[Iscool]

No one is being forced at gunpoint to pay $3.20 per gallon for gasoline

We're not talking about watermelons...Of course people have to buy the gas...Apparently you don't have to drive to work...You may not know it, but millions of Americans do...

[listenhillary]

So gasoline should become a govenment entitlement?

[irishjuggler]

Of course people have to buy the gas...Apparently you don't have to drive to work...You may not know it, but millions of Americans do...

"Have to buy the gas"? They'll be killed or imprisoned if they don't buy it?

No, they WANT to buy the gas. Any transaction between a buyer and a seller is a two-way street. If someone is paying $3.20 per gallon for gasoline, it must make economic sense for that individual pay $3.20 per gallon. Commuting to a job by a passenger car is an economic choice. You always have other options (public transportation, bicycle, carpooling, changing jobs, quitting, etc.). Right now, if you're paying $3.20 per gallon for your commute, then the price of gasoline is at or below its value to you. It if it were uneconomical for you to pay the going rate for gasoline, you would eventually cut down or stop. Apparently, we haven't reached that point yet.

[xjcsa]

We're not talking about watermelons...Of course people have to buy the gas...Apparently you don't have to drive to work...You may not know it, but millions of Americans do...

No, they don't *have* do to anything. There is always a choice. People (including me) buy gas because, even at its current price, it's better than the available alternatives. You don't *have* to drive to work - you can quit and get a different job, or start your own business, or do whatever you have to do to survive. You have choices, but they are less pleasant than just coughing up the money for gas and then whining about it.