High price of gas got you down? Tired of giant oil companies ripping you off? Regretting that you bought that 2021 Ford F145 Raptor that gets 15 mpg? Wish you bought Exxon stock last year when it was still $32 a share and now is $85? Tired of toping off your tank with a Benjamin?
Experts tell us that Americans won’t change their driving habits until the price reaches $5 a gallon. That’s why prices are predicted to go up to $4.999/10. Government can only do so much. Suspend the gas tax and save 18 cents a gallon, unless the gas companies just raise the price that much on the sly. They might try it, they’re barely making billions as it is.
Reinstate “cash for clunkers?” Trade in your Hummer for an electric car and get free gas for a month! Republicans would rather pay than switch.
What can one little person realistically do to effect the world oil market besides blame Joe Biden? Even a surge in oil production and refinement will take over a year to hit the market. No, there’s no “supply side” solution to the gas price crisis. The truth is that they control the supply and choke it off to “pump up” the price whenever they want.
But we control the other side of the economic equation. My suggestion is two words, “supply and demand” (and I know that that’s three words) are the answer. Reduce demand and the price will go down. Not as fast or as much as it went up, but the law of supply and demand is the one law that giant corperations can’t break with impunity.
But I digress. Driving less uses less gas, saves you money, drives down the price, is good for your health and will save the climate. It’s a win-win-win-win-win-win situation! Like the man said, “That’s a lot of winning.”
Americans love fad diets, how about a driving diet? The less you drive the fatter your wallet will get. The sad truth is that most Americans would rather die of a heart attack then have to walk someplace. But it’s the answer to the crisis that the gas companies don’t want you to know.
Andy Morris-Friedman
Hadley