I have noticed how $3+ per gallon for gasoline is not really a concern anymore. Just a few years ago when gas rose to above $3 a gallon, people were panicking saying they could not afford that high of gas prices. We had managers at the office pushing us in IT to significantly expand our VPN capabilities so that employees could remote from home. Once the recession hit and gasoline dropped to below $2 a gallon, the topic dropped. Now that gas is in the low $3 range, we rarely hear anything about it. People don't seem to be panicking anymore as they did before. We don't even see people remoting in much anymore at the office. I don't seem to understand why it is no longer an issue if it was an issue 3 years ago.
Desensitization. And really I thought having it at a level of attention was a good thing, since it forced people to think about many of their decisions. People like to complain a lot for little things...look at the whole Netflix price increase or the $5 a month debit card thing. Do you really think a couple of dollars more a month is going to break someone already spending money for a luxury? Granted, people who commute a lot to work feel it a lot more when gas prices go up. But for the majority, they could offset it by just planning their daily routes better or combining trips. Or not going out to eat a few times.
There have been 'fuel crises' since the 1970's, at least. Whether the discussion relates to oil reserves, depletion, availability or pollution and impact on the environment, the fuel lobby has been holding the high cards. Everything that we presently do relies on fuel in one form or another. Nature grows our food, yet to harvest, process, transport and market nature's offering requires fuel, lots of it. Whether it is 100F+ or -35F as is presently the case outside my door, we require a lot of energy to moderate our living environments. We will whimper and whine about the costs of fuel, yet as suggested by Rhaedas, we will rearrange our priorities to accommodate ANY increase, at least until we learn to cope otherwise or determine a better source of energy and applications.
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I totally agree with you. I am all for high gas prices to change the American mentality. Most human populations have to be herded and a great herding mechanism is money.
As I understand it, those of us in the US already ARE paying the same prices as in Europe - the difference being the HUGE amount tacked on in European taxes.
Well yeah, but the end result is that we pay a lot more for a gallon than you guys do. Knowing why really makes very little difference to people.
It most certainly *can* make a difference - for example, exactly what benefit do Europeans get for paying all that extra tax? Is it really worth it?
Less debt. Lower infant mortality. Health care. Stuff like that. On the other hand, we get more wars.
We pay for that separately! 130+ euro per month for health insurance here, and rising. The government just needs more money from us to compensate for the millions of euros they waste on useless crap.
With any luck though, it will eventually lead to an increase in fuel efficiency and a measure of conservation that Americans simply can't - as a group - be arsed to do on their own, despite that it is for their own good in the long run. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! We have been far to wasteful for far too long, it is time to address that.
In principle, I can agree with that. However, reality is a bit different for many of us. Not everyone is willing (or able) to live close in to where they work, shop and where the kids go to school. Although it's slowly changing, America was pretty much founded on the principle of independent living and being crowded together like an ant hill (as it is in much of Europe and many large American cities) is almost unthinkable to may of us. Personally, I'm more than willing to pay the price to live at least an hour away from the metropolitan areas - it's noise, air pollution and considerably higher crime rate.
In all European countries there not much distance that people there need to drive and they have a much better mass transit system as well. In America a commute of over 50 miles a day isn't uncommon and Americans don't have a very good mass transportation service in most of the country.