I have always been a little puzzled by the obsession in the US with the price of gas. From as long as I can remember, the price of gas has been reported regularly in the news, even when the prices were not fluctuating. NPR news reports on the national average of gas prices on a regular basis. Michele Bachmann has even vowed that she will bring gas prices down to $2 if she is elected president though she does not say how. (Plunge the country into a deep recession? Invade all the oil producing countries?)
Why, among all the commodities, is the price of gas singled out for special mention and monitoring?
I understand that the price of gas influences the price of other things and so is perhaps a proxy for inflation but surely the cost of living index would be a better gauge? I also understand that this is a car culture. When my mother used to write letters (remember those?) to me from Sri Lanka, she would always quote the price of bread and coconuts as indicators of the cost of living. Maybe because it was because she did not own a car and besides, gas prices in Sri Lanka were controlled by the state.
Perhaps gas is focused on here because it is perhaps the only thing that we buy regularly in isolation. When it comes to other staples like bread or milk, which would serve equally well as rough indicators of the cost of living, they are usually bought in conjunction with other groceries and so their price variations do not stand out. Also, gas stations are everywhere and they post their prices in huge signs so you cannot avoid being aware of them.
If you were ask me the price of bread or milk, I probably could not tell you even though I buy them every week. This is because I have no choice but to buy these staples and can afford to, so there seems to be no point in agonizing over their prices. But I do know the price of gas, even though the same conditions apply.
Actually there may be another reason for the all-importance of gas. Gas (petrol elsewhere) fuels the “auto” “mobile”, the ultimate symbol by which to live out the individualism that has shaped our age, including the phenomenon of global warming.
To be self-mobile, encased in a protective shell, able to apply horse power that no cowboys or Indians could ever have dreamed of, at the slight pressure of one foot only, wrenching the chariot in any direction, made effortless by (gas-guzzling) power steering, gives a sense of power that is addictive.
So, the gas that powers our dominant ideology, our car and addictive pleasure, combines into powerful unconscious rationales for keeping a close eye on the affordability of this socially acceptable form of crack
You’re right Erik. There is a huge culture of driving large American cars that consume huge amounts of gas. I suspect that gas expenditure is one of the single largest items of weekly or daily expenditure for the majority of families but the increase in price reflects something else ….. it’s having to downsize the American car to a smaller European style car and the loss of choice that sits with the affordability of buying enough gas to power the larger American vehicle.
The culture of the land of the free and the American Dream doesn’t sit comfortably with having to buy a small economical car!