Gas prices as a political talking point in the USA

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ToughDiamond
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17 Jul 2021, 1:06 pm

I saw a meme during the Trump era when the gas price had temporarily fallen to quite an attractive price. It said something to the effect of "These lefties who hate Trump are quite happy to buy gas at his lovely low price, which just goes to show what hypocrites they are." Some things are just too stupid to dignify with an answer.

Personally I'm not in favour of pricing people out of their carbon footprint. It disproportionately hurts those who haven't got much money and have no alternative to driving. Doesn't much bother me personally, but I know people who aren't well enough to cycle. Shops, housing and amenities in some rural places are too far apart for anything but motor vehicles, there are no cycle tracks or sidewalks, and temperature extremes make walking and cycling virtually impossible.



goldfish21
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17 Jul 2021, 1:22 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
I saw a meme during the Trump era when the gas price had temporarily fallen to quite an attractive price. It said something to the effect of "These lefties who hate Trump are quite happy to buy gas at his lovely low price, which just goes to show what hypocrites they are." Some things are just too stupid to dignify with an answer.

Personally I'm not in favour of pricing people out of their carbon footprint. It disproportionately hurts those who haven't got much money and have no alternative to driving. Doesn't much bother me personally, but I know people who aren't well enough to cycle. Shops, housing and amenities in some rural places are too far apart for anything but motor vehicles, there are no cycle tracks or sidewalks, and temperature extremes make walking and cycling virtually impossible.


Catch 22, isn't it?

Where I live is very car-centric, but it is possible to get to basic shops/services by walking and cycling. It's just not that realistic for people to work/live/play all in a tight cluster because most peoples jobs aren't nearby their suburban sprawl home. And the expense of driving is VERY real.. several hundred dollars/month to drive a small paid for car. If I drove a truck, gas alone might cost me more than $1000/mo - possibly a few hundred or so more than that even.

Temperature extremes.. which will become ever more extreme the more we burn fossil fuels. So driving cars is making the problems we're solving by driving cars worse.. so there are definitely sound arguments for driving less.


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ToughDiamond
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17 Jul 2021, 2:45 pm

goldfish21 wrote:
Catch 22, isn't it?

Where I live is very car-centric, but it is possible to get to basic shops/services by walking and cycling. It's just not that realistic for people to work/live/play all in a tight cluster because most peoples jobs aren't nearby their suburban sprawl home. And the expense of driving is VERY real.. several hundred dollars/month to drive a small paid for car. If I drove a truck, gas alone might cost me more than $1000/mo - possibly a few hundred or so more than that even.

Temperature extremes.. which will become ever more extreme the more we burn fossil fuels. So driving cars is making the problems we're solving by driving cars worse.. so there are definitely sound arguments for driving less.

Yes, it's catch 22. Strangely I copped lucky though - I hated the idea of wasting all that time and money commuting to a distant workplace, and somehow for most of my working life I got to live within walking distance.