The American thing to do
People are bemoaning the price of gasoline. The rising cost of gasoline is a very normal market reaction to increases in demand. It is therefore perplexing that a nation which embraces free market capitalism and is suspicious of government intervention should be clamoring for government action regarding rising fuel prices. The global rise in demand for oil is a testimony to our victory in the Cold War. Americans should be celebrating the rise in oil consumption worldwide because it more than any other indicator demonstrates the world’s adoption of our economic model: mass consumption. Throughout the twentieth century, we broadcast to the world the superiority of our life-style. We fought the Korean and Vietnam wars to ensure our economic system would spread. Now that it has spread; to Eastern Europe, to China, to Southeast Asia, we find ourselves in competition with the rest of the free-market global economy. Five dollar a gallon gasoline ought to be seen as a trophy for this victory of the American-made lifestyle. It’s un-American to think otherwise.
To comment on this letter, click on “Comments” below
We live in a free country. We chose to organize our economy around a finite resource and then set about persuading the rest of the world do the same. We mocked the development of mass transit systems while gleefully pouring money into our interstate highway system. Through the power of choice, we built the largest most inefficient automobiles we could imagine while turning away from sophisticated highly efficient machines. As consumers we demanded suburban and exurban development far from centers of commerce while we bore witness to the decay of our city centers and small towns. As members of a free society, we have been free to choose how and where we live. That the consequences of these choices are becoming expensive should come as no surprise.
It should, however, be seen as a signal to create an alternative life-style. We’ve won the battle to spread our mass consumption culture to the globe. Now, in our role as global leader, we have a responsibility to design a new way of life and sell it to the world. A lifestyle of sustainable development. A lifestyle in which entrepreneurs, urban planners, investment bankers, and consumers re-imagine the world we will inhabit. Just as we created the world we now inhabit. A life-style in which people choose to live closer to their places of employment, where neighborhoods are designed to take advantage of the latest in renewable energy technology. The American thing to do at this point would be to stop the business-as-usual attitude and muster our resolve to re-invent the world. It's what Americans do. We persevere and move on, not complain about today’s gas prices.
Kenneth Gehosky
Camp Hill
Leave a comment