What to Do About Rising Gas Prices

Gas is about the highest demanded good in the nation, as well as in most other nations of the world. Of course gas is extremely important to the economy. Gas helps create products, distribute products, sell products, and some products even run on gas! Just about everything in our economy is related to fuel in some way or another, so an increase in the price of gas can cause drastic changes in the overall economy. The real question is, are the gas prices a problem? Of course they are, because all of the consumers of this fuel are making a big deal about it. If the consumers aren't happy, then there must be something wrong. The price of gas is soaring uncontrollably and needs to be dealt with in one of many ways.

There are several ways to eliminate the high prices
of fuel. Of course there is the obvious way to eliminate high prices for something, which is a decrease in demand for that product. If no one wants gas, the producers are going to be required to lower the prices of this fuel in order to sell any fuel at all.

This would be nearly impossible to do, however, because everyone has such a need for fuel, especially American businesses. American businesses as a whole would fail without fuel for a long period of time.

There are definitely better alternatives for decreasing the demand of fuel. One of these ways is to simply eliminate the amount of fuel people need. There are also a few ways to go about this solution. More fuel efficient cars are definitely an option (Fuel Efficient Cars). If people can afford to purchase more fuel efficient cars, they'll need less gas, the demand for gas will go down, and so will the prices. So not only will people need less gas, but they'll be paying lower prices per gallon of gas. All in all, the prices will be exponentially smaller than previous to the release of the fuel efficient cars (Fuel efficient cars).

However, there are several problems with releasing more fuel efficient cars (More fuel-efficient). The government already regulates the fuel efficiency of cars to an extent, but if we were required to increase this efficiency even further, prices of the products would change as well. Cars would cost more, because it's a new idea, and new equipment would be required to manufacture the car, making production more expensive. Consumers are disadvantaged because of the fact that they're going to pay more money for their car in the short run, and producers are disadvantaged because they're probably going to sell fewer cars due to the fact that they're going to be required to sell their cars for a higher price.

There is always the option of coming out with a completely alternative fuel source as well. This would completely eliminate the need for fuel, and the demand for oil. This would cause prices to drop, and gas may even stop being offered in so many locations, because people wouldn't need the fuel at all.
There are obvious disadvantages to this solution as well, because in the short term, more money is going to be spent on production and buying these fuel alternative cars, but in the long run people are going to save tons of money on the fact they won't need any gas at all, and the United States could become more of an independent nation (Obama: U.S. Needs).

Of the proposed solutions, the most effective solution to the problem at hand is definitely to eliminate the demand for oil completely, and to come up with a fuel alternative to use. This would cause people to spend a lot of money immediately, but would help the nation big time in the long run, because there would be far less foreign dependence, as well as people will be paying far less money to drive (Obama: U.S. Needs). This would greatly boost the economy and the independence of the nation.

Sources: Parenthetical Citation Given

"Fuel Efficient Cars", Shropshire County Council
http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/traveltransport.nsf/open/4BD839B410F77A468025709D00313A25

"More fuel-efficient Cars", Science Daily,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2005/1005-more_fuelefficient_cars.htm

"Obama: U.S. Needs more Fuel-Efficient Cars", CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/07/politics/main2770750.shtml