Americans Driving Less
Posted on June 19, 2008
Filed Under GENERAL, IN THE NEWS
US Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters reported that Americans are driving less in 2008 than in 2007. In fact, over the past 6 months, the amount of mileage has declined every month as compared to its 2007 counterpart. This just goes to show that the laws of supply and demand do work. Prices goes sky high, demand drops. I know I’m driving less. I have cut way back on my out-of-town travel, largely due to expense. I combine trips when running errands. I have the Fedex and UPS men come to me, rather than dropping off packages at the store. And, I have just replaced my faithful PT Cruiser (which sucks up more gas than you would think), with a nifty hybrid Prius. Well, almost replaced, as I’m on a 3 month waiting list, which should tell you something right there.
Gas prices will not continue skyward, I predict. I think a bunch of people on Wall Street are bidding up the price of oil, far beyond what it’s truly worth. Sooner or later, the bubble is going to burst just like it did in the early 80′s, or like it did for the dot-com stocks in the late 90′s. Prices may not go all the way back down to $2 a gallon, but I doubt we will see $6 gas any time soon. Then, what do I know?
Back to article, Secretary Peters is using the falling mileage to call for newer fees and taxes. Her reasoning is Americans are buying less gas, therefore, the government is getting less in taxes. Well, we can’t have that, can we? Seems everybody else is having to do more with less, the government should too. Of course government people don’t think that way……..
Comments
Leave a Reply
