Dining Out and Gas at $3.60-$4.00 a Gallon?
I was filling up the old gas guzzler this morning when I heard this profane muttering from the other side of the pump. Curious, I leaned closer and thought I heard this lady talking on her cell phone to someone. She was unleashing a tirade of invectives regarding gas prices. But she was talking only to herself. In my best Bill Clinton accent, I leaned across the pump and said: “I feel your pain.”
Startled for a moment, she looked at me and then burst out laughing. “F___ these F____ing prices” she said. “I can’t even have my morning Moca Chocalatte at Starbuck’s anymore.”
Point taken. The pain of spiraling gas prices has been well documented by just about every damned blogger in the country so we might as well add one more opinion to the mix. The truth is, short-term pain notwithstanding, I’m in favor of rising gas prices. Because at some point, the American public is going to demand from our pathetic Congress that they unhook themselves from the gigantic pipeline of cash that flows from Exxon etc to capitol hill.
And when that happens, we’ll stop seeing that absurd governmental mandate for ethanol (which has totally screwed up the food prices in this country) and perhaps start pouring that ton of money that we spend in Iraq on developing REAL and VIABLE solutions for powering our vehicles. A German scientist has developed a car that will run on compressed air. Sure works for me. But how come we haven’t heard about that from our representatives? You know the reason.
In the meantime, I’m sure that people will continue to dine out in the River City. They may be looking for a bit more value and restaurants will have to buck up on this point. And they will. But dining out is too deeply ingrained in the Austin culture. People will figure out a way to do it even if they have to split an entrée. And life will go on.
And hopefully, we’ll all pull our heads out of our collective butts and start demanding cars that don’t run on fossil or biological fuels. Wouldn’t it be nice to pay $.45 for a gallon of compressed air? Think of all the discretionary income that would leave us.
