Isn’t that the point though, to change behavior? People who live in the countryside and work in the city have only been able to do that because of improperly priced fuel that enables them to do so. Adjusting the price of fuel to reflect the true cost would drive the change in behavior that we need to have. You can’t expect things to change without making actual changes, and it will of course require a transition period as people adjust.
But if you live and work on the country side, higher gas prices will crush you because it impacts not only you personally but the school transport for the kids, the transporting wares from/to rural supermarket, for infrastructure maintenance/development, agriculture/farmers etc etc
There are so many little things that people take for granted that is will have an impact on those living on the country side.
And in the end you just shift the problem to the cities, where the influx of more people cause rising housing costs, higher unemployment, more miserable people and higher prices on foodstuffs because farmers give up.
Living rural areas and farmers are a very important factor for a happy nation IMHO.
The post I replied to specifically mentions people who live in the country who would then have to move closer to cities. That is the profile of a commuter with a city job, not a farmer. Farmers don’t have to commute into the city every day, and thus are not the people who are being discussed here.
Yes, obviously higher fuel prices would affect those who need to drive further due to longer distances between things (i.e. the countryside), but it will also encourage those who only do so by choice to make different choices, which is what we desperately need.
