This is typical liberal economic ignorance. OF COURSE driving faster uses more gas, and therefore contributes to increased demand for oil, and higher oil prices. But so what? This is a self-punishing problem. The natural liberal tendency is to try to force us to do something (i.e., conserve) to stave off the price increase, when the price increase will automatically lead to conservation anyway.
The problem is that this doesn't work. If people could be induced, either by law, custom, or Usenet harangues, to conserve enough gasoline to keep the price of oil from rising, then other consumers of crude oil, for instance Chinese industry, would simply see a lower price, and would consume more. Unless you can sieze control of the whole world and everything in it, and make every user of energy derived from crude oil conserve, efforts at conservation will be fruitless, merely resulting in, for instance, our driving slower so that the rest of the world can use more energy.
What's comparable to a CamryOver the years, the Corolla has gotten bigger a couple of times in the wake of the expanding Camry. (There are...
The solution is to do nothing, and let the price rise. This will automatically lead some people to conserve (the demand curve), and also lead other people to produce more (the supply curve). It will make alternative energy sources become economically viable, without requiring subsidies from the government, and without requiring that those of us who find the higher price of gas acceptable waste the most precious resource of all, time.
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Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
