Isn't $5.00/gal gas what everyone wanted?

Question

We are now importing less foreign products. people are driving less therefore creating less greenhouse gases. The economy has slowed causing illegal immagrants to stop coming here and actually forcing many that are already here to go back to their country of origin. I thought this is what everyone wanted, why aren't more people happy with it?

Answer 1

Touche. :-)

But surely you've heard and read all those stories about people who get what they wish for? Every culture has them, and the result is always disaster. Was Midas happy when he turned his daughter to gold?

But, as usual, it is the other (often unmentioned) clauses in the wish that cause the problems:

1. People might want the results they ask for, but they'd rather not pay the costs. In this case, not only higher gasoline prices, but also higher prices of other goods and services, now that the cheaper labor is less readily available. It is so much easier if everyone else drives less but gas is still cheap enough for you to be unaffected.

2. The results are enough to be painful, but nowhere near enough to be really helpful. A 5% drop in car-miles traveled  is a big dip from one perspective (far higher than anyone 10 years ago thought could ever happen), but it is a long long way from from even keeping green-house gas emissions constant, much less reducing them.

3. People don't appreciate the idea that the baddies such as Hugo Chavez, the Russians, and maybe even the royal family of Saudi Arabia are living high on the hog on their money.

But even if we ignore these factors, people are never happy for very long. What have you done for me lately?