Independent truck drivers are organizing a protest in Washington today, in response to rising gas prices. While I caught a listing for the event in the AP Daybook, I haven’t witnessed it — I have taken in first and second-hand accounts of their lap around around downtown Washington (specifically to honk at the White House and the Capitol), and their rally (I think they parked their trucks at RFK after their lap).
They plan another lap to disrupt rush hour later, I’m told.
Meanwhile, BoingBoing has a post citing the New York Sun’s reporting on some speculation that American gas prices will have to be more in line with Europe’s (approaching $10 a gallon) sooner rather than later.
It seems to me that the federal government has a motley and incoherent collection of economic policies given it’s so-called “free” trade stance: Inefficient and exploited subsidies, hypocritical tariffs, and taxes or tax policies that don’t make sense. The US is hardly the only country guilty of this, but it does seem to have the most significant amplitude of noise compared to the signal of its ostensible free trade goals.
The trucker’s seemed to mainly be campaigning for expanded exploration and exploitation of domestic fossil fuels, rather than increased fuel efficiency. At the same time, it seems like we’ll need to internalize more costs, that are currently ignored (although more and more acknowledged, most prominently, the ecological cost that also affects our productivity). Insofar as the state exists, surely it has some role in at least defining that.
It seems that in spite of the protest, all will have to get used to the idea of European-sized gas prices and the affect that will have on the price of other goods. Whatever’s left of the free market will answer with efficient vehicles and more coherent transportation planning, as well more tempered consumption in general.
Many things are intertwined with this issue and changing just one facet, whether you take it in a more free-market or in a more socialized direction, will not fix things with out other components changing in concert. The more unilaterally factors are changed, without conscious education about the ripple effect, the greater the disconnect and the greater the hurt for those of us who can’t afford the consequences in the short term.
I got a little abstract there, but I’m no economist so I can’t quickly dig into the specifics and it seems at a high level this is common sense, whichever ideological line you toe.
Tags: costs · economics · energy · environment · Europe · fuel · gas · prices · protest · shipping · transportation · truckers · United StatesNo Comments
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