In a recent report from the Federal Highway Administration, data show that Americans have continued a steady decline in driving miles which began in Nov. 2007 and has continued through Oct. 2008. In fact, the decline amounts to Americans having driven a total of 100 billion fewer miles in during the decline. According to the report and the AP, that is “the largest continuous decline in driving the nation has experienced,” ever!

Higher fuel prices are of course a large factor in this decline, but not the only one. The overall economic downturn has also contributed to the decline in driving. But the fact remains that fuel prices have also plummeted during this time, especially so since the summer months of 2008. What we have here is the free market reacting to a large decrease in demand that has just recently been felt worldwide. Could it be that economics 101 basics were right after all? Is it really the “Law of Supply and Demand” rearing its ugly but inevitable head?

If we are really going to understand our economy, we as ordinary citizens need to pay close attention to the basics of economics, especially the supply and demand of goods and services. Simply put, this applies to everything in a free market. It also applies in restricted markets as well, as long as those restrictions aren’t so tight they amount to full control. Perhaps the best example that can be provided is staring us right in the face with gas prices.

You see, there are many people who have believed that oil prices, and therefore gasoline prices, are so controlled by organizations such as OPEC and by so-called “big oil”, that there is no way they could fall as they have recently. The argument has been that prices are manipulated so that supply and demand has virtually no effect on them. The months from July 2008 to now have given that theory the boot. Demand has fallen so much in recent months in the U.S. and China alone that worldwide demand has been affected. In fact, it has been affected to such a degree as to cause an over $100 a barrel decline in crude oil prices in less than six months! Frankly, that is astounding and far beyond anything OPEC and certainly big oil ever desired!

What we should take from this is that we are in more control than we think over high prices in most any area. If demand goes down, prices go down. No company, regardless of what they sell, can afford to have goods produced that fewer and fewer people will buy at one price. Prices will drop until people begin to increase the demand by buying more. The only way this principle can be challenged is for the government to become the owner and distributer of goods and services. That is what is known as socialism and communism and unfortunately, our land is heading more and more in that direction. On the other hand, we in the United States still have some say in allowing our government to continue toward socialism, despite electing someone who leans heavily in that direction. We can awaken to our own power and put pressure on our Senators and Representatives to do the right thing, which is to combat all attempts at government control, ‘bailouts’, and legislative ‘fixes’ to our economy. The best solution to our economic woes is to allow the free market to work. There will be some suffering in the short term. But it will pale in comparison to what suffering we will certainly face should we surrender the free market to the socialist whims of government.

This is revdto and “I’m just sayin!”