When we went through this in the 70's, I said I felt like I was living on Little House on the Prairie, making a big trip to town every two weeks and otherwise making do, like stopping on the way to work for milk.
The likelihood that we'll soon be facing a similar situation as we did in the 70's is very high, which brought a pretty severe recession, so much so that it may in fact we may be facing a situation very much worse, with the present administration's 'war on gas and oil'. Yes, yes, I know all about the misleading facts from the administration about leases, but that's not accurately representing all their other actions which effectively does nothing more than raise costs imposed on that industry.
What we are witnessing is the result of near religious anti-oil zealotry with supply chain disruption hangover from COVID, as well as the impact of the complications to global supply chains and raw materials sourcing caused by the Russian war on Ukraine. It's like the perfect storm. Almost if it were designed with intent and forethought.
Gas prices too high?
The US market has historically a lower market price tolerance than the European nations. I think it partially because of nation's people's differing characters as well as transportation options and travel distances in their countries.
Gas prices too high?
That's partially a matter of what the market will bear (elastic demand component) as well as partially what the market will be forced to bear (inelastic demand component). Everyone must realize that there are things that you won't do to skimp on gas expenses, and there are other things that you will do regardless of gas expenses. By this I mean that you aren't going to stop driving to work because of gas prices, but you might not drive long distances to attend that wedding in another state. Everyone is going to make their own decisions by their own priorities, which is an inherent 'feature' of a largely free market, i.e. everyone gets to name their own poison.
The part that those who welcome higher fuel prices (to make alternative sources more viable in the market) keep seeing to miss, higher fuel prices are always reflected in every store, grocery, cloths, house hold goods, every store, which you visit in the form of higher prices and increased inflation pressures. Seems that this aspect in the near religious zealotry support for higher fuel prices keeps getting missed or purposefully ignored, overridden by that near religious zealotry of eco-mentalism or eco-extremism.
