Crowing
28 January 2008
Editor, New York Times Magazine
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Sheryl Crow says about her song "Gasoline" that it "should be perceived as a futuristic song about people who would take to the streets and revolt and take back our freedom from the oppression of gas prices" ("Agit Pop," January 27).
First, some perspective: adjusted for inflation, gasoline at the pump today costs about 20 cents per gallon less than it cost at its peak in March of 1981. Second, just what would people protest? Higher federal taxes at the pump? Perhaps environmental regulations that have transformed a once-national and highly efficient market for refining gasoline into a fragmented hodge-podge struggling to satisfy different state requirements? Or maybe protesters would take aim at government requirements that high-cost ethanol be added to gasoline?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Editor, New York Times Magazine
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Sheryl Crow says about her song "Gasoline" that it "should be perceived as a futuristic song about people who would take to the streets and revolt and take back our freedom from the oppression of gas prices" ("Agit Pop," January 27).
First, some perspective: adjusted for inflation, gasoline at the pump today costs about 20 cents per gallon less than it cost at its peak in March of 1981. Second, just what would people protest? Higher federal taxes at the pump? Perhaps environmental regulations that have transformed a once-national and highly efficient market for refining gasoline into a fragmented hodge-podge struggling to satisfy different state requirements? Or maybe protesters would take aim at government requirements that high-cost ethanol be added to gasoline?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Friday June 20, 2008 at 8:38am