Logic Times

No Pain, No Gain

Posted by Aslan, 09/04/05, 6:51pm. Comments (4)

Years ago, my father had degenerative arthritis in his right hip for which he took large doses of Motrin to manage the pain. A visit to an orthopedic surgeon revealed that, yes indeed, an artificial hip was in his future. A veteran of many surgeries, my father was not eager to once again go under the knife. "I have a vacation planned and it’s summer," he said to his physician. "Do I need to get this done right away?" His doctor laughed and said, "You’ll tell me when you’re ready."

What he really meant, of course, is that the pain would eventually force my father to have his hip replaced, and that is what happened a year later. Such is the value of pain, and not only physical pain. The dictionary defines pain as "An unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder." For our purposes, however, the definition can be widened to include all manner of unpleasantness in life. Pain, in this broader sense, governs much of our behavior. The pain of a speeding ticket restrains us on the road. The pain of getting fired prevents us from publicly exposing the failings of our boss. The pain of looking like the Pillsbury Doughboy in a swimsuit helps us drive past McDonalds. Of course, the lure of pleasure compels me to turn around and go back for three sausage burritos.

This constant struggle between pleasure and pain in part shapes individual decisions and helps shape collective ones as well. The pain of Pearl Harbor propelled the United States into World War II, after long months of hoping the pain was manageable. The pain of seeing Yuri Gregarin orbiting the earth catapulted the United States to the moon. The pain of 9/11 dictated the invasion of Afghanistan. The escalating pain of illegal immigration is in the process of overwhelming the pleasure politicians enjoy courting the Hispanic vote. Pain, in the context of behavioral modification, can therefore be a good thing, because often critical, necessary decisions are delayed if the pain is insufficient, such as with the immigration problem mentioned above.

This is pain,

but it is very good pain for America.

The pain of high fuel prices such as these will rapidly transform consumer attitudes about energy and motivate both industry and government to break with the archaic legacy of fossil fuels and aggressively explore the breathtaking future of alternative energy forms.

Specifically, high fuel prices will be good in the short term for forcing into place an intelligent energy policy that ignores unreasonable restrictions on the development of capacity. In the long term, it will be good for the future of American energy independence, and for promoting the decline and fall of Arab influence on world energy consumers.

But the real windfall of high fuel prices is in the consumer market. More than the collective actions of every tree-hugger and anti-ANWAR nut case, high gasoline prices will fundamentally transform the mind of consumers to accept – then to seek and demand – alternative forms of transportation energy. The sudden emergence of a viable consumer market for alternative forms of motive energy will invigorate industry and catalyze research and development.

As long as the American consumer had access to cheap gas, the need for new motive technology was a mild itch, an intellectual curiosity. There was no pain when consumers could fill their gas tank for $25.00. The classic symptom of this myopic thinking was the proliferation of SUVs. Here are my two receipts from this week:

That mild itch is now a raging rash. Fuel cells, hydrogen cars, biomass, electricity – these are technologies that promise to sooth the rash.

As both a conservative and a conservationist, I much prefer market forces to shape behavior – behavior that is in our best interests environmentally, economically and geopolitically. This…

…will do more than this…

...and this...

…to get us to the energy sources of the 21st century.

Comments

1: Santo Domingos

September 5, 2005 8:18am EST

That’s just great! Spoken like someone who probably charges all of his gas to a multi-billion dollar company. Next time try laying your food budget in the greasy hands of the gas station attendant and see how it feels. Don’t be so naive. This country thrives on its mobility and the transportation of goods. We have no indigenous seafood, citrus fruits, or other necessary goods being manufactured where I live. It’s all shipped in and please tell me the cost of those goods won’t increase. I don’t like the fact that every time I get in the car now I’m mentally calculating the cost of the trip. Instead of dropping the kids off at football practice [at $3.00 per trip], I now sit there and waste 3 hours of my day rather than spend $6.00.

There is no good in this whatsoever, especially watching oil companies reap billions of dollars in profits each quarter. No sir there is no good in this at all. And that hip replacement analogy doesn’t work. It’s the consumers who feel the pain, but it’s the government and big corporate entities that need the surgery but will choose to wait because they feel no pain. The model doesn’t work.

Needing Beano for gas pains in Ohio

{Aslan: You prove my point. I do not suggest that the pain here and now is good, I am acknowledging that it is indeed painful (as you aptly describe). I am suggesting that the pain that you feel, if sustained, will prompt you – and other like-minded consumers – to push away from this self-destructive oil buffet we’ve been gorging at for years and look for a better way. I stand by that. As for the old, tired, evil corporations generating evil oil profits stchick, the only way such could be true is if a massive conspiracy/collusion to cripple the competitive market were in place. Not the case. Profits are up because sales are up and sales are up because the average selling price is higher. Get over it and buy some oil stocks.

The model works well – consumers demand and industry provides. Start demanding cheaper transportation energy and it will be so.}

2: Evntprdcr

September 6, 2005 5:54pm EST

You almost get it, very nice to see the hard core right finally see this problem for what it is and you are correct, market forces will move the mountain long before "the chanting voices" have even gotten revved up. There may be hope for the planet yet.

{Aslan: A compliment from Evntprdcr? I will say thank you and go quietly into the night.}

3: Martin Lyle

September 6, 2005 6:31pm EST

Exactly where I am on this issue. I am torn between being glad that the $3.00 per gallon is here and hurt in my back pocket. I am worried about the economy; no doubt, as I think the short-term impact will be more significant than the pundits believe right now.

But this is of our own making, both as a society and individuals. Most folks know and understand to some level that fossil fuels are limited in quantity both by the supply in the ground and by the bandwidths of transportation and refining.

Yet what have we done since the 70s and 80s, we have gone back to the bigger and bigger vehicles and bigger, faster, powerful, and more thirsty engines. While today's big SUV gets better mileage than yesterday's Ford LTD, we still are gluttons for oil

over where we should be, and as a result are feeling this pain-- if we were all in the same mindset of where we were in 1979 we would be in much better shape with this increase in gas.

I do want to share an observation of two types of folks I have seen who are feeling the pain, and in a relatively significant way: Some folks like pain - I have a friend, who appears fairly intelligent, yet she bought a RAM 1500 Hemi with gas at $2.49 a gallon earlier this summer and now is complaining about her mileage.

Some folks treat the pain - My father-in-law and his son both drive full size pickups 150 miles round trip to work four times a week. They don't like the fuel prices but are going to do something they had not considered before to lessen the effects. Both are considering economy cars or at the least smaller pickups, and perhaps ride sharing.

Lastly, I am probably more concerned if there is a significant drop in price (below $2/gallon), than if we continue to have these prices or a slight rise. I think just as with the extended low prices we had for twenty years, we could be looking at a society in five

to ten years that becomes even more wasteful than we are now, learning nothing from this situation.

{Aslan: Excellent points, Martin. The SUV phenomenon is symptomatic of America’s reluctance to think ahead because the pain was manageable. Well, now, for many, it hurts. As for the gas dropping below $2.00 a gallon – I think those days are long over. The Chinese and Asian industrial markets have seen to that.}

4: Jeff

September 15, 2005 8:33am EST

Isn’t that fat dude walking the dog Michael Moore? Where’s an SUV when you need one.

{Aslan: LOL! He does look like the beast himself.}