Cry Me a River
There’s been a lot of discussion lately about gas prices.
This discussion has struck me as quite unusual since it has taken the tone of a discussion of the weather, which people are substantially impotent to control, and has applied it to a commodity price, which people are substantially empowered to control. News sources, blogs, and individuals all take the position inherently that high gas prices are somehow inherently problematic because consumers are all beholden to the sellers and that consumers have to pay whatever is demanded. There are even suggestions in the halls of the U.S. Congress and from the President that some government intervention, investigation, or control is needed to help out the poor victim consumers.
Bull.
This is exactly the kind of myopic “solution” we don’t need. People are worried about $4.00/ gallon of regular ($3.99 in Needles, CA today... http://www.gaspricewatch.com/new/) because they assume tacitly that when prices double their cost will too. Don’t panic; don’t grab your gun and run for the hills; and - please - god - don’t watch American Idol. The above tacit assumption is erroneously based on an assumption of inflexibility in demand. That is, it assumes that demand is substantially constant with price: that no matter the price, consumption will be about the same.
Why in the world is that a good assumption? It starts out subordinating the consumer to the supplier when they should be equal partners to all transactions. What will it take to get consumers to think of themselves as active partners able to affect change in their behavior and therefore in prices? In the words of the Calvin’s Dad of Calvin and Hobbes fame, “I hope gas goes up to eight bucks a gallon.” Maybe then the gas consumer will at least start to think of gas as a flexible commodity of which he can buy less as prices go up. I’m not advocating some moronic one day boycott; I’m referring to real long term changes: start car pooling, ride a bike to the store, buy a manual/electric mower, rent a hybrid for the family vacation, maybe even allow fuel efficiency to factor strongly into vehicle purchase/leasing decisions, etc…
Bottom line: if you don’t like the price of a commodity, change your buying habits.
This discussion has struck me as quite unusual since it has taken the tone of a discussion of the weather, which people are substantially impotent to control, and has applied it to a commodity price, which people are substantially empowered to control. News sources, blogs, and individuals all take the position inherently that high gas prices are somehow inherently problematic because consumers are all beholden to the sellers and that consumers have to pay whatever is demanded. There are even suggestions in the halls of the U.S. Congress and from the President that some government intervention, investigation, or control is needed to help out the poor victim consumers.
Bull.
This is exactly the kind of myopic “solution” we don’t need. People are worried about $4.00/ gallon of regular ($3.99 in Needles, CA today... http://www.gaspricewatch.com/new/) because they assume tacitly that when prices double their cost will too. Don’t panic; don’t grab your gun and run for the hills; and - please - god - don’t watch American Idol. The above tacit assumption is erroneously based on an assumption of inflexibility in demand. That is, it assumes that demand is substantially constant with price: that no matter the price, consumption will be about the same.
Why in the world is that a good assumption? It starts out subordinating the consumer to the supplier when they should be equal partners to all transactions. What will it take to get consumers to think of themselves as active partners able to affect change in their behavior and therefore in prices? In the words of the Calvin’s Dad of Calvin and Hobbes fame, “I hope gas goes up to eight bucks a gallon.” Maybe then the gas consumer will at least start to think of gas as a flexible commodity of which he can buy less as prices go up. I’m not advocating some moronic one day boycott; I’m referring to real long term changes: start car pooling, ride a bike to the store, buy a manual/electric mower, rent a hybrid for the family vacation, maybe even allow fuel efficiency to factor strongly into vehicle purchase/leasing decisions, etc…
Bottom line: if you don’t like the price of a commodity, change your buying habits.
posted by Minotaur at 9:04 AM
1 Comments:
I burn 5 gallons a gas a year in lawnmowing (suburbs, what are you gonna do?) and drive 9 miles to work each way (1/2 to 2 gallon a day, hybrid to Hummer). My vehicle is about half a Hummer, so I can directly modify my fuel consumption by almost a half gallon a day if I buy a new car and by .013 gallon per day if I buy a goat.
I don't need a new car or want a goat. At $8 a gallon, I still don't need a new car or goat, I'll just pay $5 more per day or $150 a month and spend that much less at Walmart. I'll have to sit around the house being slackjawed as opposed to going out to do it in public. At $20 a gallon, I'll reconsider.
In the meantime I will continue to take the beating at the pump. It saves a car payment and beats being a grease spot on the side of the highway on my new Chinese bicycle (plus saves me an hour of cycling per day, I don't have enough time as it is). My next car, in about 3 or 4 years, will get better mileage.
All the rest of the fuel used in my name (groceries to the store, etc) is out of my hands.
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