Ihave listened to the Car Talk brothers for years, and really enjoy them. But, I view their tendency to desire the government to solve all our problems to be THEIR DARK SIDE.
They are the remnants of a country which had the government regulate everything. it was called the Soviet Empire, and today there are Russian women who marry Mexican men for a better life. Seriously, for those who think I am making this up.
Back in 1973, there was a fuel crunch, and people wanted the government to DO SOMETHING. In my college class I had a book which gave the figures for dramatically cutting fuel consumption by government interference.
if you grind the economy to a halt with dramatic increase in fuel prices, everything stops, including all research into new technologies. At this time, it is still not practical to use hydrogen, and hybrids don’t yet pay for themselves. But, there has been a tremendous increase in knowledge since 1973, none of which would have happened if the government had killed the eoconomy to cut consumption.
When the market fixes problems, there is an orderly shift as one item becomes rare, and another becomes more desirable. As gas prices raise naturally, more people will voluntarily shift to toy cars or more public transit, and the eoonomy will continue to be healthy.