Constant grumbling about high gas prices, which have no doubt affected most of our spending habits, is of no use, because these prices are surely here to stay.
There could be some reduction in the price at the pump. But, the idea that gas will be cheap again is wishful thinking.
As long as global demand keeps increasing and the supply of this finite resource becomes less certain, the trend will continue. No kind of drastic action our intrepid lawmakers are willing to make––whether it’s drilling for more fossil fuels in Alaska or levying extra taxes on oil companies’ gigantic profits–– is likely to drop the consumer price far below the current nationwide average.
So instead of complaining about it, let’s embrace this major change as a way to get America back to the good old days. Not too long ago, most Americans practiced the simplest way to keep cash in your pocket: conserve, and on everything you buy. Past generations knew how to make a little go a long way. That is, in fact, one reason this country is so rich today.
Little by little, we can already see modern Americans starting to rediscover the value of conservation. Demand for gasoline in America is down by about 400,000 gallons per day from one year ago. Big gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles are waning in popularity. Their sales have steadily declined for the past year. Sales of more fuel-efficient and hybrid cars are going up.
And more people are looking to gas-free methods of transportation. While travel on horseback, which was popular way back in the good old days, is not feasible again (though it could be soon), more Americans are riding a bicycle to work. In some big cities, sales of bikes (those machines that date back to the 19th century) have jumped 70 percent or more in recent months.
And remember when there was almost no traffic on the roads in Jasper? This could be remedied by using less gasoline, whether that means more biking, walking, or car-pooling.
What is more, when Rudolf Diesel invented the engine that bears his name (back in 1892), he made it to run on peanut oil. Modern diesel engines can still run on this resource, which is renewable, unlike petroleum. If we ran our school buses, transfer trucks and cargo ships on peanut oil today, then maybe everything we buy, as well as our taxes, could be as affordable as they were in the good old days. And American farming would still be booming.
Perhaps best of all, back in the good old days, neighbors performed life’s activities together. Food, furniture, clothing, even appliances were produced locally and consumed locally. As a result, everyone knew each other and socialized together.
Not so today, as big American companies that produce these goods have moved jobs overseas since the 1990’s, because production costs are cheaper there. Even fruit and vegetables at the local grocery come from thousands of miles away.
But according to a recent article in the New York Times, some companies are starting to bring their operations back to America, because that’s where their products are consumed, and the cost of fuel to transport goods across the ocean is cutting into profits.
It really just makes sense for things to be produced as close as possible to where they’re consumed. We win again if three million American manufacturing jobs, lost since 2001 (the good old days), come back to our shores.
True, high gas prices aren’t any kind of blessing that will cure all the ills of our society. But since we can’t lower the cost of this expense, we can look at it as an opportunity to simplify some aspects of our complicated lives and to get closer to the way life used to be lived in the good old days. |
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