Burden

The article that I read for this assignment was called "Pain at the Pump", by Mary Snow. The article was found on CNN.com. It is about the increase in gas prices around the country and the world. Almost everyone in the world today is affected in some way by the price of gas increasing.

I can relate to this situation. Although the article is from June of this year, prices have continued to rise all summer. My seven mile commute to work costs me a tank of gas a week. Even though this is not a great distance to travel, it still costs me about $40 to fill my tank. I liked it better when it was $25. You can contribute this rise to many different events.

After Hurricane Katrina last month, the gas prices soared ridiculously high. In one day, gas prices jumped from $2.35 per gallon to $3.29 per gallon. In some places, it went as high as $3.50. I saw some gas stations close their pumps because they couldn't handle the rush of the consumers to fill their tanks before prices increased even more. Price gauging ran rampant; every station tried to get every cent they could before the world ended and gasoline no longer existed.

The author of this article brings up the point of how this situation will ever subside. One person she interviewed said that the gas prices will decrease when we, as a country, decide to demand another mode of transportation and type of fuel. This could cost the supply companies a lot of money initially; they are not too eager to spend that money. Societies are too slow to demand a worthy change into their lives if it causes the tiniest bit of inconvenience.

People in this country are very independent and do not carpool. They want their own transportation to be able to go where and when they want. Around here, we don't have that great of a public transportation system. There isn't enough demand for it and the area is very geographically expansive. People are very reliant on