Everything is More Expensive

Everything is More Expensive

Written by: Jensen Wallace

By now all of us have read about or experienced the large increase in gas prices throughout the US. There are three main reasons that gas prices are being affected this way. First of all, there is a large increase in demand for gas post-pandemic. Vaccines were distributed and people became more comfortable leaving their homes. This increase in demand made an increase in prices, about a 45% increase from the pandemic low according to economist Aimee Picchi. Another reason for the increase in gas prices is the cuts to oil production. During the pandemic, most oil producing nations cut their production by 10%. Now, the process of catching up to the demand is taking longer than most would’ve hoped. OPEC representative De Haan said, “the production is still far behind the curve.” The final important reason that gas prices are rising is the unfortunate situation in Russia. Russia is one of the largest oil producers and one that exports often to the US. Amid the conflict with Ukraine, President Biden has cut off oil and gas imports from Russia, thus lowering the supply and raising the price

While gas prices increasing is an obvious issue for a teenager from South Eastern Wisconsin, it is also an even larger issue for everything else. This discussion started at the dinner table between me and my dad. I was complaining about having to spend fifty dollars to fill up every once in a while. He then proceeded to explain to me that there was more to this gas issue than just that. He gave me a prime example of this which is what made me really dig deeper into this issue. My dad owns a septic tank business for which they need several septic trucks. He decided to buy a new truck which in any normal time would take about a month and a half to get. However, due to the gas issue it is going to take upwards of a year. This is because in order to make the truck you need fuel to make the parts. Fuel to deliver the parts. Fuel to deliver the truck across the sea from China. Fuel to run the truck. Now there is less supply of the septic service and the price for that goes up as well. There is fuel and gasoline throughout this whole process which really made me realize how much of an economic setback this gasoline issue is. 

https://journalistsresource.org/environment/gas-prices-effects-health-driving-economics/

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=1005

Another great example of this problem affecting other things can be seen by comparing these two graphs. The graph on top shows the retail price of gasoline over the years of 2008-2015. The graph below shows the retail price of food goods over the years of 2001-2021. Due to the fact that the span of years of this data is different it makes it slightly more difficult to find similarities. However, when looking closer and comparing the years we can see the correlations. In 2008-2009 there was a spike downward in both graphs. They also correlate in 2014-2015. By comparing these graphs we see how the price of gasoline can also affect the price of foods as it affects the price of everything. 

Conclusively, in the future there should be more focus on avoiding relying on gasoline as much as we do. There are a lot of different ways to do this, but the most realistic and efficient solution would be putting a focus on green energy and converting our source of energy. There are various ways of doing this. For example, there are simple green energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines. These have become more popular, but to fill the need for gasoline there must be something more advanced. Recently there have been advancements in Carbon Dioxide Storage technology. This the idea of burning fossil fuels and taking the CO2 that would be released into the atmosphere and storing it miles below ground. This is just another green, efficient energy alternative. By turning our focus away from gasoline we will not have to worry about the issue of everything being expensive in the future.

Works Cited

“3 Reasons Why Gas Prices Are so High - and When They Might Come Down.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gas-prices-high-expensive-come-down-cbs-news-explains/. 

Bhattarai, Abha. “Beyond the Pump: Record Gas Prices Are Pushing up Everyday Costs, Dampening Economic Recovery.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 16 Mar. 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/12/gas-prices-economy-inflation/. 

Wihbey, John, and About The Author John Wihbey. “Gas Prices and Their Societal Effects: Health, Driving, Economics and Policy.” The Journalist's Resource, 17 Dec. 2020, https://journalistsresource.org/environment/gas-prices-effects-health-driving-economics-policy/.