Lemony Spigot's Series of Unfortunate Events
I managed to fill up both cars this week with $3.70-ish a gallon gas. How? By paying attention. You see, Ike wasn't exactly a surprise (hey look maw, weather radars!). And by now folks should realize there are a lot of oil derricks and refineries along the Texas, Louisiana coastline. But when FEMA and others were using words like "certain death" I knew something was gonna happen. Within two hours of my filling up our minivan the price per gallon for regular had gone from under $4 to $4.49.
So what? Well, panic struck Knoxville. Fearing shortages, a number of people went crazy and started filling up their Canyoneros and lawnmowers. Hey folks, guess what: when you make a resource scarce, the price goes up. It is called supply and demand. I didn't realize the full implications of this until some good ol' Twitter friends pointed out a couple of things:
1. We're at the end of the Galveston pipeline, so once everyone else has had a drink, we get the dregs (oversimplifying, but the key is we're USED to getting oil from that area)
2. As a result, we had to buy more expensive "Yankee" gas from the Northeast region. Damn Yankees! (I kid)
3. The panic-buying simply drove up the cost and caused minor shortages and outages in various places. Call it the stupid tax.
You can read a more detailed telling of what's going on at Shots Across the Bow, a terrific local blog.
I had half-jokingly expressed my shock at TN not investigating price-gouging and Scott and Lissa pointed out there's no gouging. True, the rise in prices overall wasn't gouging, but I would bet there were isolated pockets. In fact, I know that one station was trying to sell for quite a bit over $5, but they were reported and quickly fixed it. Good, that's where the "system" works as it should.
The lesson: plan ahead and don't panic. This is a lesson we've increasingly forgotten in this country and we should bring it back. My 3 Laws for Living:
1. Pay attention
2. Slow down
3. Think about it
Next time something bad happens, try that. I'll try to keep the kneejerk Tweets to a minimum as well!
So what? Well, panic struck Knoxville. Fearing shortages, a number of people went crazy and started filling up their Canyoneros and lawnmowers. Hey folks, guess what: when you make a resource scarce, the price goes up. It is called supply and demand. I didn't realize the full implications of this until some good ol' Twitter friends pointed out a couple of things:
1. We're at the end of the Galveston pipeline, so once everyone else has had a drink, we get the dregs (oversimplifying, but the key is we're USED to getting oil from that area)
2. As a result, we had to buy more expensive "Yankee" gas from the Northeast region. Damn Yankees! (I kid)
3. The panic-buying simply drove up the cost and caused minor shortages and outages in various places. Call it the stupid tax.
You can read a more detailed telling of what's going on at Shots Across the Bow, a terrific local blog.
I had half-jokingly expressed my shock at TN not investigating price-gouging and Scott and Lissa pointed out there's no gouging. True, the rise in prices overall wasn't gouging, but I would bet there were isolated pockets. In fact, I know that one station was trying to sell for quite a bit over $5, but they were reported and quickly fixed it. Good, that's where the "system" works as it should.
The lesson: plan ahead and don't panic. This is a lesson we've increasingly forgotten in this country and we should bring it back. My 3 Laws for Living:
1. Pay attention
2. Slow down
3. Think about it
Next time something bad happens, try that. I'll try to keep the kneejerk Tweets to a minimum as well!
posted by Victor Agreda, Jr. at
8:37 AM
1 Comments
