You're the only fucking person in the world that thinks that the US is better off because we get cheaper stuff from other countries (manufactured) yet think we are better off with higher gas prices. I guess this helps our poor too? How about our middle class?
Get your damn head out of a textbook and look at the real world around you.
You don't have a fucking clue of the real world....only textbook examples.
Shaking my fucking head.
Nothing in this world is either or. Economist are always accused of trying to have it both ways, because they look at everything.
I clearly said that there would be a boom in the short run if gas prices were low. But, like everything in life, there are tradeoffs. If you have a resource that is limited, and Oil very definitely is, then at some point you will run out. And if you make the price low, you will run out faster. Goods are not a resource like Oil is. The main difference between you and me, is that is that I dont think prices are arbitrary.
Prices are not just about profit and loss. Prices regulate supply in the long run as well. This is very important for limited resources. If resources were unlimited, then competition would push prices to be just about cost, and the margins would be razor thin. Oil is not unlimited, which means it should be used to give the greatest return relative to its supply. You do this with many other things, such as your money. Because your money is a limited resource, you don't spend all of it on 1 thing, you spread it out over all options that in net will bring you the most happiness. Oil should be treated the same way. As a resource, oil should be used where it brings the most value. Right now, the most efficient place to use oil is the USA. My country is the most productive country in the world. But, if you remove the constraints that limited resources bring, you get waste. Waste is trivial for the person wasting, and bad for everyone else in the world when you look at the net outcomes.
If the us is buying cheap goods, and the price mechanism is correctly functioning, then you should buy the cheaper good. If the mechanism for price is is ignored and prices are arbitrary, then it all breaks down. Resources will not go to their most efficient use, and waste will create horrible effects.
BTW, this is not text book, this is real life. You can see this happening now with things like pollution. The reason pollution is such a hard thing to control, is because 3rd party costs are not being applied to the price, and it in turn is artificially low. The things that cause pollution are being over consumed relative to the benefit they bring.