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Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Sam Rainer: The Case for Gradualism


My Facebook news feed recently captured several images of gas pump prices. Ubiquitous posts of ubiquitous subjects are nothing new to social media images. Purchasing gas below $3 per gallon, however, was worthy of a little celebration. So I clicked like.

I’m not old (relatively). But I do remember buying hard copies of music in brick-and-mortar stores. I can also remember buying gas below $1 per gallon—back in the days when maps were folded in the glove compartment. I miss the gas prices. I don’t miss the origami madness of refolding the map.

It was not so long ago that $3 per gallon gas was quite unthinkable. In fact, back then, if we jumped overnight from $1 per gallon to $3 per gallon, the White House phone lines would have lit up. People would have revolted. We would have unfolded our maps and charted our way to Washington.

The gradual path of rising gas prices has been painful but—for the most part—tolerable. People actually buy the Prius now. No one is speculating about one-upping the Excursion. When change occurs in steps, people have time to let it settle in increments. Like climbing a thousand steps, you can get there with enough time. Keep reading

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