I spent $50 to fill the gas tank of my minivan the other day; and will spend about the same, all over again, this week. A mere two years ago (as I discovered recently when I happened to flip through one of my daughter’s baby books), this would have been close to half that sum. Yet the “shock” of a rise in the price of strawberries and fast food, occasioned by the enforcement of immigration law and the concomitant tightening of the labor market, would, we are regularly admonished, cripple the economy. The same sort of men who call us to discipline and perseverance in supporting a grueling foreign war — by coincidence, perhaps, in the very region from whence comes the raw material for gasoline — quake with trepidation for what might happen to American enterprise if order were restored on the border. We can remake the world but we cannot restore our own border? It’s the sort of thing that leaves you muttering at the gas station.
Gas station mutterings.
by Paul J Cella
Comments (6)
Good point.
I only wish it had occurred to me first.
Posted by Steve Burton | May 8, 2007 6:03 PM
Wait until the Ethanol craze has been fully implemented.
Who cares about gas prices when all, if not, most of your foods will cost an arm and a leg -- literally!!!
Posted by Terah | May 8, 2007 7:36 PM
About ethanol - the diversion of corn to the production of the fuel, and the resultant rise in prices of basic foodstuffs, will exacerbate poverty and hardship at the margins in Latin American nations, leading to... more immigration. Which will make us more dependent upon immigration to lower rising costs caused in part by the diversion of foodstuffs to energy production, which will..
Anyone else have the impression that no one thinks systematically any longer?
Posted by Maximos | May 8, 2007 8:13 PM
My comment was specifically aimed at: I spent $50 to fill the gas tank of my minivan the other day; and will spend about the same, all over again, this week. A mere two years ago (as I discovered recently when I happened to flip through one of my daughter’s baby books), this would have been close to half that sum.
That is, since corn is the main feed grain for poultry, beef and pork and is also the main raw material for ethanol (the alternate fuel for gasoline), the seemingly high rise in gas prices that we seem to suffer nowadays will be nothing in comparison to the even greater (not to mention, more ubiquitous) rise in the retail prices of our basic foods.
Posted by Terah | May 9, 2007 4:54 PM
My comment was specifically aimed at: I spent $50 to fill the gas tank of my minivan the other day; and will spend about the same, all over again, this week. A mere two years ago (as I discovered recently when I happened to flip through one of my daughter’s baby books), this would have been close to half that sum.
That is, since corn is the main feed grain for poultry, beef and pork and is also the main raw material for ethanol (the alternate fuel for gasoline), the seemingly high rise in gas prices that we seem to suffer nowadays will be nothing in comparison to the even greater (not to mention, more ubiquitous) rise in the retail prices of our basic foods once ethanol gets fully implemented as an actual alternate fuel source.
Posted by Terah | May 9, 2007 4:56 PM
Mr. Cella's comments are, as always, wise and well-stated. I tell my students that necessity is the mother of invention -- the higher gas goes up in price, the greater the likelihood of a real (as opposed to political rent-seeking) solution, whether it be more exploration/production, substitution of smaller for larger vehicles, some legitimate new technology or adaptation, or all of the above. No doubt, the same would occur if the borders were secure and immigration law rationalized. Heretofore un-thought-of new picking and handling equipment that the agricultural industries have had no need to invest in, what with the availability of abundant, cheap labor. Or maybe fewer strawberry shortcakes -- for a while.
Posted by Jim McAlister | May 10, 2007 9:59 AM