How To Reconcile People's Love Of Cheap Gas Prices

Americans are having a love affair with the dropping gas prices.

People's elation with low gas prices makes sense at first blush, since they are now paying less money every time they fill up their gas tanks. However, when when you fully consider the bigger picture, I actually find these low gas prices very depressing, and am puzzled by my ideological isolation in this reguard. High gas prices are most definitely in our long-term self-interest - but most people either don’t care or don’t agree. So what can our leaders do if they want to solve the problems that are being created as a result of these low gas prices?

Option 1: Ignore Public Opinion

This is an easy option to take. Most people don’t really pay attention to what goes on at their state capital, or in Washington, DC. With all the other issues being debated, would there really be a populist uprising if the federal gas tax doubled? I honestly doubt it. Having said that, there are some dangers in undertaking such a legislative agenda. First, if you are in power and raise gas prices - it will be very easy for your opponents to blame you (instead of the market) for the higher resulting price of gas - which is something people hate. Speaking of enemies, you would be really upsetting some of the most powerful and evil corporations in the world, who spent over $100 million last year just in lobbying, which is just a drop in the bucket for them. Finally, simply ignoring people’s elation for low gas prices because it’s for their own good smacks of paternalism and conjures up images of Plato’s guardians ruling over the uneducated masses. There is a time and place for ‘eat your vegetable’ laws - but only when there are no viable alternatives to achieve an important societal goal, which is not the case with dealing with the bad effects of low gas prices.

Option 2: Change Public Opinion

Another option that our leaders could take is to launch a nationwide education campaign, to try and enlighten people about how low gas prices are actually bad for them. Once you gin up enough public approval for high gas prices then you can safely do something like raise the gas tax with the public on your side. While this type of strategy has worked wonderfully for movements such as women’s suffrage, civil rights, and marriage equality - I don’t think it would map quite as neatly onto raising gas prices. At the end of the day, it’s going to be pretty hard to convince people to enjoy paying more for an essential and inelastic good such as gas. Instead of trying to appeal against people’s natural desire for a good deal, it’s far more important to do what Bill McKibben is doing, which is getting people on board with the larger goals of cleaning up the environment, becoming energy independent, and stopping climate change while we still can.

Option 3: Embrace Public Opinion

Finally our leaders could simply embrace public opinion and find ways to actively keep gas prices low. I’m not talking about joining with cranks like Jim Inhofe who think climate change is a hoax, or shills like Big John Cornyn who recieved over a million dollars in campaign contributions from the oil industry last year. If you think deeply and systematically about the problem, you can see that there are ways to both combat the effects of low gas prices, without actually raising the price of gas. This has traditionally taken the form of obfuscation, such as raising fuel standards or providing military aid to Egpyt along with an active naval presence in the area to ensure oil flows through the critical choke point of the Suez Canal. There are many more creative ways where you can give people what they want (low gas prices) while also getting what you want (less fuel usage and a functioning global economic system). To me, the true mark of a leader is someone who can find these hidden win-win scenarios, and then make them happen.