Reply #53: If it hurts poor people, it can't happen

[dpibel]

I am continually perplexed by this line of reasoning. The initial poster says the rise in gas prices may have good side effects by ramping up demand for alternative energy. Others in the thread suggest that another effect may be greater reliance on mass transit (including, by necessary inference, development of mass transit where it does not exist, or is inadequate).

Then folks jump in and say, "You're not considering how this will hurt poor people," and "Yes, but people around here just don't care about poor people, no matter how hard I try to make them."

Riddle me this: I was under the impression that gas prices have already risen precipitously. Am I wrong about that? Because, unless I'm mistaken about that, I can't see how examining the possible side effects of high gas prices constitutes pissing on the poor. If I'm correct, and gas prices have gone 'way up lately (and I freely admit I could be hallucinating about that), then the effects on the poor are already happening, and were happening even before the evil, elitist, inconsiderate people on this thread started talking about high gas prices as impetus for alternative energy, conservation, and mass transit.

Could y'all explain to me how discussing something that is already happening--that is already hurting the poor--constitutes wishing ill upon the poor, or being inconsiderate of them.

It almost seems to me as if people are saying, "Well, if it hurts the poor to have gas prices go up, y'all should be trying to get gas prices down." But gas prices are up, no matter what we might wish, or who might be hurt by it. That's a short term reality. It's not the fault of anybody who posts on this board. Please explain to me how thinking that reviving/creating a good mass transit system is a poorer long-term solution to an already extant short-term problem than saying, "We have to keep doing what we've been doing all along." If you bring down gas prices because of the short-term harm to poor people, you're just forestalling the inevitable, and when it gets really bad, there's going to be serious, long-term pain.

I guess that puts me squarely in the hard-hearted elitist camp, but I'm damned if I can figure out why.