Economics of Price Gouging and Gas shortages - Toyota Yaris Forums

Callisto · 10-31-2008, 05:20 PM

I think the idea of limiting gas purchases to greater than ten gallons is very telling as to the psychology going on with energy. It seems that a lot of people think you are SUPPOSED to be sucking up a huge amount of energy. That it is somehow vital to living in the modern, American world. If you aren't there must be something wrong with you.

Example: I pay about $15/ month for electricity. I do NOT live in squalor, (granted, I have no television service of any kind, so I am not running one of those energy suckers and heating here is included because of the law office down stairs being on the same heater) I simply do not consume more energy than is necessary. If i am not using it, I unplug it, avoiding phantom current. Whenever possible I use the laptop computer, eschewing the desktop's greater performance unless I want to do some photo editing or a little gaming.

When I tell people how little we pay for electricity, the first thing I usually hear is "what do you do, live in the dark?" No, I just turn my lights out when not using them and do not use 100 watt bulbs when a 25-60 will do. If we all applied this to our vehicles, the above articles would not be necessary as most people would be driving small commuter cars, and the trucks, suv's et cetera would driven by the people for whom they had true utility, and then only when they were needed. Somewhere, though we decided as a society that if you COULD afford to do it, you should not worry about economizing. Silly, and self destructive, it seems.

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10-31-2008, 05:20 PM	#2
Callisto Drives: '08 Hatch Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 43	I think the idea of limiting gas purchases to greater than ten gallons is very telling as to the psychology going on with energy. It seems that a lot of people think you are SUPPOSED to be sucking up a huge amount of energy. That it is somehow vital to living in the modern, American world. If you aren't there must be something wrong with you. Example: I pay about $15/ month for electricity. I do NOT live in squalor, (granted, I have no television service of any kind, so I am not running one of those energy suckers and heating here is included because of the law office down stairs being on the same heater) I simply do not consume more energy than is necessary. If i am not using it, I unplug it, avoiding phantom current. Whenever possible I use the laptop computer, eschewing the desktop's greater performance unless I want to do some photo editing or a little gaming. When I tell people how little we pay for electricity, the first thing I usually hear is "what do you do, live in the dark?" No, I just turn my lights out when not using them and do not use 100 watt bulbs when a 25-60 will do. If we all applied this to our vehicles, the above articles would not be necessary as most people would be driving small commuter cars, and the trucks, suv's et cetera would driven by the people for whom they had true utility, and then only when they were needed. Somewhere, though we decided as a society that if you COULD afford to do it, you should not worry about economizing. Silly, and self destructive, it seems.