Humor Me

I've found our current President humerous every since I saw a comedian do a set on him likening him to Yosemitie Sam. Now, I don't rememebr who the comedian was or what exactly was said, but I do remember laughing, and now everytime I see him I think of him with his fingers in the universal pistol sign going, "Pow! Take that Iran!"
Well as I've matuted in politics, and studied, and taken classes, this view of our President in a humorous light actually became stronger. Not, weaker as it should have, but stronger… and what he’s just recently done with our oil legislation has added to this.
If I’m not mistaken, and you smart “adults” out there correct me when I’m wrong, President Bush introduced legislation or mandates, or policy( I don’t remember which it’s called but I’m thinking policy) to move our country away from our dependence on oil. He wants to “ween” us off of this limited and negative externality laden fossil fuel. What I don’t understand, which is also what I’m thinking some economists don’t understand, is why in the world would you increase the supply of something you’re trying to stop using? Maybe I’m not understanding Mr. Casey right, but if you increase the supply of oil, that will cause the price to go down, which will in turn allow more people to obtain it(i.e. quantity demanded goes up) which will cause more dependence on it…hmmph…didn’t we want to get away from that?
But maybe, that train of thought is over my head… you know, to advanced for my meager 17 year old mind. So.. humor me.
All of you readers out there in blogger land…humor me for a second while I try out an idea, which undoubtedly has been mentioned before somewhere.
Why don’t we allow gas to go up? Woah! Bad idea right? But you’re just listening so I can get it out of my system… I’m only 17 remember, I don’t know how the world works. So, let’s say the price goes up. What if, dare I say it, the government puts a higher tax on gas instead of that tax holiday(which I HATE! BTW). Wait, I heard that gasp. Remember what we said, 17 year old at work here… not some accredited economist who studies this.
But, price goes up to..some say $8 right? What happens? Along with the $5 lattes you stop drinking, you stop driving your car. You demand better! So you know what happens while you’re walking, getting your workout and looking like a super model and not the guy from Super Size me? Some person comes along(like me hopefully!) or T.Boone Pickens, or some smart 87 year old, who says, “Hey, I can help you use your car again! You don’t even need that $8 gas. What about this biodiesel from algae, or these cars that run from electricity, or hydrogen, or something like that”. And what do you do with your Olympic-like body(you’re still humoring me right?) you run over to this dealer, and while all the salespeople are salivating, pick up this new technology and go back to looking like a happy overweight American, but with cleaner air. Oh, and side bar, clean air is better for the kids’ intelligence, but that’s another thought.
Now, I know that’s all hard to fathom but lets think, economically about why you want $8 gas. If gas is pushed to $8, the quantity demanded drops significantly! Who can afford it? If that goes down then demand for close toed shoes will go up since we’ll be walking. Think of how nice your clothes will fit. So people are going to demand alternatively fueled modes of transportation. When entrepreneurs see there is a demand for a product, they will supply it. Hmmm… how are we going to get them to take the dive into the sea of capitalism? One thought is we could fund their research with money garnered from taxing gas …but I’m going off on a tangent.
So we have the new vehicle and you say, walk all day, or drive! Even though you do love your killer bod, you’re a couch potato at heart so you get that vehicle. Where did the gas guzzling polluters go? To those rich un-cool people, who don’t need smart children!