I'm sure anybody who cared about the price of fuel would easily reduce their usage by not buying the expensive gas if they could but it's easier said than done.

...Like Susan pointed out.

Our society runs on oil so to reduce fuel usage by not buying any isn't always possible...New, fuel effecient cars cost money and people need to be able to get from point A to point B. I take the bus to work...or walk...but not everybody is so lucky to have the option.

IMO there are other ways to reduce the uses of fuel than to stop driving.

Some others I can think of are:

• Buy products which are made/grown locally. The farther away something has to come to get to you, the more fuel it takes to get it there. Buy local produce at the very least...typically that's the easiest. I only buy locally made honey and try to hit the farmers market as often as I can for my veggies and cheese.
• Buy products and services from 'green' companies. Many companies have started being more and more environmentally friendly...while this is usually in the form of a 'carbon footprint', it can also result in less fuel being consumed during the manufacture and delivery of their products.
• Work from home. Not always an option I know but more and more companies are embracing the work from home philosophy.
• Have your groceries delivered. It's a service that many major cities have. It's going to take way less gas for a dude in a station wagon to deliver groceries to 5 families than it is for each of those familys to pile into the minivan and drive to Safeway for their milk and eggs.

(I guess my last two ARE by stopping driving...but you get the point )

OK, how's this? I'll send an email around asking everyone to stop driving to the gym. That'll bring the oil companies to their knees!

Actually, if everyone just stopped going to work it would solve alot. No customers to buy gas because they have no money. Companies would go out of business, thereby saving even more energy.

Its not that it's worth so much. It's that there's no other choice. They(the big corporations) got everyone buy the b***s and they know it. It's like smoking. A while ago here in Canada tobacco prices went through the roof and the govt said it was as a deterent to get people to quit. They didn't want people to quit, they just knew that people would pay no matter the price.

As For gas prices, people will whine and complain(myself included) but at the end of the day I dont see many people I know deciding to just walk to work to save money. I love my 4x4 HEMI and I wont trade it in or stop driving it even if gas hits $1.75 per L (and they know I won't so they got me at a checkmate)

IMHO anyway

The winter before last I stopped driving and rode my bicycle to work 14km each way every day. I started because my car broke down and kept doing it because of the FU factor.

In other words, if you are willing to pay $4 a gallon to get to work, then I'm forced to assume getting to work is worth at least $4 a gallon to you.

It costs me about $7 a day for gas to get to get to work and back. A day's pay is somewhat more than that (not as much more as I'd like). If it goes up to $9 a day, its still worth it.

I'm not saying I like it, but I have no more right than anyone else to say that a price is "too high".

here in so cal i just paid $3.799/gal for regular - 87 proof.

worth it? nah, just a necessary evil for which i currently have no other options.

Ok, I probably will get some arrows in the back on this one, but, I just don't see the gas prices as a big deal, with any kind of perspective.

In the last 30 years or so, gas has gone up a little more than triple, but, then again, so has household income. (In the US anyway)

The average house cost has gone from about $54,000 back then to, well, you pick a price, but, it's certainly tripled.

A stamp was 13 cents, next months first class stamp is 42 cents.

Eggs were 48 cents, now they're $2.18.

If you were invested, the DJIA closed 1978 at: 805, it's well over 12,000 now. (That's a lot more than triple)

I guess the comparisons could go on and on, but, the difference between the gas prices and the other things is that for a long time, we've been pretty lucky/spoiled in the US with energy that was cheaper than most of the rest of the developed world. I remember travelling through Europe in the 80's and 90's and thinking just that, and they had already shrunk their vehicles into little toy cars by then. (I always hated to rent one of those little deathtraps over there and then be surrounded by folks driving like they were Mario Andretti.)

It was nice while it lasted here in the good ole US of A, but, the recent increases just bring the price more in line with other price increases over time. It has come in a much shorter time than other things, so it's more noticible, and so you get a lot of, well, crying about it. Gas has done this before, and got a lot of notice then too. Gas doubled between 1978 and 1980, from about 65 cents to $1.25+/gallon. That was fun, we had cars back then that got under 10 miles/gallon. The good news is, we had unemployment at almost 7% back then, and inflation was out of control. At least some things have come down since then.

Ok, just figured somebody had to say it. Go back to your regularly scheduled rant

PS: We did have some great things that came out of 1978, for example: The Deer Hunter, Animal House, The Rockford Files, Charlies Angels (the original...you know, Farah, Jacqueline, and the smart one)

and in comparison, gas is cheaper by the gallon than milk or water.

we're paying what the euros have been paying for years.

don't like it, don't buy any.

simple.

That's a pretty good point. We can complain, or plot and scheme, but in the end, if you feel you're spending too much on gas, the only thing you really can do is buy less. By whatever means you find available to do that. On the other hand, it may be worth it to you to drive the vehicle you want, as much as you want, however much you want, price be damned. We all have to make choices, money spent one place can't be spent another (no matter what congress seems to think about its spending). And to paraphrase Terry Pratchett, the first and most important right is the right to take responsibility for our actions.