Three cheers for $4

To listen to the story painted by most of the media, high gas prices are destroying our society. Most of the major dailies have invested a considerable amount of time in running tragedy pieces about the terrible choices imposed by fuel costs.\nHowever, few seem to realize what a boon high gas prices are. Even though they’re painful now, there’s a definite upshot to this so-called “problem” that hasn’t received much media attention. \nFor so long, the intention of conservationists was to implore people to use less oil by appealing to their morality and love of the environment. But real change never took effect until the issue appealed to their wallet. Now everyone is a de-facto conservationist, and if we can keep oil prices high, we might end up building America into a sustainable country. Some might suffer from greater short-term fuel expenses until they change their behavior, but it won’t compare to the pain we’ll feel later if we can’t wean ourselves from overconsumption of oil. \nThe truth is that we’ve never paid the true cost of gas; we’ve merely shifted the costs from what we pay outright at the pump to what we lose by means of a polluted environment. Cheap oil builds lazy cities, cities such as Los Angeles whose lack of public transportation and sprawling, unorganized expansion creates logistical hassles and terrible pollution. High oil costs means cities that will be built or expanded with better public transportation and streets friendlier to bikes. It also means migration of people in cities without these things to cities that have them, which means more participants in a sustainable environment. \nExpensive fuel leads to healthier citizens. When it’s more expensive to drive, people are more apt to walk or use bikes, and thus burn off some of their extra calories. With all the national attention we’ve given toward trying to inspire people to be fitter, it never occurred to simply make laziness more expensive. A fitter populace is worth the extra dollar in the price of gas alone.\nMoreover, when you do decide to drive, you’ll have a better time of it. Fewer people using gas means less congested roadways, which means a shorter commute and a more pleasant driving experience. If you spend less time in traffic, you might recoup some of the extra expenses of high-priced oil through less gas wasted while your engine is idling.\nBut last week I heard speeches from the president and legislators on both sides of the aisle talking about how to make prices lower again. While we should indeed expand our capability to refine oil (the source critics often paint as the reason behind high fuel costs), we should keep the cost of gasoline the same, but through a tax instead of payments to oil-rich countries. It’s amazing – about the only issue Republicans and Democrats can cooperate on is one that is mutually damaging. The Democrats had plans to impose an oil tax before prices skyrocketed, and are facing such scorn now that they might rescind their idea. This comes at the worst possible time. More than ever, we need our politicians to stand resilient against what some people think they want.