I know I have already written about my pet peeves on several occasions, but since more things keep popping up to annoy me and I have a public forum on which to discuss them, I guess I’m going to continue to do so.
This week several things began to get on my nerves. That may be due to the fact that I have gotten relatively little sleep and no amount of coffee seems to make up for that, but several things are bothering me much more than usual.
First and foremost, because it was the most recent, is yesterday’s gas boycott. I’ll admit, I did not buy gas yesterday, but that’s just because I like to let my car run until only the little light comes on and I have at least three more miles before that will happen.
I understand the concept of the boycott. In college, I took courses on micro and macro economics, although I can’t tell you why. (I don’t think I realized what I had signed up for until it was too late.) If the demand for the gas seems to drop, so will the price. It all goes along with that bell-curve thing that I don’t really seem to remember, but I’m pretty sure the theory makes sense ... until you look at what will happen the next day. Using the same barely-remembered college logic, the next day people will buy more gas, demand will go up and nothing has changed at all.
Who would have thought, a concept thought up in a chain letter could possibly be faulty? According to AAA, gas prices have actually gone up since yesterday. It’s like the big oil companies are a parental figure, punishing the boycotters for acting up.
It’s not that I enjoy spending the majority of my paycheck to pay for gas each week, but I don’t think a quick fix solution is going to do anything. We as Americans either have to accept the high prices or change our habits and learn to use less fuel. Believe it or not, the oil companies enjoy making money, and they are learning that no matter how high they raise the prices, there will still be a steady demand for their product ... except for that one day a year when people decide to boycott.