Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Why You Should Smile at Higher Gas Prices
This post discusses how most Americans have become accustom to low gas prices and now that they are taking a chuck out of everyone's paycheck people are beginning to become concerned. In the post it is stated that the average American drives 13,500 miles per year. This on average results in about $2000 per year, per car that people are spending on gas. After doing some quick calculations of my own I realized that I spend approximately $2400 on gas each year. Mr Money Mustache points out four things. Cheap oil has caused people to waste gas, world oil use is growing faster than production, gas prices are based on world wide oil supplies, and if it were possible to lower gas prices people would only become more dependent on it. Mr Money Mustache also points out that if prices were to stay high enough for long enough than society would adapt to it.
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I am one of the whiners who complain about expensive gas. I love when gas prices are low and Mr. MM tells the truth when gas prices are lower, people tend to waste it, especially me. It makes sense that people would save their driving travels if gas was at a higher price, but my thought is what if people have to drive far distances to get to school or work and don't have a choice to cut back on their driving, like me or any other people who drive to Marion from Columbus. I do agree however with the fact that those people who don't necessarily need to drive all the time or for far distances would adapt to saving up on their gas.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I can't stand the feeling of paying $80.00 to fill my truck up, MMM is right. If gas prices just stayed at $3.30 all the time, instead of going from $3.30 one week and then the next $2.95, people would grow accustomed to the $3.30. By the way, those price examples are exactly what happened this past week. :-)
ReplyDeleteI think people complain too much about the gas prices. Right now the gas is a little over 3 dollars and people are complaining about that. The gas prices were almost 5 dollars in 2008-2009 but people just don't take everything for granted. I don't think society will adapt to gas prices unless it is 1 dollar per gallon and even then some people will complain.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why he would say that cheap oil caused people to waste gas when if the gas was cheaper, the gas stations would be making more money. And I don't think that gas prices will ever stay high since they're always changing. I agree that society would adapt to it, but by probably just sharing cars or riding bikes, not spending more money on gas.
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