Why Gas Prices Are NOT So Bad.

This is when you know you have too much time on your hands.

Facebook post of the day:

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A friend of mine mentioned that he felt a lot of people were moving back into the city because gas prices were so high they could no longer afford to commute. I tend to disagree and actually think all of this talk about gas prices killing the economy is just people making up news.

Once again if you stay away from the political sites you will find words like this

Consumers are "unfazed by higher gas prices," said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse in New York,  "This is a pleasant surprise on the overall picture for the economy."

 In 2008 when gas was at an all time high you heard words just like the above but it was drowned out my the media tryign to sell their news..

But two years later in 2010 when prices fell, spending on gas for an average American home totaled only $12 less per week according to numbers provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The reason gas is such big news is that we are constantly reminded of how much it costs.  If we had Milk prices every 5 blocks we would be up in arms about Milk being so expensive.  Plus, honestly, no one likes to buy gas.  The big reason for gas being in the news is IT'S IN THE NEWS!  The media blitz's us everyday to make sure our lives are filled with anger.

In Wisconsin we get Santorum ad's telling us Romney is JUST like Obama and  Romney has ad's telling us  Santorum is an idiot and both saying Obama is the true cause for high gas prices and then the news says GAS IS GOING UP ANOTHER PENNY!!!!    STAY ANGRY MY FRIENDS.   

Gas goes into the same category of thinking a balanced budget is a good thing.  It's not. Really, it isn't. Show me a country with a balanced budget and I'll show you a country that is stagnant. A balanced budget tells me that you are not looking at the future and your goal is to only to survive, not to thrive.

To thrive you would have to take a chance and spend.  When Walker said Wisconsin is in debt.  Well, YEA, we are.  But also we have the highest Credit rating you can have.  This means we pay our bills on time.  I have a mortgage, I'm in debt, but I also pay my bills on time, does this mean I'm fiscally irresponsible?  I'm not sure I could actually SAVE a few hundred thousands of dollars to buy my house with cash.  This is what a balanced budget would make me do.  I'd be living in an efficiency apartment  and nobody would be building homes.

Don't get me started on macro economics. It was my absolute favorite class in college.   


Back to gas prices.  The thing is gas rises so slowly that humans can adjust.  DJ drives 25 miles to and from work every day.  If gas prices went from $3.50 to $4.00 in one day that wold cost us an extra $5 a week.  So basically to cover that cost we would have to not drink one Coca-Cola a day or maybe instead of having a pizza and spaghetti instead.   Not that hard to recoup that cost. 

But we only go up 1 or 2 cents a week so over the long haul yea, it adds up but people have the ability to figure out how to deal with that.

Plus we're in the good gas season now and not that horrible winter gas. My Subaru gets 40 to 50 more miles per tank so price per mile has actually gone down in the last few weeks.

 I'm done - I have not completely bored myself

See ya.