I've been thinking about the rising gas prices and elections lately. A Minnesota congresswoman made a proposal for cutting gas prices. Most of the commentators I heard, or read, suggested that it really wouldn't work and that it was really more of an election publicity stunt than anything. That actually makes sense to me. The sound bite I heard on the news Congresswoman Bachmann said the problem with gas prices is supply and demand so we need to increase supply.
So I got to wondering, what if we decreased demand instead of trying to increase supply? What if we had a president that challenged us to lead the world in alternative clean fuel technology like we were once challenged to be the first country to the moon? Or really, what if we pulled out of Iraq? (Ignoring the military consequences for the moment) How much is the war draining our economy and driving down the value of the dollar? How much is our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan ticking off the countries who control the supplies of oil? If we were to leave, how might that effect the price of oil?
I admit, I hate where the price of gas has gone. I believe we've gone up around 400% in the past decade (I believe it was around the year 2000 when I was still paying around $1 per gallon). However, I wonder if this won't end up having some positive consequences. Will it drive us to new discoveries and technologies? Will it finally force us to make some decisions about life style that maybe we should have made previously? What do you think?
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