Hurricane Stuff - Part 4

MORE GAS MUSINGS

Apparently there hasn't been any gouging going on in the Columbia area like I had possibly thought, but that's mostly because every station is running out of fuel. They didn't have enough time to jack their prices up to $5 a gallon, like what's going on in Atlanta apparently. I also read the story in the Miami Herald about how prices are going up and there are fears of there being a shortage but apparently there's enough supplies down there to last. It's not like up here, where there are NO stations with gas available. The other problem is that there's no sign that there will be gas available, despite what Gov. Sanford said somewhere on The State website.

The funny thing is that every news organization is looking for people to be "gas bloggers." I wonder if it's a paid position... probably not though. Instead, I'll just do my blogging here and if people want to read this for the inside scoop (as if there's really going to be an inside scoop rather than half-assed predictions) on what an economist thinks is going to go down.

So I'll make my prediction on what is going to go down this holiday weekend. As we've already seen in the news, people are idiots. We know that, so let's take that as a given. As such, people will continue to be idiots for the forseeable future. In South Carolina (and probably Georgia as well), there are going to be some big-time shortages and even more price runs. I'll probably say when gas does actually get to the area, I'll say that prices will continue to climb, there will be lines at the pump, and there will be some cases of gouging.

Then again, I should know better than to say that "gouging" is going to occur. The fact of the matter is that gas has become a very, very precious commodity in the southeast recently, so people are going to hoard like there's no tomorrow. That said, there will probably be some people who will complain about price hikes and make accusations of gouging. If that's the case, then DON'T buy the frickin' gas! Unless you're an idiot in an SUV, you can go a day or two with your tank at less than half full. And I should know better to know that "gouging" is a horrible thing. I guess it's the moralist in me saying that people shouldn't be taken advantage of in a time of crisis... except this isn't a time of crisis. Although, it is but just not HERE. There's a big difference there.

Though, I think it would be hilarious to see SUVs lined up on the side of the road because they ran out of gas. That would be something else to see.

This shouldn't apply if you live in an area that has it's gas refined in a location outside of Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama. Like stories of shortages in Arizona and Milwaukee are just crap and people being even more irrational and, well, dumb. Oh well. The real question is whether this will continue, and since people are stupid, and politicians have a tendency to do stupid things too, I'll bet that things will get worse over this weekend. Especially down here.