Gas Prices: Suck It Up!
Y’know, I think I’m about tired of folks complaining about gas prices. Increased prices are simply an aftereffect of increased wages. We all like increased wages, but few of us like increased prices [unless we're selling something].
Do I like paying more for gas? No, not really. I’d like to spend my money on other things. But my demand for gasoline is pretty inelastic—I drive to get to work, and I drive to stay sane. It’s pretty inelastic for other folks, too, I’m sure. But, at the end of the day, the market generally finds a solution.
Now, do really poor folks have a beef here? Sure. Folks trying to hack it on minimum wage—don’t derail into a discussion of whether a minimum wage is a good idea; it’s the law of the land, so for now, let’s limit the scope of this discussion to the magnitude and not the existence—do get screwed out of this, because the artificial floor of the market hasn’t been indexed to inflation. [Mind you, there aren't a plethora of jobs around here right at that minimum wage, but they exist.] But Jesus was right … you’ll always have the poor with you.
But the next SUV driver I see in Madison complaining about gas prices on the local news … well, pardon me if I feel like punching ‘em in the face.
Allow me to be a liberal for a second…
Jesus was wrong. Poverty isn’t inevitable.
Okay. Resume the mild conservatism.
August 13th, 2005 at 00:34Millenia of economic stratification says otherwise.
August 13th, 2005 at 09:20Some people believe that anyone below the median income level is poor. They don’t understand the word median.
How many people do you know that make only the minimum wage? Is their labor worth what they are being paid?
Gasoline prices have not kept up with inflation for many years. Thanks, primarily, to engineers developing ways to suck crude out and refine it cheaper.
August 13th, 2005 at 20:36All I know is that I need a break, and I drive a very fuel efficient japaneese import.
This whole changing-my-entire-budget-just-so-I-can-drive-to-work thing sucks.
August 15th, 2005 at 16:48Allow my to be the bearer of truth for a minute:
When _steve said Jesus was wrong, the steve was full of crap.
Okay, resume unedited commenting.
August 16th, 2005 at 07:11Yeah, Heather, it’s not much fun. To respond to my dad’s question, this would have been painful for me when I was doing all the crappy jobs I did before I started co-oping [and yes, I had financial support from my folks at the time, but I was paying a goodly chunk of what I was doing], and I would’ve felt it when I was first co-oping, too [and at that time, I was making $11.21/hr.].
I’m hopeful that the end of the “summer driving season” will bring its annual dip in prices, and that further refining capacity will come online/be restored. Even I blinked when it took $30+ to fill up the truck this weekend…
August 16th, 2005 at 07:35$30? I unfortunately probably saw the last sub-$50 fillup on my truck. I love having a vehicle big enough for me… but dang, I was kind ahalf-heartedly thinking about trading it in for a hybrid yesterday when I saw gas at $2.50/gallon at the cheap stores.
August 16th, 2005 at 09:52Yes, my little four-banger is fuel efficient, Rick.
August 16th, 2005 at 09:53Yes, but gas is still cheaper here than most places overseas.
August 23rd, 2005 at 21:11More on Gas Prices
And again I say: “Suck it up!”
Gas Prices Graph, with adjustments for inflation.
Feel better now?
[HT to John. I :heart: jowilson.]
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August 27th, 2005 at 16:12More on TrackBack Timestamping
Most of the blognoscenti may well say that TrackBack is dead, but … just now, I realized that I hadn’t done proper linking between two entries, and so I sent a TB from an old entry to a new one. I thought about going in and editing the co…
August 29th, 2005 at 05:18That $2.50/gal is looking good now….
September 13th, 2005 at 18:19It might be time for a re-thinking of this opinion about gas prices. The local station near my home increased FOURTEEN CENTS in 24 hours! $2.75 – $2.89 for the cheap stuff! And this at a time when it’s reported that our oil reserves are at an 8 year high! Hello?
April 21st, 2006 at 00:38Gas Tax Yes, Oil Tax No
Tyler Cowen posits a compelling economic argument in favor of increasing gasoline taxes, rather than levying windfall profit taxes on oil companies:
May 1st, 2006 at 17:21Taxing gas prices puts an immediate burden on motorists, although the profits tax may bring higher pric…
I wish Gas were $20.00 a Gal. then they would make cars that ran on somthing else, like hydrogen or electricity. The answer isn’t lower gas prices, the answer is, screw OPEC. Americans just need to make cars that run something else other than oil.
May 29th, 2006 at 10:16So encourage your Congresscritters to increase the Federal gasoline taxes. The state and local guys are way too wimpy to do it in most places.
May 29th, 2006 at 14:33Dont worry poor people cant afford to keep up cars anymore, gas prices dont effect them. If you open your eyes you’ll see the people working minimum wage traversing on foot through the sprawl.
May 10th, 2007 at 00:20You sir, are an idiot.
Good Day
May 23rd, 2007 at 20:41You, sir, have paid zero attention to the logical argument made, nor the fact that this post is almost two years old. So, how about you take the advice of the spoof email address you used.
May 23rd, 2007 at 20:43Lets see we can go to mars. We can build a space station. You kind of get the idea. MB comes out with a car that is the size of my shoe and it only gets 35miles per gal. So why can’t we make a car that get 60 to 70 miles per gallon??? I have a 2 seater sports car that has a supper charger on it and I get 29MPG on the highway.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:52You can kind of fill in the blanks. I have this feeling the good old American public is getting the screw job. I don’t hear anyone talking about this on the campaign trail. But we know big oil is a big backer of our dear legislators.
Gas Prices and Fisking…
Every so often, a piece I wrote in 2005 about gas prices gets people leaving snide comments. I thought I’d fisk today’s, ’cause I’m feelin’ snarky.
March 26th, 2008 at 18:02Lets see we can go to mars. We can build a space station. You kind of get…
In Texas, and don’t make fun of Texas, minimum wage is $6.50 gas prices are 3.87. If They are rising gas prices why don’t raise minimum wage higher?
May 28th, 2008 at 02:26If we pegged wages to the increase of energy prices, it’d be an economic disaster. Please note that, in the original post—written nearly three years ago—I did argue that folks at the economic margins do have a beef. My rage was mainly aimed at SUV-driving yuppies here in my white-bread Huntsville suburb.
And with that, I’ll just close comments here. There’s nothing that seems to be added to the discussion at this point, as the people who’re commenting here clearly are missing my original point and venting—which, well, I understand. It sucks to pay $60 to fill my little WRX, but I made a choice and have to live with the consequences.
May 30th, 2008 at 17:27Poking the Bear…
Yeah, even I’m not terribly thrilled with gas prices these days, previous commentary to the contrary. But the point that I was trying to express back in August 2005 was perhaps better expressed by Robert Reich earlier this week, in his post abou…
July 4th, 2008 at 18:47