The positive side of high gas price?

Question

i read news about there maybe relief about high gas price in the near future. it is a mix emotion for me to learn the news.

since the gas price break $4.50 /gallon, i start biking to office, not only save me money, i actually feel tired at night and rest well because of the forced daily exercise.

i see many positive things happening in our society during this gas hike:

1. the reduction of the gas guzzle SUV sales

2. car company compete to build energy efficient vehicles

3. the high gas price make people aware how precious the engery is and seriously look into conservation.

4. the public and private sectors now seriously looking into alternative feuls

our country had energy crisis in the past, unfortunately we learn nothing. SUV was developed after the last crisis. i actually hope the price will not come down - at least for another while, so we can deep rooted our new energy development and continue our conservvation awareness.

what do you think?

Answer 1

That still doesn't do good for poor people who are trying to buy food and other services. Since oil affects everything its not going to help a lot. The problem was our leaders saw this happened but didn't act fast to fix it.

Answer 2

High gas prices will influence all that you say, however it is not the end solution to the problem (is there any one solution? I doubt it. Certainly not a simple one!) - the problem here is that gas prices affect the price of everything. Not just travelling costs, but pretty much every other product that has to be transported anywhere increases in price.

Food is imported - that price goes up because the costs of transporting it increase. Increased living costs means many people start demanding higher wages to cover living costs. Higher wages pushes up the price of everything yet again. Inflation can be a vicious circle.

One of the biggest problems with inflation is it hits the poorest people hardest. So while the richest might not have so much money to spend on luxuries and the less rich have to trade down a car size, the poorest might not be able to afford as much food.

There is no magic bullet to the world's environmental problems. Higher gas prices aren't going to magically solve the problem. They might reduce them, but it will create a whole host of other problems.

Here in the UK petrol costs about $8.50 per US gallon, and we have not stopped using our cars.

Answer 3

What are you talking about when you say we learned nothing from the past energy crisis.  If you read up on it, you will find out that the reason for the energy crisis were price controls.  The price was controlled so that it was below the price the equated supply and demand.  A price below equilibrium results in a shortage.  What did we learn?  Price controls don't work.

Give me a thumbs down but what you were talking was the shortages of gasoline.  A shortage only results when the price is too low.  That's very basic economics.

Answer 4

thats so crazy...

everything you listed is what i have been thinking.

i believe this increases awareness and many people are now using more fuel-efficient ways of traveling such as walking or biking. i don't want gas prices to come down either. i agree with everything you said. thanks for bringing this to the attention of the people who aren't so happy with the gas prices. :)

Answer 5

I never looked at the situation like this. It's true that people are getting more serious about gas conservation and things like that. However, the gas crisis is breaking budgets. It really affects the little people, ya know.

Like I am just a part-time employee at a supermarket and still high school, most of my money goes towards insurance and gas....I can't really buy much else.

But if you really want to find some positive from THAT....it has definitely realize the importance of an education!

Answer 6

Both the positive side AND the real reason they're so high are one in the same.

To reduce the country's overall consumption.

These prices probably aren't high because its the only way the oil companies can profit. nor are they high because oil is "running out"