Y’know, I think I’m about tired of folks complaining about gas prices. Increased prices are simply an aftereffect of increased wages. We all like increased wages, but few of us like increased prices [unless we’re selling something].
Do I like paying more for gas? No, not really. I’d like to spend my money on other things. But my demand for gasoline is pretty inelastic—I drive to get to work, and I drive to stay sane. It’s pretty inelastic for other folks, too, I’m sure. But, at the end of the day, the market generally finds a solution.
Now, do really poor folks have a beef here? Sure. Folks trying to hack it on minimum wage—don’t derail into a discussion of whether a minimum wage is a good idea; it’s the law of the land, so for now, let’s limit the scope of this discussion to the magnitude and not the existence—do get screwed out of this, because the artificial floor of the market hasn’t been indexed to inflation. [Mind you, there aren’t a plethora of jobs around here right at that minimum wage, but they exist.] But Jesus was right … you’ll always have the poor with you.
But the next SUV driver I see in Madison complaining about gas prices on the local news … well, pardon me if I feel like punching ’em in the face.
Gas Prices and Fisking…
Every so often, a piece I wrote in 2005 about gas prices gets people leaving snide comments. I thought I’d fisk today’s, ’cause I’m feelin’ snarky.
Lets see we can go to mars. We can build a space station. You kind of get…
In Texas, and don’t make fun of Texas, minimum wage is $6.50 gas prices are 3.87. If They are rising gas prices why don’t raise minimum wage higher?
If we pegged wages to the increase of energy prices, it’d be an economic disaster. Please note that, in the original post—written nearly three years ago—I did argue that folks at the economic margins do have a beef. My rage was mainly aimed at SUV-driving yuppies here in my white-bread Huntsville suburb.
And with that, I’ll just close comments here. There’s nothing that seems to be added to the discussion at this point, as the people who’re commenting here clearly are missing my original point and venting—which, well, I understand. It sucks to pay $60 to fill my little WRX, but I made a choice and have to live with the consequences.
Poking the Bear…
Yeah, even I’m not terribly thrilled with gas prices these days, previous commentary to the contrary. But the point that I was trying to express back in August 2005 was perhaps better expressed by Robert Reich earlier this week, in his post abou…