Price signals are working just fine for gas. What you're skipping is that the more money you have, the more choice you have, in deciding that you would rather cut spending on. Trying to claim something a simple as "the poor" is in itself disingenuous.
The poor include every thing from college students who can easily decide they would rather ride their bikes, to chuckle heads that should have stuck with public transit or bought a more fuel efficient car in the first place.
Does that include some people that made the best decisions they could and are now hurting because the temporary spike in fuel prices. Sure, but for the rest of the planet, higher fuel prices are the price signal that makes them change their behavior. For some that will mean they keep driving but decide to hold off and keep using something they own rather then purchase a new something. Which is yet another way to reduce fuel consumption.
The problem you quickly get into when trying to subsidize things like fuel usage is that for the majority of the middle and lower class people, that only encourages wasteful use of fuel.
The very fact that the poor *can* save money by cutting back on their driving means that the driving they decline was optional, a “luxury” if you will. The fact that they do cut down means that they value other things more. We might feel bad that those other things are food and rent, but…tear out the front page: The poor are poor.
That the rich don’t change their gasoline habits means simply that the increase in the price of gas is negligible at their level of affluence. Raise gas prices tenfold and you’ll see them start to change their tradeoffs, too. The rich are rich.
If Oren wants to get in a lather about it, I have to ask: does he think there is something innately wrong with having rich and poor? I know some people do, but I didn’t expect it from a mostly free-market economist.
I’m not sure Oren is all that into “free” markets these days. That said, given our general failure to even attempt to regulate social media’s abuse of our kids, sports gambling apps, or sites like only fans, I’m not much of a free market guy these days either.
I think Oren’s bigger problem is that he has gone to the isolationist side and really dislikes the Iran war. It’s his site, but I think that is causing him to look for reasons to push against the Iran war. Even the best of us can get a little hypocritical from time to time.
Nice. Oren has accurately captured one impact of MAGA's Middle East war on the less fortunate among us-the pain of the higher gas prices/inflation it has caused. Here's hoping that Don's incoherent flailing eventually gets us back to the status quo that prevailed prior to the "new" right launching its war.
In the same vein, I'd love Oren's analysis of the Trump Mobile scam, and how it comports with his professed concern over maximizing consumer welfare and economic well being. What policy prescription might he offer to protect consumers going forward?
Meanwhile, for weekend reading, read every word in Don's incessant bleats. Every. Last. Word. But, pour a stiff drink first.
Price signals are working just fine for gas. What you're skipping is that the more money you have, the more choice you have, in deciding that you would rather cut spending on. Trying to claim something a simple as "the poor" is in itself disingenuous.
The poor include every thing from college students who can easily decide they would rather ride their bikes, to chuckle heads that should have stuck with public transit or bought a more fuel efficient car in the first place.
Does that include some people that made the best decisions they could and are now hurting because the temporary spike in fuel prices. Sure, but for the rest of the planet, higher fuel prices are the price signal that makes them change their behavior. For some that will mean they keep driving but decide to hold off and keep using something they own rather then purchase a new something. Which is yet another way to reduce fuel consumption.
The problem you quickly get into when trying to subsidize things like fuel usage is that for the majority of the middle and lower class people, that only encourages wasteful use of fuel.
The very fact that the poor *can* save money by cutting back on their driving means that the driving they decline was optional, a “luxury” if you will. The fact that they do cut down means that they value other things more. We might feel bad that those other things are food and rent, but…tear out the front page: The poor are poor.
That the rich don’t change their gasoline habits means simply that the increase in the price of gas is negligible at their level of affluence. Raise gas prices tenfold and you’ll see them start to change their tradeoffs, too. The rich are rich.
If Oren wants to get in a lather about it, I have to ask: does he think there is something innately wrong with having rich and poor? I know some people do, but I didn’t expect it from a mostly free-market economist.
I’m not sure Oren is all that into “free” markets these days. That said, given our general failure to even attempt to regulate social media’s abuse of our kids, sports gambling apps, or sites like only fans, I’m not much of a free market guy these days either.
I think Oren’s bigger problem is that he has gone to the isolationist side and really dislikes the Iran war. It’s his site, but I think that is causing him to look for reasons to push against the Iran war. Even the best of us can get a little hypocritical from time to time.
Nice. Oren has accurately captured one impact of MAGA's Middle East war on the less fortunate among us-the pain of the higher gas prices/inflation it has caused. Here's hoping that Don's incoherent flailing eventually gets us back to the status quo that prevailed prior to the "new" right launching its war.
In the same vein, I'd love Oren's analysis of the Trump Mobile scam, and how it comports with his professed concern over maximizing consumer welfare and economic well being. What policy prescription might he offer to protect consumers going forward?
Meanwhile, for weekend reading, read every word in Don's incessant bleats. Every. Last. Word. But, pour a stiff drink first.
Good luck America.
Does that status quo include a nuclear Iran? Asking for a friend.
I've yet to encounter anyone who wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Have you?
Please explain Don's strategery for preventing that, and how it's unfolding.