Regular gas here is $2.31/gallon at the station I went by this morning and I know some places nearby are probably a little less. I already forget exactly what it rose to but it was well over $3.00 per gallon about a month ago. The market is a beautiful thing, supply goes up, demand goes down, prices fall. I recall the doomsayers seeing $3.00+ gasoline and predicting prices wouldn’t be back to this level anytime this year, maybe never. So for those who ran out and paid a huge premium buying that hybrid based on $3.50 gasoline, they better recalculate their payback period.
Here at The Kneeslider, we’re eternally optimistic about everything, buy and hold, bet on the U.S.,today’s great, tomorrow will be better, more energy, less crisis, life is good. Whatever problems arise due to short term energy shocks and long term changes, we’ll deal with. Energy prices will rise again eventually but high performance will always be around. There are too many garage tinkerers to let things go slow. Guys are already putting turbos on hybrids and I see even Subaru is thinking of doing the same, and I bet that really bugs the heck out of the first hybrid buyers who now drive expensive slugs.
There is a segment of the population always ready to believe the worst about the coming days; we’re running out of oil, bioterror, avian flu, hurricanes, floods, tornados, locusts, run for the hills, ahhh!!!! Calm down. We humans are an incredibly resourceful bunch and the more optimistic we are, the more we believe we’ll come up with solutions to our problems and the more energy we’ll put into looking for those solutions. Answers and solutions tend to build on one another, solve one problem and another becomes easier to deal with. It’s called life. Sometimes it almost appears those gloomy folks get uncomfortable when things go well, they have to wonder if all of their gloom is misplaced and besides, they don’t get to run around smirking and saying “See, I told you.”
Don’t concentrate on the bad stuff, think about what’s going well. Turbos on hybrids, gas prices are falling, 9 second Harleys, …smile!
see also: High gas prices, smile!
the Wall Street Journal has some thoughts
and the National Association of Manufacturers chimes in
Johnny Huh? says
I ran the numbers the other day, it costs me $.06 a mile to ride my V-Strom in to work and $.18 a mile to drive my Escape. Guess what I take to work most often?
Yeah, its also alot more fun and faster too!