Then we'll just pay more for everything else as well.
Gas goes up, everything that it fuels goes up, wages as well. Oil is one of those things that the entire economy is built on. All increasing oil prices does is drive up inflation. Sooner or later, the price of everything will catch up, adjusting to the increased costs of oil/gas.
The profits made by sudden sharp oil price increases are only temporary, which just goes to prove we are being gouged by inside trading.
These oil caused inflationary cycles will only end when less and less of our economic output depends on oil. But no matter what energy sources industry switches to, smaller inflationary cycles will continue to be triggered by sudden increases of those energy supplies.
The beauty of oil price increases is that there is now a massive pressure to find alternatives. Go alternative energy, go!
Not for those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Immigration, legal and illegal, help depress wages. And businesses can go offshore and have goods manufactured by cheap labor.