It depends on how you do it. The trick is to bump prices gradually, in a way that doesn't lead to stupid amounts of hoarding. The real problem is that gas isn't priced relative to its impact, and the base prices had been kept low in artificial ways (using different piles of money) for decades.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hermy
Of course, I love how it's phrased -- an extra $2/gallon. No, it's not listed as a percentage, or some absolute value relative to current prices.
The psychology of consumer gas prices is interesting. It's the price that everyone knows, because gas stations and their billboards are everywhere. It's the common denominator that makes for inevitable water-cooler talk. I bet that more people know what the current price of gas is than they know how much items in a dollar store cost, or the price of any item of food they routinely consume, etc. Folks will create mad lines of cars at the pump if it's 5 cents cheaper than anywhere else, but a 2% sale on eggs or beer won't move butts. I suspect that only the substance addicts know their substance prices as well as the masses do their gas prices. There's seasonal fluctuation that's obvious and measurable, but few seem to have figured that out.
