Now that we are seeing below $60 a barrel oil, and under 1.90/ gallon gasoline, we are showing the world that we are not controlled by the OPECERS. We can now go back to the way things were with our building and going places to encourage commerce. In addition to that, prices for goods should come back down, mainly because the cost of getting stuff from point A to B is cheaper. As we saw after Katrina oil went up and gasoline followed the trend. Fuel was more expensive and therefore to ship anything around the country was more expensive. Those days are over, hooray for our side!
Not so fast, we have forgotten something, oh yeah the federal and state pigs. All of the times that they have told us to cut back and conserve, has come back to haunt them. Now they want to increase the tax on a gallon of gas to make up for the money they misspent…uh, I mean did not collect for repairs on roads and bridges. Yup all us good citizens did what government suggested and as you all well know, no good deed goes unpunished. Our infrastructure is “suffering” from a drop in funding, namely through the collection (or decreased collections) of fuel taxes.
“Lawmakers from both parties are eager to find a way to fund politically popular transportation projects. But one possible solution – an increase in the gas tax, which was last raised in 1993 – is considered unrealistic in an election year.”
This from an LA times article reporting about California’s budget shortfall of funds.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/21/nation/na-highway21
And here is another gem to consider reading
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/states-flirting-with-higher-gas-taxes/
And a quote from a Greg Mankiw, who I know does not speak for even the smallest minority of us that have to drive on a daily basis. He is a professor from Harvard, he knows better than the rest of us.
“For a long time I have felt the price of gasoline in the United States was way too low. Pretty much all economists believe this. Greg Mankiw blogged back in October about the many reasons why we should raise gas taxes.
The reason we need high gas taxes is that there are all sorts of costs associated with my driving that I don’t pay — someone else pays them. This is what economists call a “negative externality.” Because I don’t pay the full costs of my driving, I drive too much. Ideally, the government could correct this problem through a gas tax that aligns my own private incentive to drive with the social costs of driving.”
You can read his blog here:
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/10/pigou-club-manifesto.html
Well good for him, if he wants to pay more for gasoline, but try passing that one on to those who are unable to bear the brunt of 2,3 and even 4 dollar per gallon gas: you know for things like… going to work and earning a living for your family. In short he does not really understand the plight of the “proletariat” (to use the language of the Harvard elite) or those that have to work for a living. If he thinks that he drives too much……then he should, I don’t know……STOP, duh! Boy for someone who claims to be from Harvard, that boy ain’t to bright.
But are we not forgetting the main goal here, to reduce and reuse when possible. I mean that is the energy conscious mindset, right? Let me ask this Harvard man what will happen when the government increases the tax by $1 per gallon and people use other than gasoline to get around in, another new tax will be invented to keep feeding the pig. But what happens when the will of the people crosses the will of the government, the people usually get crossed out. Watch what happens to Prop.8 in California. Well enjoy paying $1.75 per gallon, because if politicians see their “fun” money dry up then they will ask you to do with less. Notice how government never cuts back, but expects you to. An old saying in government, “We have upped our standards, so up yours!”
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