The difference from 1980 is that Americans are driving more than ever. Imagine the aspiring homeowner who decided in light of the high cost of NYC real estate to buy in the Poconos- surely these prices have to be causing reevaluations of those business decisions.

I agree that Americans need to be driving less but it should be understood that market forces do indeed use force. Progressives should be conscious of these hardships and work to provide a cushion to such a regressive ‘tax’ as a high gas prices. If this ‘cushion’ comes in a form unconnected to the amount of gasoline used (for example, 500 dollars per family) the market will still be pushing people away from cars but the burden of shifting from automobiles doesn’t have to be borne on the backs of the working class.

Of course, I wish that the government had been imposing this tax on gasoline before the oil companies got to but the point remains the same.

Maybe people are still buying SUVs because the price of gas is not really high, at least in historical terms. Gas and oil are commodities and like corn and pork bellies are priced over time in a futures market that predicts, or at least attempts to predict, the price cycle of the commodity. What is different about gas and oil is that they are not making any more of it, it is not in that sense renewable.

$3.00 or $4.00 a gallon is no where near the post WWII high for gas when adjusted for inflation. Gas today is maybe 65% of the high from the Carter years. And, when you consider that oil is not renewable there has to be some consideration that overtime it should be expected to outpace inflation as the remaining pool of the sludge diminishes.

I, for one, am tired of hearing about how “high” is the price. People pay a price for their vehicle miles, if more of that cost goes to the pump, less goes to the sticker price. That is what is happening to Detroit. To the extent more is going to fuel the vehicle (marginal cost) less will go the buying the vehicle (fixed costs (and UAW pensions and Health and Welfare and wages)).

Discussions of gas price should include an adjustment against the Consumer Price Index and should be analyzed in the post war (Vietnam) era. Hell, that was 40 years ago now.

I just got an email from moveon.org pushing legislation to lower gas prices. Um, no thanks.

Me too. The subject was “$4 a gallon?!” I wrote back asking them to let me know when they start supporting a gas tax to push the price to $6 a gallon.

I agree the stats for the article were a bit vague, it still represents many of Americas twisted values and also there problematic finances,

big suv=big car loan/gas tank

yet still they are buying.

I gather that April 2007 prices were a good deal higher than April 2006, while large SUV sales were up a lot. That’s an anomaly. But one-month economic data are full of transient anomalies like that. The Chron should have held its story until full 2Q data were in.