spikes in gas prices to help us get to a more sustainable culture. And that includes a lot more than new light bulbs, higher fuel efficiency, and smaller cars, it requires a fundamental rethinking in how we as Americans live, work, and play.
my first degree is in International Econ. yes you are right its elasticity versus inelasticity.
have you given thought to what you will cut back on? I see you are in chicago land, you near the L, that might be a good fall back plan, no?
The 'el' only runs in the city proper and unless this poster is working downtown, the Metra (suburban commuter trains) wouldn't be of much help either.
The real problem is people having to travel from suburb to suburb for work.
Just another sign that we HAVE to start pushing harder for alternative sources of energy.
In the meantime, I wouldn't mind seeing a punitive tax enforced on these gas-guzzling SUVs, which are a major contributor to the problem. You wanna drive around in a 10 MPG tank? Then you're gonna pay for the privilege.
I think ethanol is a very bad idea since corn as well is sold as a commodity on the trading market. Everything that uses corn and it by products prices have double in their value.
The thing is, you can get ethanol from any cellulosic plant source, like switchgrass, sugar cane, even hemp. Why the discussion always focuses just on corn, I'm not sure. If corn isn't an economical means of producing fuel, other methods do exist.
Ethanol as we know it today is a farce. Maybe if it can be procuced using engineered bacteria from garbage, but not now. Diesel from algae is a much more likely scenario.
The thing is, you can get ethanol from any cellulosic plant source, like switchgrass, sugar cane, even hemp. Why the discussion always focuses just on corn, I'm not sure. If corn isn't an economical means of producing fuel, other methods do exist.
The reason we use corn is because it is in ready supply in the US. Brazil has a great biofuel industry based on sugar cane which is ready supply there. Sugar cane is a better source because up front energy expenditure is lower. A fair part of the recent price increases in gas is because of the ethanol additions! Ethanol is far from a break even product and the government is still subsidizing production despite a market for the product (albeit a government mandated market). The cellulosic sources are even more energy intensive than corn bio-fuels right now. With the right research though they will become feasible.
I agree with tallrick, the ethanol "solution" is a farce.
These will not sufficiently stroke the egos of the testosterone-driven macho men. And ego-stroking is far more important than fuel-efficiency to a macho man...
What about all the macho Italians puttering around Rome on scooters. Macho, baby, macho! Economics trumps image every time.
Just another sign that we HAVE to start pushing harder for alternative sources of energy.
In the meantime, I wouldn't mind seeing a punitive tax enforced on these gas-guzzling SUVs, which are a major contributor to the problem. You wanna drive around in a 10 MPG tank? Then you're gonna pay for the privilege.
Watch for the coming CRASH in prices of ROVs (roll-over vehicles), er, SUVs. It's coming.
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