As 2008 draws to a close, I'd like to nominate "rising gas prices" as the most overrated story of the year. Prices have been tumbling for weeks, and now we learn that $1 a gallon gas isn't out of the question.
I'm not saying high gas prices were a figment of our imagination. Hey, I was living in Washington DC this summer. I saw gas selling for over $4 a gallon all over the city--and people were buying it, because that was the best they could do.
What I am saying is that predictions of a gaspocalypse have been highly overrated. I remember watching CNN over this summer, when they were running a regular feature called "$4 a Gallon--What's Next?" The general theme was that complete and total disaster was next: the end of America, the collapse of society, and so on and so forth.
It made good copy. If there's one thing people like to hear, it's that everybody else is hurting as much as they are. But didn't anybody realize that gas prices would, inevitably, drop back to more sane levels? That's what supply and demand is all about, right? Or am I taking crazy pills?
Gas won't stay low forever. But when it goes back up, it won't stay there forever, either. Let's try to keep our heads no matter what happens.
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