>Somebody just sent this to me. I have two questions:
>
>1. What are the merits of the claim that the 'gas out' worked in the past.
>It seems that after OPEC turned off the pump, it took a few weeks until the
>gas prices reached their current level. Why should we believe that a three
>day gas-out will have any, let alone lasting, effect on gasoline prices?
>
>2. Why should I help SUV-owners to ease their pain? The least I can do,
>short of installing SUV-seeking missiles on my manual transmission Saturn,
>is to laugh all the way to the pump when I imagine what these idiots must
>be paying to fill up their gas-guzzling monstrosities.
Gas prices are still pretty low by historical standards. If you divide the gasoline CPI subindex by the overall CPI, to get a relative price index for gas, you get:
1950 81.3
1960 82.6
1970 73.0
1980 113.6
1990 71.1
1999 51.4
2000 66.3
I'm sorry if it's pinching poor people's budgets, but gas in the U.S. is still scandalously cheap - still cheaper than bottled water, no?
Doug