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Today's Top News
Curse of the Falling Gas Prices
There is no recession. So what if Americans have dying 401(k)s, are getting foreclosed on their homes, or are telling their children they cannot have their first choice for college. Never mind that nearly 4,200 US soldiers have died in two wars. No worries. We have Pax at the Pump.
Gasoline has dropped back to between $2 and $3 a gallon after soaring past $4 a gallon. This week, the Globe had the headline, "Old habits return fast: As gas prices fall, some drivers are less worried about being fuel efficient." On the same day, The New York Times had the headline, "Drivers Take to the Road Again as Gas Prices Fall."
In the Times, economist Christopher Knittel of the University of California, Davis, said, "If oil prices continue to fall and the economy recovers, I would expect consumers to return to wanting larger and less fuel-efficient cars."
In the Globe, Hobart and William Smith economics professor Tom Drennen said, "I think if they had stayed at four bucks for awhile longer you really would have seen dramatic change in people's behavior. Now we're being hit with a double whammy. Credit is so bad and the lots are overflowing with SUVs that people sold when prices went up, so now is really a good time to get a deal on a SUV."
This makes you scream. Can Americans ever forgo the good deal and get a grip on the future?
Once again, the world's leading per-capita oil addict is off the wagon.
On the same day of the above stories, the Times and USA Today had stories on the electri-frying storm of gizmos for cars: navigational devices, iPod outlets, refrigerators, Wi-Fi hotspots, DVD and video-game stations.
No matter if the electronics in just one of these cars makes it more loaded than all the Apollo missions combined, or that the car is still worth less the moment you drive it off the lot.
Moreover, the social ramifications are quite appalling. The parents may be wired and the kids may be distracted, but has anybody thought of this as the ultimate irony of the Inactive Interactive American?
For instance, my youngest son and I still laugh about how we used to compete to count our chosen color of VW Beetles with the winner being the first to reach 100, with bonus points if it was a vintage version. How many kids are going to sit at the deathbed of papa and say, "Dad, before you go, I want to tell you that one of the coolest things we used to do driving cross-country to Grandma's was when you were on the hands-free cellphone telling me to shut up because you were closing the deal at the office, Mom was incoherent, mumbling Springsteen lyrics on her headphone, Sis was on her cellphone yakking about the boys at school, and I was so excited killing clones on my 'Star Wars' video game?"
This makes you teary-eyed about old-school car arguments about whether the kids had to be bored by jazz or the parents had to grit their teeth at hip-hop.
It would be nice if the presidential campaigns addressed this, but, alas, John McCain flat-out says that one of his economic goals is to reduce the price of gas. Barack Obama rails about Big Oil profits (ExxonMobil just announced another all-time American record quarterly profit this week of nearly $15 billion). But lacking is the JFK admonishment to individual Americans: Ask not what Big Oil can do for you; ask how you can do without Big Oil.
The challenge is clear.
A Louisiana Ford dealer told the Times, "We're used to the comforts, frills and whistles, and so if gasoline goes down to a reasonable level, people will not stay in a little boxy fuel-efficient car."
There is no recession until we whistle the epistle of the fuel-efficient car.
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39 Comments so far
Show AllWell, for someone on a fixed income, the current fall in gas prices is wonderful, and I'm all for their continuing to fall as long as possible and as far as possible. I hope to drive to Mississippi to see my brother this Xmas, and lower fuel prices will make it all the easier to accomplish.
Could you have gotten there without a car - Greyhound or such; maybe Amtrak?
That is how my brother, who eschewed car ownership years ago, is coming down to see me from Toronto.
The problem is that people aren't going to change their habits, nor is the US government going to build a European-class intercity rail system, until we have European-class fuel prices. Simple economics in a market-economy allows no other solution.
People are selfish and stupid(the ones who can afford not to drive big guzzlers).
Asia is eating more like the West even though they should see the consequences of it(in addition to the outbreaks of disease and food poisoning caused by their own bad habits i.e. contaminated milk due to a desire to increase supply since Chinese are drinking it more than they ever did in the past)).
Cars
meat
same thing.
In fact having transportation is more important than having your choice of food, and yet people seem to think meat eating is more of a necessity that travel.
Use testosterone for fuel.
It is actually TRUE That eating animals causes MORE global warming than even cars do! All I can say is I don't drive, walk or ride a bike almost everywhere, and we need to make this more possible for more people!
Anyone should have been able to see that one coming. As soon as prices went down I have seen alot more people with their old dragsters out and the like.....
I think it should have stayed at 4 bucks. Just to make people wake up and really start to thnk how much they are raping their planet
my heart breaks.......
You won't have to concern yourself with the ramifications of "cheap" fuel for much longer.
Nov. 5 is right around the corner.
Talk about stupid. I guess, as a species, we don't deserve to survive.
A culture, not a species. American patterns of consumption and destruction =/= Human beings.
your statement reminds me of one bY Albert Einstein - in which he described having a discussion with someone - and einstein expressed his worry that human civilization hasn't quite gotten beyond the "predatory phase"...and that from his view, the way things were going, things might lead to another global war and perhaps even "threaten our survival as a species"....
and then his friend gave a response that einstein said gave HIM pause afterwards:
"WHY are you so concerned that we SHOULD survive, or that we are so important to the planet?"
Yes, this plummet in fuel prices is not a good thing. But it was inevitable. Even without the coming recession, the very efficiency and conservation measures the price rises promoted would have taken the bottom out of the market. This is what happened in the early 1980's.
The only solution is keep the fuel price high through a stiff excise tax - much, much higher than the current tiny 18.3 cents per gallon. Perhaps $1-$2 a gallon. This is what Europe does. The tax would then raise huge amounts for infrastructure improvement - particularly intercity rail and public transit systems
Yes, I know; utterly sensible but utterly politically impossible.
as of recent global reports:
much of europe's more advanced economies have been spending about 6-10 percent of their yearly budgets on PUBLIC infrastructures.
the USA spends below 2 percent on public infrastructure.
if every anyone wants to ask why its public infrastructures are collapsing while americans complain their way to the work place and school and parties...in their wonderful "moving fortresses" called CARS.....
Oh don't worry. After the election is over the gas prices will shoot right back up and Obama had better be prepared to face hell on this issue. As for gas prices right now, they're too low to be true. As a matter of fact, a friend of mine in Washington has to get up at 5 AM just to get to work by 8 AM even though she's only 50 miles away and she's not lucky to have a nearby metro ! When the price came to $4 (hers went to as high as $4.50 a gallon because her car accepts only premium), she could leave as late as 7 AM and get to work by 8 AM. The problem in this country is you get made fun of at if you don't own a gas guzzler. In my state, driving a small car gets you sneered at and sometimes people go insane calling you "unpatriotic" ! Yeah, unpatriotic for reducing one's dependence on Saudi oil especially since it was the same 19 hijackers from Saudi Arabia who brought about 9/11/2001. And these same gas guzzling losers complain about Chavez even as they suck up and pay him their oil money. People need to stop laughing at those of us who are frugal, conserve, recycle and reuse, and even try out alternative renewable technologies for a change. I always wish that this country wouldn't shoot its head out and head towards another Great Depression but unfortunately that looks likely to happen regardless of the election. God helps us if it even exists anymore !
EXCELLENT points from you, Nebraska Nathan..may more people have your prudence or somehow learn now that things are happening in which there is NO turning back at the realization --- PEOPLE and COUNTRIES can NOT CONTINUE to CONSUME as if the world's resources are infinite just for the sake of "ME" this goes not just for Oil and cars and homes and food, it goes also even for things such as "my private property"..the world RUNS OUT OF SPACE, u know...and there is only so much "private property" that can be DIVIDED with fences that eat up so much space at the expense of others....that is reflected in the american glorification of "my own car" -- to go to what? a PARTY in the weekend?! so one can feel IMPORTANT?
it's nonsense!!!
For years I have been in shock and awe at the incongruous existence of massive gas guzzlers in a post peak oil world. Even further back, the use of gasoline as the main M.O. just seems somehow primitive. The days of the cross country road trip are clearly numbered for those who do not make CEO salaries. One last Yee-Haa for the good old days! Bo and Luke Duke ride again!!
The unprecidented obesity and diabetes levels in the US is exhibit A in the American Stupidity Museum. Famously, Homer Simpson, (The Real "Joe The Plumber"), had to use the "double wide" voting both to get his fat ass in. At least he TRIED not to vote for McSame.
These prices are clearly an aberration.
Over 30 years ago the first Energy Secretary (under Jimmy Carter) James Shlesinger said: "Americans have two modes when it comes to energy: complacency and panic."
Hasn't changed.
There is a contradiction, a maddening contradiction at the heart of the whole discourse over gas prices: people seem to be sensitive to prices of one thing (gas), but not of another (cars). After all, these SUVs people buy cost a lot of money. They could save money if they bought smaller cars. It's even worse than that. If people are so damn sensitive to rises in the price of gas, why do they DELIBERATELY CHOOSE to buy vehicles that require them to buy more of it - regardless of the price per gallon? That's what drives me crazy when I think about it. Some guy with an SUV says, "Oooh, gas is so EXPENSIVE! I'm suffering! It costs me sooo much to fill my SUV! It's so unfairrrr!!!!" Well, if saving money on gasoline is such a priority for you, what the hell did you buy an SUV for, then?
Apart from the issue of gas prices, the whole cult of private transportation is destroying our cities, and by destroying our cities, we are going a long way towards destroying our society. If only half of the money we spend on private cars were spent on public transportation, every city in this country could have a subway system like New York's. Or a streetcar system like Los Angeles had before World War II. And in the long run we would save money because nobody would have to buy a car.
The most patriotic thing a North American can do is ride a bicycle. The second most patriotic thing they can do is ride a bus or train.
I completely agree with the posters who say that the price of gas should be set by the government, through a stiff tax the proceeds of which is used to pay for public transportation.
Mark Marshall
Toronto
good points in this and your other post...however , that is an ALIEN "way of life" from the "rugged american individualism" which is the culture in the USA. that's the reason why the contradictions abound...
americans COMPLAIN about high prices - or cost of living - CHOOSE structures - such as privatizing everything under the sun - against which they run like rats trying to keep up with the HIGH PRICES such things impose on them in the long run such as HEALTH CARE which eats up entire industries which consequently "trickle down" the ensuing COSTS RIGHT BACK to the "way of life" of americans in OTHER FORMS of high prices about which they COMPLAIN.
they want to "get away from it all" due to the increased demands in the work place in order to KEEP the jobs or else someone else is going to be called by their corporate masters -- and to "get away from it all" americans subscribe , as the TROPHY of their "american dream", to having a HOUSE in the countryside -- which THEN requires for them to have not just ONE , but TWO or THREE cars , one for daddy , another for mommy, another for the teen..so they can all feel "free and individual" -- RUGGEDLY american ...and then they complain that GAS is so expensive......and they still have to pay the "ILLEGAL" IMMIGRANT gardener to keep their wonderful flower gardens in shape for their wonderful weekend parties where they will drink to their SUCCESS at having the american dream with the latest fancy wine with the right color for the right , latest, most exotic chef cuisine.....
of COURSE , even if the industrial masters like the gas guzzling car industry egged them on -- americans are really living the continuation of the "conquest of the wild west" to have their VERY OWN territory and castle they call their "private property" complete with HomeOwner's TAX CUT as proof of how "ruggedly hardworking individual americans" they are that DESERVE so MUCH and SO MUCH MORE....
it DOESN"T stop or is limited TO gas prices.. u know.
it has a lot more to do with the american culture of each one wanting to be a veritable KING and QUEEN -- just like the masters who tell them "YOU TOO CAN HAVE IT if you work hard"......
and so americans , by golly , will HAVE IT!!!
only they'll complain if it doesn't come CHEAP ENOUGH..according to their class and economic means of course.
but they're mostly running after the SAME THING -- a BUBBLE of prosperity that will protect them from the world -- which is , in its aggregate a VERY COSTLY bubble to maintain until one day , it bursts! ...and they find they are like a mass of termites when the mound gets doused with a terrible rain...because the OIL PRODUCERS decided to CLOSE the spigot to PROTECT THEIR prices.....
but then -- ask one thing:
DID the saudis SELL OIL when NO ONE knew what they were or wanted them? and WHO wanted them the MOST? it is americans.
Carter warned americans 3 decades ago -- what did he get? he got laughed at BY america. so -- WHY are they complaining about "oil prices?"
if it's not oil - it will be something else.
I've still yet to understand the whole price-gouging thing. Of course they're down right before an election. They'll go back up again shortly.
gnken
Why are folks going to learn. I m hearing folks being upbeat at the price of gas comming down. "Wow" and in a month or 2 especially when it gets cold the price will climb back up again. Why are Americans such "Sloooww" learners, and have such short memories".
Media content produced in the USA past fifty years encourages consumption and discourages enlightement. You should have a big house, a big car, a big appetite. And if you don't, you're not someone we'll have a beer with. When the Demoks occupy the throne you get free gas and when the Repuks take their turn, your bill comes due. Don't complain. That's un-american. And now we've changed the policy. You only get free gas during election week.
The same mechanisms that increased oil from 60 to 150 in 1 year and brought it back down near 60 in 3 months still exist. Prices can be manipulated at will. CO2 does not cause catastrophic climate change, and there is plenty of oil, so drink up if you can afford the bar tab and your credit is good.
For all of you who denied the price of oil was due to financial speculation and insisted it was due to peak oil, admit it, you were wrong.
As for fuel efficient cars, I imagine the carbon tax on such cars will be lower than SUV's, so if you can afford it, you can keep your SUV's and drink up, if not, you can ride a smaller car and conserve our oil. Sacrifice is not for the elite folks. Fat Albert is getting fatter and burning oil to maintain his jet setting life style. The poor can lower their thermostat, ride a bike to do grocery shopping and drive a small car to work, and eat dog food from China.
"CO2 does not cause catastrophic climate change"
Sources, please.
Read MiMiCcS's post again for satirical content...
Yeah, and unprotected sex does not cause pregnancy!
"For all of you who denied the price of oil was due to financial speculation and insisted it was due to peak oil, admit it, you were wrong."
Peak Oil is still bearing down like a freight train, Gump.
Nobody said price of oil will be a simple linear ramp up to post-Peak Oil prices.
Oil traders are not yet sure when the Peak will hit, not yet sure of the true oil reserve figures, some of them don't even think Peak Oil will hit within the next 30 years. Oil 'price' will bounce around due to short term factors, but that doesn't mean Peak Oil has gone away. When people see Peak Oil in their rearview mirror, *then* the prices will truly skyrocket.
Enjoy your temporary reprieve, like the ocean receding right before a tidal wave hits...
I bought a Prius in summer 2004, when oil was in the $40's. It's about $68 now, and that is considered 'back down to cheap prices'. And who really thinks it will be in the $60's next summer ?
You better be ready for the tsunami in the 2010-2012 time frame.
I have to drive 68 miles round trip to work and back everyday. I have been driving a '91 Geo-Metro for the past year. I get 52 miles per gallon if I keep it at 55 miles an hour. No way will I give up my little car. They shouldn't have quit making the Geo-Metros. I wouldn't be surprised if the big oil companies had something to do with it though. Although the price of gas has gone down recently, it won't stay that way. I sure hope nobody's dumb enough to believe it will. Don't people ever learn?
I share your frustration at the unavailability, (in the US and Canada only) of small inexpensive cars that get the kind of fuel economy that is widely available in Europe. These expensive hybrids are largely a scam.
Americans aren't going to "learn."
Duh!
Let's repeat that...
Americans aren't going to "learn."
What we really need is someone like Cato the Censor to enforce reasonable behavior. Romans were a thousand times more disciplined than the unruly trash we still call "citizens," but they didn't flatter themselves with delusions about being able to resist temptation.
All you anti-authoritarian progressives are eager to appoint a Roman-style censor to regulate all personal expenses for everybody, aren't you?
I didn't think so.
So progressives will bitch, and Americans will spend and spend and spend, until the Bank of China owns whatever the oil Arabs and cocaine Colombians don't own already.
And now...
Let's hear a little more earnest bitching from the peanut-progressives in the peanut political gallery.
Jacob Freeze
This article is just plain off.
"Americans" MAY be greedy bastards, but our excessive use of oil is connected to the STRUCTURE of our living systems not our "lifestyles".
Mass transit is a joke in most of our cities because huge portions of their populations live in sprawl suburbs designed for automobiles.
Interurban rail is decrepit because of the reliance on airplanes.
Our Agricultural system is wholly dependent on mechanization and artificial manures.
Destruction of complex commercial and production sectors in every city, town, and village has peaked with many now obliged to drive miles and miles just for basic needs.
I could go on and on.
The STRUCTURES of our nation need to be re-designed and re-built into a sustainable system.
Then watch -poof- our "lifestyle" change!
Also, this article quotes a few other articles and then asks:
"Can Americans(sic) ever forgo the good deal and get a grip on the future?"
Who knows? But this author doesn't even "know" whether "Americans" ARE going for the "good deal"! He just read some other articles that ASSUMED this.
This is one of the most glaring insanities of our times:
Absorption of Media Depictions of People, then the "Why are PEOPLE like this?" question. What people? You haven't interacted with any people, just Media Depictions of them. But then of course, some people DO act like the Depictions, with the Depictions as moral justification. Then some Producer of Depictions finds them and uses them as examples in further Depictions.
And the cycle goes on and on.
I wonder if Pelosi will remember to replace the 'National Oil Reserve' (that was plundered earlier this year) with the HI-Value crude that was suppossedly traded in for the LOW-Value crude? Of course that is probably 'off the table' or 'there isn't enough time'....kinda like Impeachment.
Oil in the 'National Oil Reserve' is like Gold in FT Knox, or security in the lockbox.
http://www.nysun.com/national/pelosi-wants-emergency-us-oil-reserve-tapped/81521/
http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/fun_facts/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=fun_facts13
http://www.ssa.gov/legislation/legis_bulletin_032201.html
wild;)
I would like to propose a New War!!
Put this country to work building new high efficiency transportation. Electric cars, solar power plants, hydrogen fuel cell technology, wind power technology.
High tech jobs, that pay well for Americans. We will create the technology's and sell them to the rest of the world, not give them our innovations and let them build it for us.
Lets put capitalism to work for Americas well being, and not the unpatriotic greedy few at the top of the corporate ladder of power who believe that Americans are mindless sheep.
What ever we spend on the defense budget, needs to be matched by an investment in developing technology's and high paying jobs to keep our energy dollars in the USA.
Its that simple, its a war, they have been taking our money based on fear and building the war machine. And if you build a war machine , evil men will want to use it.
So , the battle is simple, once we have achieved energy independence, we can cut the military budget in half, and Americans will have a choice of good paying jobs, instead of an economy where young men are forced to join the military because there is no work.
Oh , a message to the Republican party of religious fanatics, planted spy's, and illegal warrant less surveillance criminals. Separation of church and state is he law of the land. In seven years this nation has built a nation wide community based spy network led by every county's fanatical right wing self righteous Christians in power.You would be well served by remembering that without liberal thinking in this country, Americans would not be tolerant regarding your radical religious terrorist christian take over of the world.
But our patients has withered away, and I know that there will be strong effort to unseat all Republican sheriffs and government officials that support Stazi spy activity in our great country.
Pay back is a bitch , but you have earned it by not protecting the constitution.
Have no FEAR America, take back our freedoms one county at a time.Identify and dismantle the stazi spy machine one community watch groups at a time .
We will take on this war on independent energy, and Win.
We will weed out and remove from office any elected official that does not protect the constitution.
This is our country,right,left,and in the middle, real American
patriots have found our voice, and protecting the constitution at all costs our highest priority.
The bible is one book, our Democracy is based on thousands of years of history and human struggle. Our founding father took the best of many different ideology's when writing the Constitution.
Please keep you bible in your churchs and homes , and out of our government.
BornFreeMen
A lot of you bashing SUV drivers seem to forget who higher gas prices hurt the most. You guessed it: the poor. Higher gas prices mean higher food prices, heating fuel prices, etc. So when you wish for gas to go up again, you're wishing for all these things as well, whether you realize it or not. Perhaps before casting stones at others, you should look at your own consumptive ways. There is no doubt that this nation needs to move toward alternative energy and transportation sources, but implementation will not happen overnight. As far as Mr. Jackson goes, I'm happy to hear he has plenty of money and can afford to pay more. We should remember, though, this in not true of everyone.
Of course higher gas prices hurt the poor the most. The poor always suffer the most. They're poor, remember? If we want to help the poor, let's give them money. Or let's give them high-paying jobs so they're not poor any more. Moreover, if gasoline prices were raised by an excise tax to pay for public transportation, the poor would benefit. If there were public transportation they would not have to buy cars. That is why the quality of life is better in Western Europe than it is here. They have public tranportation, paid for by gasoline taxes.
Moreover, the poor will not be exempt from the consequences of overconsumption encouraged by low gasoline prices. When the planet gets too hot to sustain human life, the poor will cook along with the rest of us. And when we deplete the last remaining oil reserves, the poor will starve and freeze to death faster than the rest of us, if we as a society have not developed alternative energy sources by then.
Mark Marshall
Toronto
spinwing
Have to agree. In the '60s when I lived in Europe (5 years) I often recommended to young people to emmigrate for a "better life." We usually visit various parts of Europe every couple of years; latest Britain September 2008, however; I could not make the same recommendation today. Generally I see their 'quality of life' as better than ours. If I wasn't a retiree on a relatively fixed income, there are certainly parts of Europe to which I would consider relocating.
We have had a Smart Car since 2006 just because the writing was on the wall. While my son calls it a 'clown' car, at 6'5" I have more room in it than in the Dodge Caravan that we stil have.
Should Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg consider a fee on corn fuel ethanol use?
* * Lower price for food, gas, water, beer, cleaner air and funds for the budget from oil profit.
snydly
To figure out recent low gas prices---google: election+low gas prices+short attention spans...
incidentally -- if obama thinks that weaning america FROM oil is workable in a mere one term - he is dreaming. as of this moment....
Russia and OPEC have already concluded a discussion towards formalizing a partnership to protect their prices from going BELOW 70 dollars per barrel....which ought to buy them time to use their earnings to move their economies into more advanced technologies in energy - they have the playing cards where energy is concerned. america DOES NOT and will take at least as much time it takes the other countries to move towards "renewable energy" CONSIDERING that the USA is in hock in debt to these nations and others with very little to spare to whole-sale change of its industries that are dependent on OIL.
which MEANS - high oil prices are going to stay.
a recent article in Alternet.org concluded with this statement:
":ONE DAY -- after everything collapses - we will all find out that our MASTERS who designed our way of life and LEAD us , who come from the high elite schools of Ivy League and other places , are just as STUPID AS WE ALL ARE".