Price of Gasoline

A recent article on the internet caught my attention. The article was entitled why we should love $5.00 gasoline. With prices here in my community topping out at $4.19 I was intrigued and read the article. I did not know if they were serious or if it was written tongue in cheek, but here are the reasons we should love $5.00 gasoline.


Fewer people will die on the road.  The less you drive, the more likely you will survive. Perhaps this might be good thing. Of course they might get angry because they are cooped up in the house as well, so who knows where their anger might take them.

Demand for high-mileage cars may grow.  The key word here is "may." The idea is that as gas prices continue to climb people will want to purchase a car that is not as dependent on gasoline. Of course this whole idea is based upon a person’s ability to purchase an overpriced hybrid to begin with.  The new Chevy Volt cost about $46,000!  Of course there is a corollary to this as well.  With so many of us driving hybrids, there will be less need for gas stations and we will see more people out of work as the oil companies start laying people off.

Shorter security lines.  Airlines fares are extremely fuel-price reactive. Soon, hardly anyone will be able to afford to fly anywhere they want and you will be able to walk through the airport check out without any delays.  This one actually made me laugh.

Less pollution.  Less driving means cleaner air. I think there might be a conspiracy going on here so that we can protect the earth from those of us who like to pollute by driving our gas guzzlers.

Less congestion.  The road you will travel will have fewer vehicles to contend with. I am not sure how this one helps if the people are not able to afford to drive to work anymore.

High prices lead to lower prices. Here is the idea behind this concept. As prices escalate, the government will be forced to open up other areas for oil exploration, which will lead the oil companies to invest in reaching the harder to reach oil reserves. Eventually we will have so much oil on the market that it will drive down the price. Of course by then we will all be driving hybrids or using our horse drawn carriages and we will not need the suddenly lowered price of gasoline.

More exercise.  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that by 2020, three out of four Americans will be categorized as overweight or obese.  Great something else I have to look forward to.  Maybe I should drive to the gym and work out.  But I digress. With higher gas prices we will finally be forced to walk off some of that excess weight we gained because we kept going through the drive thru at McDonalds for a Carmel Frappe or through Starbucks for that White Mocha Chocolate. We might have to walk or ride our bike through the drive thru instead

End of wars.  According to National Defense Magazine, the cost of supplying our troops with gasoline is extremely high. Because of the higher prices we will eventually have to call all our troops home and we will no longer have to fund the three wars in which we are engaged. Of course those same troops will come home and not have a job or they will drive their cars, which will increase the traffic on our highways. Not to mention we will turn these countries over to militants who want to kill us. Since they will be the only ones able to purchase gasoline it will insure that they will fly more planes into our buildings. Okay, maybe I went a little overboard here.

Local businesses may profit.  If we can't afford to drive out to the Wal-Mart or The Home Depot, we may buy instead at the local supermarket or neighborhood hardware store. In addition, instead of buying produce from foreign countries we will be buying local produce. Of course that is assuming that the local farmers will be able to have produce since they will probably not be able to afford the gasoline that is needed to bring the produce to market.

It's all about democracy. If we let up on the gas pedal, we will starve those oil-rich dictators out of existence. That will show them!

I did not take much of this very serious as you can tell by my remarks. But it does cause me to wonder how $5.00 gasoline might affect the local church. Would attendance decrease because people want to conserve their gasoline? Would finances decrease because people no longer have the money needed to make charitable contributions? Would the church have to decrease its activities so that people could stay home and conserve gasoline? If money decreases in the church, would we have funds to help those in need of gasoline money?

One good thing I see about higher gas prices is that I could become more like Jesus: He walked everywhere?