I stopped to fill the gas tank on my RAV4 this morning and, cough, it cost me $39.14, or $2.999 a gallon. That’s a lot of pocket change to keep the rubber on the road, as they say. But is it too much?
I don’t think so.
Like everyone else, I hate to pay high gas prices — and high prices for anything — but the question is whether higher gas and energy prices are bad for society as a whole.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say no. Free-marketers should agree (though, I suspect they won’t), because higher energy prices in theory should alter behavior, lead people to drive less, conserve, invest in alternative energy or high-mpg cars, etc.
There are problems — higher energy costs will hit the middle class and the poor to a greater degree — that need to be addressed by government, including subsidies to energy users to encourage the move to efficiencies and use of alternative power, an end to oil company subsidies (as the president has proposed), planning and zoning rule changes, etc
The point is, we cannot expect not to see gas prices rise. It is inevitable, especially given how scarce gasoline is and how damaging its use is to the environment. We are going to pay for this scarceness and damage, either in money or in something more vital (resource wars will be bloody).
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Hank Kalet 
>That's a lot of pocket change … say. But is it too much?See that's the problem with Socialism, (as pointed out by economists much smarter than me — von Mises, Rothfarb, Hayek), is that they can't \”calculate\”.>higher gas and energy prices are bad for society as a whole.You've fallen into the vocabulary, meme, and paradigm trap. Vocabulary; in that \”gas prices\” and \”energy prices\” are high as a result of \”scarcity\” as well as taxes, fees, and \”regulatory load\”. We, as a society, can't figure out the true cost. All we know is that it would be less than what it is today. So, anytime the true market price is hidden, people can't make good decisions. That's the malinvestment that the Austrian Economists always like to cite. It interferes with the daily little decisions in the marketplace. See when you bought that gallon of gasoline, you were paying for Gooferment as well as power. If the cost was broken out, then maybe you would want to buy \”less government\”. The sad part is that if the cost of government was extracted, even if it was still paid for separately, people could make better decisions. You know, this versus that. When you have true costs, all those individual decision add up to an efficient market.>Free-marketers should agree (though, I suspect they won't)People make decisions about needs, wants, and scarce good all the time. If the government's thumb off the scale, then they could make better ones. Unfortunately, the elite through Gooferment make decisions for us because \”they know what's best for us\”.>higher energy costs will hit the middle class and the poor Yup, wealth transferred to the Gooferment has whammy effect. Not only do the the middle and poor lose their wealth, but the money is used by the Gooferment to make more mischief.>need to be addressed by government, including subsidies to energy Argh! Just what we need, more Gooferment \”help\”.>We are going to pay for this scarceness and damageWe always do!