Rantings and tirades of a frustrated economist.
I am contributing to this curve! It's almost gotten to the point that flying is cheaper than driving, so why not speed the trip up a bit!
Probably not.The Chinese and Indians
How does one measure something like that?
Anon,I don't know, even the Chinese and the Indians only have so much of an economic limit they're willing to pay for gas before it starts to eat into their economic growth.
And it's not like the Indians and Chinese have had a long legacy of cheap gasoline. Theirs is a long legacy of bicycles and other motorized two wheel transport. Ours is of large gas guzzling 4 wheel behemoths. I'd bet that a price elasticity chart comparing India/China/US would put the US on inelastic side, with India and China on the elastic side.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080529/us_nm/usa_workweek_dcThere's something you should be happy about, next stop is telecommuting.Now, with respect to OPEC shooting itself in the foot, how do you figure? They're willing to price something at a level that someone else is willing to pay for it. If you don't want to pay the standard price for oil that's set by OPEC you will find substitutes or workarounds to compensate for the increase in cost based on your elasticity for the product. Isn't that standard ECON 101?American innovation and might make the realities of those substitutes really close, too. Alt energy, redefining "work", or even a new invention will happen when there's enough of an economical desire or push (besides OMFG GLOBAL WARMING FUD) to get America off expensive gas, and maybe then the price of oil will react or further be relegated to special purposes (light flight, rail, etc). But once there is a product that can compete with oil, expect OPEC to reap the benefits of that as well, just not on the same scale as they have with their oil. Remember, they're drilling with Western designed derricks, sailing Western designed ships, driving Western cars, and even eating American genetically engineered crops, all purchased with American dollars :)
They need to show that chart per capita.
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