Gas prices

By ED STEPHENS

High gas prices are still with us. They’re getting attention: A couple of alert readers sent me some articles on this realm, one of them looking at the oil futures markets, and the other noting some closures in the refinery industry. These readers are worried that gas prices are more likely to go up than down.

I’m still going over the information they sent, though for today, I offer no pontification or speculation. But if you’re looking for commiseration, I’m all for that. Pull up a beach chair. Pop a cold one. Let’s gripe.

After all, expensive fuel is the bane of my existence. It not only makes cars more expensive to drive and air conditioning more expensive to run, but it makes airplanes more expensive to fly, which hits me as well. So I catch grief from all sides. The blue sky is a little grayer, the grass is a little less green, and my dinner tastes a little less savory. Yes, I pity the fool, and the fool is me.

And I can’t think of a way to wiggle out of this box either. Although I am bit of a commodities geek, I don’t have a reliable forecast for oil prices a year down the road or, for that matter, an hour down the road. The market is held hostage by geopolitical factors, notably in the Middle East, of course, and I’m not willing to bet one thin dime on that action. So I’m riding the roller coaster, with nary a hedge to keep me in my seat.

One thing I’ve heard lately, whether it’s overhearing pedestrian conversations or hearing commentary in the media, is “anger” over high gas prices. That is an echo of times a zillion years ago, when disco roamed the earth in polyester leisure suits, and when AMC Gremlins ate pet rocks and mood rings. We had a couple of gas crises as I recall, and during one of them I had the honor of working at, yes, a gas station.

Though most customers took things in stride at the gas station, we had our share of raving, angry psychos, too. They wanted to vent their rage on me. Did they really think that a teenager working the gas pumps set global oil prices?

Meanwhile, some people ran their tanks so low that they ran out of gas in the queue.

And, related to that, there is apparently an entire school of thought that if gas is expensive, things will be automatically solved if you just put two bucks worth into the tank and worry about the rest later. Indeed, some people don’t really have a concept of the future, but see things as merely “now” or “not now.” Just get the needle off the “E,” and things are OK for now, and the goal is to do that for minimum expense.

Speaking of which, Saipan’s entire approach to economics is based on that outlook. You can see the glorious results all around you. La Fiesta Mall is a good example, it’s one of those rare photos that speaks economics better than economics does.

Well, I’ll stir the pot a little and if you want to get downright worried, then I’ll float this point: Gasoline prices can pretty much go straight up. There is nothing to hold them down. To use a fancy term, demand is inelastic. To use a not-fancy term, we’d rather pay up than walk.

By contrast, when coffee gets expensive, we can substitute tea. When pencils get expensive, we can use pens. When oil gets expensive, we can, well, we can buy gas anyway, or hoof it. Yes, I am confident that alternative liquid fuels will become more common, and I actually know someone on Saipan doing just that successfully on a small scale, but I honored the request not to write about it.

I’ve penciled-out various scenarios for walking vs. driving, and, for me, it would save all of $1.67 in gasoline for every hour of walking I did. It’s not up to me to tell someone how to value their time, but I value mine at more than $1.67 an hour. So I’ll buy the gas. Double the price? I’m still buying. Triple? Quadruple? Keep going? Buy, and buy, and buy. Go ahead, run some numbers of your own. You’ll see. That’s the scary thing about gas prices: Even when they get really high, they pencil-out anyway, which is why the market can sustain such high prices.

Anyway, I don’t see any use in getting angry at vague economic factors such as gas prices. I just make my choices when I have to make them, and that’s all I can do, spending my money the best way I can.

So in the meantime, I’m going to stay in my lawn chair and swat flies, and if you want to have another cold one, well, it’s fine with me, since it’s cheaper than driving.

Visit Ed Stephens Jr. at EdStephensJr.com. His column runs every Friday.