Spot on, Ross Gittins

I just read this article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Ross Gittins about the effect of the rising price of petrol. Ross Gittins is the economics editor and has a regular Wednesday column in the paper. I used to have to read him when I was studying Economics at school.

Anyway, this article really struck a cord with me. It's something I've been thinking (and sometimes saying) for quite a while now. Every now and then I'd receive one of those forwarded emails telling me to boycott a particular petrol station or not to buy any petrol on a particular day to send a message to the petrol company that "It's not on!" for them to put prices up so high. I used to get incensed (and still do) by those emails and usually responded (to everyone on the list) that it was a useless, pointless thing to do. Higher fuel prices means that more money will be spent on researching alternative fuel sources, and alternative transport methods, and would (hopefully) encourage people to use more public transport... It's so great to hear someone so well respected as Ross Gittins espousing the same opinions.

Well, that's enough about this for now. I still feel terrible for driving in to work every day (but with a full car - Dan and the kids) but when the kids get older we'll be able to use public transport again... and hopefully by then the Sydney system won't be as expensive and unreliable (it's cheaper for us to drive). In the mean time I'll stop complaining about the fuel prices ('cause I still do, even though I know it's not really such a bad thing) and increase my contributions to The Wilderness Society and Greenpeace.