The Good Side of $4 Gas

[mDuo13]

I found a pretty interesting and thought-provoking article today.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1819594_1819592,00.html

It points out some of the less-obvious benefits of higher gas prices, such as:

6. Fewer Traffic Deaths

Every year, about 40,000 people die in traffic accidents in the U.S. If you are age 5 through 34, you are more likely to die this way than any other way. Ordinary things we do — or don't do — have extraordinary consequences. We know that higher gas prices cause many of us to slow down and drive less — which means fewer people die. Early research into 2006 accident data suggests that many lives have already been spared. If gas remains at $4 per gal. for a year or more, expect as many as 1,000 fewer fatalities a month, according to professor Michael Morrisey at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and associate professor David Grabowski at Harvard Medical School, who calculated that estimate for TIME. That means annual deaths could be cut by almost one-third — a public-health triumph.

That's crazy. It sounds like a case of Freakonomics to me - like, supposing the government taxed gas $1 per gallon, and then invested that money in public health. It's probably one of the most cost-efficient ways to save lives, and yet it would be wildly unpopular (because, among other things, a gasoline tax would be pretty regressive in that it would hit poorer people for a much higher percentage of their income).

What do you guys think?

[Steve.Young]

That's an interesting perspective that I've thought about time to time. The tax one I don't know about...considering that we already have a federal and state tax on gasoline in place, raising it would just kinda suck for everyone, but it could be offset if the money you got from it was used to fund universal health care or strengthening social security so that the system doesn't collapse.

[Jerry]

actually i dont buy it.

if you "think" about it.

if people die, then the rest of their life time they WONT be using gas. hence technically decreasing the amount of gas being bought in this country.

Ironically in my past Econ classes, we think about supply and demand all the time, but with so many freaking variables out there I saw we screw gas and just telecomute from home or have 4 day work weeks.

THAT will make a difference.

Thats my 2 cents.