Waistbands?

America is a fat country and waistbands are getting bigger. Oh ho ho, that was an easy post. Yeah but not really, I was referring more to the whole elastic waistband thing...because people are fat! I'm on a roll!

Ok so yeah...back on topic, elasticity. Today in econ we were talking about elasticity of demand and some other such nonsense that I actually understood. Normally I feel like some kind of idiot in that class, but moving on. Maybe I'm just slow to this realization, but I figure might as well say something.

Why the hell do people whine about gas prices so much? Well I guess I do that too, my problem isn't so much the whining, as it is the fact that people seem to think these gas companies are in the wrong for charging so much. Why wouldn't they? They have no incentive at all to lower gas prices at this point because we are still willing to buy gas.

The problem here is that it would be nigh impossible to go cold turkey on gas, the layout of cities pretty much prevents this. People have to commute to work, which in this country generally means driving from a suburb to downtown. People aren't just going to start leaving at 5am to walk or ride a bike to work. As long as it is available, people will pay for gas to drive to their job, to make money so they can provide for their families and buy more gas.

Honestly though, why would these companies lower gas prices? The incentive really isn't there. People act like they shouldn't be out to make a good profit. The entire purpose of getting of a job, or running a business is to make just as much money as possible. Do I run around declaring some guy is in the wrong because he makes more than he needs just to get by. No, but we seem to feel the need to damn these companies.

Sure this doesn't make them any less evil, as far as I can tell, the heads of Exxon wear top hats, light cigars with handfuls of one-hundred dollar bills and laugh evilly whilst saying "Gooooood, gooooood."