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Charles Krauthammer, the neo-con columnist who works across the street from my office, writes:
At $3 a gallon, Americans just grin and bear it, suck it up, and, while complaining profusely, keep driving like crazy.
At $4, it is a world transformed. Americans become rational creatures. Mass transit ridership is at a 50-year high. Driving is down 4 percent. (Any U.S. decline is something close to a miracle.) Hybrids and compacts are flying off the lots. SUV sales are in free fall.
The wholesale flight from gas guzzlers is stunning in its swiftness, but utterly predictable. Everything has a price point. Remember that love affair" with SUVs? Love, it seems, has its price too. . . ..
At $4 a gallon, the fleet composition is changing spontaneously and overnight, not over the 13 years mandated by Congress. (Even Stalin had the modesty to restrict himself to five-year plans.) Just Tuesday, GM announced that it would shutter four SUV and truck plants, add a third shift to its compact and midsize sedan plants in Ohio and Michigan, and green light for 2010 the Chevy Volt, an electric hybrid.
Krauthammer advocates a $2 a-gallon gasoline tax (yes, on top of what you are now paying) and says folks are paying $8 a gallon for gasoline in the U.K. right now, and we should be too -- if only we would jack up gasoline taxes.
Uh ... Great Charlie. Thanks for sharing. I know it's news to you that not everyone lives in million dollar homes in Bethesda, but I assure you that it's true. Some folks live check-to-check, do not have limousines taking them to their talk show engagements, and some people (gasp) even live in the American west where it's 80 miles to the nearest town. I suppose these folks can sell off their vast stock portfolios, take fewer vacations in the Bahamas, and cut back on maid service, but still ....
Where Krauthammer is right is that gasoline prices are reshaping the American and world economies. Within 10 years owning a Humvee or eight-cylinder SUV will be as unlikely as owning a horse and carriage.
Which should get us thinking about change. Because one thing is for sure: It's coming.
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1 comment:
We've been paying over $5 a (US) gallon here in southern Ontario for awhile now, over $6 for an Imperial gallon.
In Europe, fuel has always been very expensive, especially in the UK. That's why they drive tiny cars and a lot of people don't own cars.
It works for them because they travel much shorter distances regularly and have good transportation services, although rail service is not what it was even 20 years ago.
Our countries are big and very new - new enough to have been developed over large areas with the automobile in mind.
I read a comment in Fast Food Nation (I think) about railroads vs roads. The rail companies pay to install, expand and maintain the railroads, yet the public purse pays for road construction. Something to think about.
One of the truck plants was in Oshawa, Ontario, which has a history with GM of around 90 years. A lot of people are losing these auto-sector jobs so I'm glad to hear that the (former) Big Three are finally looking to provide the kinds of cars that people actually want and can afford, rather than focusing on what is really a niche market that got out of hand.
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