Supply and demand
I received two different chain-letter-style emails about the price of gas today. They were both completely idiotic.
#1. A petition.
The first was a petition that we're all supposed to sign and forward. Riiiiight. That's always on the up and up. The petition is intended to go to the president so that he will do something about gas prices. Something like, um, what, exactly? Issue an executive order mandating that gas can't be more than $2.60 a gallon? While he's at it, can he issue some sort of executive fiat in which Rubio's fish tacos go on sale too? I like those. I also like free markets, and they occassionally lead to things like price run-ups. The best part about the petition was that it was forwarded to me by a friend of mine who drives a Lincoln Navigator, which is generously rated at 13mpg last I checked.
#2. A boycott.
This defies all good sense. Apparently, we're all supposed to "teach OPEC a lesson" by boycotting gas stations on September 1. Here's the obvious problem with that: we'll all go back on September 2, because I don't think we have any non-gasoline options for our cars. For instance, I don't think any of us can say "screw OPEC!" by throwing a Duraflame log in the tank and driving around all day. Last I checked, boycotts were effective when one could take one's business elsewhere. So, by boycotting the nation's gas vendors, we'll turn to...um...coal? I don't think anyone at OPEC will be quaking in their boots because we just might stop using gas, because we won't.
It seems quite obvious: there is a limited supply and growing demand. Even if we all switch from Hummers to Priuses (what the heck is the plural of Prius?), China's oil imports grew by something like 35% last year, so global demand is going up pretty much no matter what. Things would certainly be better if we curbed our ravenous thirst for gasoline here in the states, but let's be honest: it ain't going to get better by boycotts or executive fiat.
Houses are expensive too. Can we do something about that? I've got it - we'll all just boycott houses and live outdoors!
posted by Kevlar Pinata @ 9:08 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Right on, Kev. I got two or three of those chain letters this week, too, and I'm alwasy surprised that people keep forwarding those. They're all posted on snopes.com along with reasons that the emails themselves are hoaxes. Your instincts and reasons are correct about why they won't work. (Also, BTW, if you check snopes.com for the "nina totenberg of npr" email, you'll see that it's a hoax, too. I've been seeing this email for years and can't believe that it still gets passed around.)
Anyway, I guiltily drove a Jeep Cherokee for 18 months, and paid a lot of money to happily get rid of it. Now I drive a Saturn, which is at least reasonable on the gas mileage. Next time, if I can afford it, I'm definitely going to a hybrid.
Here's the other thing that gets me about this. I hear everyone on the radio talking about how far you have to drive in order to recoup the cost of the hybrid. And that, my friends, totally misses the point. If it's about recouping costs, we're not in the right frame of mind. If it's about doing the right thing, well, now we're on to something.
This country is a big fat gas hog, and now we're upset because China needs some gas, and demand is up, and therefore prices are up. No government sanctions will work for that, because the Saudis will be happy to not sell us oil (since they have plenty of other customers). And they are under no obligation to reduce prices because we're unhappy.
We need to reduce demand on a long term basis...not for just a day. And this has to sink in to our collective conscious across the board. We don't have an inalienable right to fossil fuels. Economics will keep them expensive whether we like it or not.
So we better get smarter about using the fuel we have, and we might want to start investing in some windmills. Seriously.
We are big fat gas hogs indeed. Nicely said.
I think I might have made it sound like I think switching from Hummers to Priuses (darn it! I still don't know what the plural is!) would be an exercise in futility. I actually believe it would do a great deal of good for us to rather aggressively jettison our gluttonous road beasts, but I also recognize that global oil demand doesn't seem to be a solely American-driven dynamic anymore. I'm not advocating a legislated prohibition on gluttonous road beasts, of course - I'm too much of a laissez-faire guy for that.
Maybe need to clone some dinosaurs, kill them, turn them into fossils, and derive crude oil from that. Seems simple enough, right? (Imagine winking emoticon here.) That actually may be easier than getting us to collectively and voluntarily deny ourselves the pleasure of driving cars the size of small houses, even if doing so might actually make a difference.
Anyone wanting to stick it to Big Oil (or whatever) should get serious about upping their mpg first. Failing that, no more email petitions, please.
I am also hereby declaring my candidacy to be Teodoro's vice-mayor, or energy czar, or chancellor of the exchequer or something. Never mind that I don't live in Chicago. We've got us a plan, my friends. Windmills, no small planes, and discount fish tacos.
Rock the vote, yo.
Discount fish tacos... I'd pay full price for a good one in Chicago.
I believe the plural of Prius is Priumni.
Coupla tree tings.
"collective conscious" vs. "collective unconscious" vs. "collective conscience". i'm very confused. my psychology studies sometimes make things more confusing rather than less so. i think the appropriate term in this context would be 1) collective conscience, and then 2) collective unconscious. two totally different meanings, but either of them would work for the point i was trying to make. my original choice of collective conscious seems to be flat out wrong. like, we're all awake, right? no shit.
fish tacos. mmmmmmm. best fish tacos I ever had was in Homer, AK, and I recommend to each and every one of you that you go there to get one. they're not exactly discounted, since it'll cost you a grand to get there and back, but the halibut taco is way worth it.
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