Joel Stein at the Los Angeles Times describes the joy of $8 gas, and how life would be better if fuel prices were as high in the States as high as they are in Europe.

The media outlets never stop letting us know how Americans are writhing over the burdensome expense of fueling up their Chevy Tahoe for their 50+ mile, ass planted in a car seat for two hours commutes to work every day, how the poor woman on TV has to choose between heating her house and buying groceries as she sits in front of her Ford Explorer. They tell us of horrifying experiences of having to buy off-brand groceries and having to wear short sleeved shirts and open up windows to get some fresh air in lieu of high electricity expenses of keeping that central A.C. unit running the race against entropy.

On the surface, it is easy to feel frustrated by expensive fuel, but when you think further into the issue, this becomes a wonderfully GOOD thing for American society.

• Carpooling
• Massive increases in Public Transit ridership
• People getting their asses out of the car seat and onto bikes or foot, getting some exercise and all of the benefits that come along with that.
• Less money being spent on fast-food restaurants and drive-throughs - less caloric intake and all of the benefits that come along with that.
• New thinking about such things as telecommuting and 4-day work weeks
• Move towards more fuel-efficient vehicles.
• The financial incentive to move towards better sources of energy and better methods of operating society and using resources (which are already here and do not need to be "discovered" or "invented" ) is finally here.
• Less Air Pollution (due to less driving)
• Less Noise Pollution
• Less congestion and road rage
• Fewer traffic accidents
• Less CO₂ emissions and fossil fuel combustion
• "Reverse Globalization" bringing new life and jobs to the Rust Belt due to the expense of performing remarkably stupid moves such as shipping iron ore to China to be converted into steel and then shipping the steel back to be used.
• Smokers might have a financial incentive to quit; to stop spending dozens of dollars per week on smokes and put it toward gas instead.

I know that there are the comments such as "Well you don't have to commute to and from work each day" and "you don't have to support a family" and "you don't have to make these hard decisions between paying taxes, buying food, and buying gas!" There will be losers, and there will be winners. That's free-market capitalism at work. Love it or hate it, that's what is happening.. I do commute, by the way. To/from work in the summer ten miles round trip per day by bike or car, to/from home during school about once per month, 150 miles round trip.

Those people who cannot afford to fire up their 50 mile commute will find a home closer to their job, or a job closer to their home. Think of how much better that is for one's health - to not be sitting in a car for hours per day, and possibly walking or riding a bicycle, out getting fresh air and exercise.

It's the short-sighted "consumer" who lives in a 2000-square foot house fifty miles from where he works, driving a Ford Explorer, who expects the puppet-show government to "do something about the high price of gas" by feeding the addict with more crack (oil) while also keeping a war raging, spending almost as much money on its military as every other nation in the world combined. Anyone who fits that picture should start changing their lifestyle now, because it WILL change. Kick and scream as much as you please, the age of petroleum-fired, internal combustion-powered consumerism is reaching its twilight.

I don't have any sympathy at all for these people or the "American Way of Life" which we have allowed to balloon into a monstrous consumption machine, thirty-five years since the 1973 oil shocks. No presidential administration since Carter has had any type of energy plan, and the candidates running today don't seem to have anything better to offer - the same-old same-old - reducing the dependence on fossil fuels by drilling for more oil, cutting carbon emissions with Kentucky coal, and producing nuclear electricity whilst continuing to fight over what to do with the waste. Until recently the environmental movement promoting decreased consumption and efficiency was seen as a bunch of frightened wussies and laughed at. Who is laughing now?

For the socialism-phobes out there, the current situation has absolutely nothing to do with "commies" and socialism. It's pure CAPITALISM. The unregulated "speculators" that are constantly blamed for everything are part of the financial markets that drive the free-market system. Supply and demand is the free market at work. Regulate or fiddle with them, and you've just become more "commie"! Think about that before using the terms socialism and communism to describe anything and everything that you dislike.