by Clayton Griffin

Created on: May 07, 2008

The lawmakers should never free us from market forces. That is what makes our capitalist economy work. Besides, the government has had a pretty rough track record when it comes to controlling the energy market. For a couple of examples I submit to you the 1973 and 1979 Energy Crisis. I am too young to remember 1979 but I still get to hear my parents and grandparents talk about it. They had to wait in long gas lines that could last for hours and were only able to fill up on certain days. Ironically, Americans wasted 150,000 barrels of gas a day idling in gas lines, which seems a counterproductive to me. It kind of sounds like what the Communist Soviet Union was like, which is exactly what you get when you let the government intrude on the free market. It is reported that the oil companies artificially created oil shortages to drive up prices. Of course this wasn't true it had a lot more to do with the war between Iraq and Iran along with an Iranian oil workers strike in 1979. Of course even now there are people that claim the oil companies are to blame which causes people to kick around the idea that the government should get involved. It looks like history is on its way to repeating itself yet again.

The American way of life is going to be forced to change soon. I have already made the change I am talking about. Once gas went over two dollars a gallon I traded in my Explorer which got fifteen miles to the gallon, for an Accord which gets twenty five and I am now thinking of getting a Civic or even a motorcycle. Instead of looking at our means of transportation as a status symbol we are going to have to look at it as a tool. In 2006 the best selling vehicle in the United States was the Ford F series truck followed by the Chevy Silverado and the Dodge Ram was fourth. It is exactly the same for 2005. In 2004 the average price of gas was 1.85 a gallon. In 2005 it cost 2.27 a gallon. In 2006 gas saw 3.00 a gallon the following year it went over 3.20 a gallon and now in 2008 it is surging toward 4.00 a gallon. We have all seen the gas prices soaring over the past four years but as a nation we still buy the F-150s and the Silverados instead of something more fuel efficient. The market is working, as more and more of these vehicles are put on the road and eating more gas the less gas there will be for us to use and the price will go up. Once we start buying vehicles that are more fuel efficient we will start to see the price of gas go down. It seems a little ridiculous for us as a nation to ask lawmakers to control the price of gas so we can continue to drive vehicles that are going to consume a lot of fuel which will increase our dependency on the remaining fuel there is. Instead of allowing the government to intervene and going back to the gas lines of 1979 we should just demand less gas and be thrifty in our choice of transportation.

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