[trgn]

+1 It's been almost two decades since the last spike, five since the oil crisis of the 70s. If you're buying 50k plus gas guzzlers, and then get squeezed when gas prices are going up, it's almost self inflicted by now. So many alternatives: electrics, small frugal cars, carpooling, telecommuting, ... Can't believe USA is still incentivizing this madness.

[ejb999]

...so again, those stupid poor people to dumb to buy Teslas.

[trgn]

No, my comment was that there's no counter-pressure to prevent people from buying gas-guzzlers, oversized SUVs and trucks and the like, that will be around for 10-20 years, and will continue to drive wasteful demand for gas. When prices rise, it's felt disproportionally in our wallets, because US's carpark are gas guzzlers on the average.

That's only possible because the negative externalities are not priced in.

You can get from point A-B in supreme comfort, in cars that cost half that, or that have twice the mileage. The reason cars are instead bloated and have low mileage is because of American's fetishization of size, and the ratchet of the safety arms race. To break out of this tragedy of the commons, the tax-code needs to incentivize smaller cars, electric cars, flexible work-arrangements, etc... and disincentive larger cars.

And to your point; those stupid poor people (your words) buy used cars, and these used cars were originally the wasteful new cars that the selfish sociopathic rich people (my words) bought.