Is this really a bad thing? I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t want to pay more to the oil companies. It’s not fun to spend more money at the pump, while Exxon mobile records record profits. We all know this is pretty shady, and I hate it just as much as the next guy. But there is a positive side to this in my mind.
Somehow here in the US with gas prices continually going up, we continue to see the rise of gas guzzling vehicles as well. So are we really feeling the pain of high gas prices? It doesn’t seem like it to me.
So my question is, how high to prices have to get before America actually take fuel efficiency, and alternative fuels seriously?
Over the years we have developed amazing things. Amazing ways of generating power. There have been many alternatives to the gas engine proposed and built. Electric cars have been manufactured, and for he brief time in which they were offered, electric cars were in high demand. People were on waiting lists. (if you want to know more check out the movie “Who killed the electric car?”). So why do I see America still sitting around complaining about gas prices while they are filling up their 40 gallon gas tank.
I can’t really argue with why gas prices are high. It’s a product of capitalism. If the oil companies can get away with charging us that much for petroleum, why shouldn’t they? After all, the whole idea of working in a commercial society is to make as much money as possible. I’ll agree that it seems extremely unfair. But there are options. We can decrease the amount of gas we use if we really want to. Our society to a certain degree chooses to be dependant on oil.
Maybe if gas continues to rise we will eventually start demanding more fuel efficiency and begin looking for more viable alternatives. Just about everyone will say they want fuel economy, but if that really were the case for everyone when it came time to purchase a vehicle I think we would see a lot more options for fuel economy out there because of the demand.
Maybe crippling us with $5 per gallon gas prices is exactly what we need. A little kick to send us in the right direction.