Comment on Today's Discussion (12-8-09)

So today we talked about increasing the prices of gasoline so that we can encourage people to decrease the amount of gasoline they use and encourage them to buy more fuel efficient cars. I think that this is a great concept, but I worry about the effect that this will have on people who do not make much money and will then have difficulty driving to work, and probably will not be able to afford new more fuel efficient cars. I also worry that this will have an effect on the cost of food and other goods which will then in turn force companies to eventually lay off workers, which will make an even bigger problem. I liked the idea of having more research being done to find ways to become more fuel efficient. I think that that is a great idea. I just worry about the immediate effect that it will have on our economy. Maybe there is a better way, hopefully! While thinking about this concept, maybe we could have there be incentives to drive less. Maybe people could could get "green credits" like they have in this stimulus bill, but be for driving. This could encourage people, and maybe have people working as a community like the reading from Dr. Maathai encourages. That might make a friendlier way of approaching this problem? Just a thought :).