Pump Prices Met With Indifference
May 17th, 2007
Even as the price of a gallon of gasoline reaches a national average of $3.11, few summer travelers plan on adjusting their trips because of the cost at the pump. AAA is predicting 32 million Americans will hit the road for Memorial Day – an increase of 1.7% from 2006 – despite gasoline being 16% more expensive than a year ago.
If crude prices have fallen in recent weeks – as they have – then why is gas so expensive? Why aren’t there riots in the streets about this? Well, simply, people have accepted the slow unstoppable creep of gasoline prices as inevitable and are finding other ways to save money, from lower-end hotels to cheaper meals.
Environmentalists have a long-held belief that if gasoline were suddenly three (or six or ten) dollars a gallon, American consumers would rise up in some sort of transit rebellion. The truth is, people hate paying at the pump but see few other options to Big Oil. Until most Americans have access to alternatives, they face little choice.
A good first step, perhaps, is to divert the many, many taxes on gasoline from road maintenance to public transportation. The longer we continue to invest in a flawed system, the longer we will have to accept muttering under our breath at the pump.
Link via CNNMoney
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