About a day before my post on the papal encyclical’s treatment of the absurdity of scarcity myths and overpopulation fear-mongering, Newsweek ran an article called Are you Ready for $20 Per Gallon Gas? We’re told in the article, “pump prices are off from last year’s highs, but don’t expect that to last.”
I mentioned in the post that absurd scarcity theories about skyrocketing prices were just taken as gospel truth by the media. And I think this is perhaps the finest example. Read the article. Let me know if you see any justification for the $20/gallon price. It’s an extreme claim, and yet neither author nor interviewer see any need to justify it. The entire conversation starts with the equivalent of, “once gas hits $20/gallon, how will people react?” instead of the more reasonable, “why do you think that gas is going to hit $20/gallon, given that demand for gasoline has notably declined in the last two years in response to a comparatively minor increase in price?”
It’s sort of that reverse Cassandra effect again. Ah well.