Everyday Sociology Talk: Can Sociology Explain $4 Gasoline?

As  you can see, gas in Los Angeles has risen above the $4  mark. Can sociology help us understand why?

Karen Sternheimer and Sally Raskoff discuss a few ideas of how sociology explains rising gas prices. What are your ideas? (Yes, the steering wheel symbolizes consumers being choked by high gas prices...or it just got in the shot accidentally).

Comments

[Marianne]

$4 gas is a good example of politics, economics and sociology colliding. I like the urban sociology perspective, but I also think $4 gas plays into American's cultural assumptions. We have been conditioned to think that a house in the suburbs, cheap gas and an (often large, gas-guzzling vehicle) are status symbols - and, more importantly, that every middle-class person is entitled to these things. To the extent that relatively high gas makes us question our habits and assumptions a little bit, it makes us supremely uncomfortable.

Also, it's worth pointing out that people complain loudly about relatively expensive gas, there's very few people doing anything substantial to change it, nor examining the history, politics and economics behind gas prices and our dependence on foreign oil. False consciousness, indeed.