Can Cheap Gas Benefit the Economy?

Ever since I got my driver’s license when I was 16, one of my biggest concerns was paying for gas.  Because I went to a high school that was an hour from my house, I drove about ten hours every week and now that I attend Marist, which is three and a half hours from home, whenever I go back and forth to school I use up a lot of gas.  In recent years, when the price of gas was above three dollars a gallon, paying for gasoline to fuel my car was definitely one of the biggest expenses I had.  So, when the price of gas dropped dramatically a year or so ago, I was ecstatic!

Currently, oil and gas in the United States are extremely inexpensive and are still dropping in cost, with the lowest price per gallon of gas in the nation being $1.46 in Oklahoma and the highest price being $2.64 in Hawaii (source).  For most people, gas decreasing in cost is a welcome reprieve from the incredible prices in  recent years, for example, back in 2008 the average price of gas in the United States was $4.10 (source).

However, some economic experts believe that the decrease in the prices of oil and gasoline could detrimental to the economy because the decrease in oil and gas prices leads to a decline in “energy-related investment such as new drilling equipment” (source). When there are decreases in investments in new drilling, people lose their jobs and fewer new people are hired.  However, with this being said, experts also say that the worst of this initial slump appears to be over and the positive results of the lower prices are becoming more and more apparent as “Americans are driving more miles and buying vehicles at a near-record clip” (source).

Personally, I believe that the lower gas prices are going to continue to be beneficial in the long run.  If gas prices remain low, people who drive cars will have more money to spend elsewhere, creating new job opportunities and growth in other areas of the economy.

 

Meet Joe Wanderlingh

Joe is from Long Island, and he is a sophomore here at Marist College.  He is majoring in Communications with a double concentration in sports communication and journalism.  He writes for the Marist College newspaper, the Circle, is part of Campus Ministry and participates in intramural dodgeball.  His favorite food is marinated skirt steak with a side of mashed potatoes.

Joe is very passionate about baseball, he was a coach for his little brother’s baseball team this past summer and helped to lead the team to a championship win.  He was so excited about the team’s success and his success coaching that he brought the giant trophy (that the team was supposed to share) to Marist with him where it sits proudly on his desk for all who enter his room to see.  He hopes to help his brother’s team win another championship this summer so that he can bring another trophy to school next fall.

About Me

Hi!  My name is Amy Lavigne, and I am a junior here at Marist College.  I am a communications major with a concentration in journalism, with minors in photography and global studies.  My dream job is to be a photojournalist for National Geographic Magazine, so I spend most of my spare time practicing my photography and driving my friends and family crazy by forcing them to do photoshoots with me.

When I have free time and am not busy with school or photography, I try to spend most of my time outside, preferably skiing or hiking in national or state parks.  One of the things on my bucket list is to visit all 59 National Parks (so far I have only made it to Yosemite (pictured below), so I have a lot of work to do) and I plan to visit Acadia National Park in Maine this summer.

In addition to visiting National Parks and skiing in my spare time, I also like to work with Animals.  Before I came to college, I worked as a photographer for the animal rescue group Critter Calvary, which saves animals in kill-shelters in the south, and brings them to New England to be fostered and eventually adopted.  The animals are transported from Tennessee to Rhode Island by van every weekend, and are met at the drop off location by their new families or foster families.

Every Sunday, I would get up at 7 am to go meet the van and photograph the adoptable dogs, and the reactions of the families that were meeting their new pets!  It was an incredibly rewarding experience, and even though I can’t work with Critter Cavalry because of school, when I am home I love hanging out with my own dogs, Jak (left) and Teddy (right).

 

So, now that you’ve gotten to know me, one last thing about me that is important to know is that I LOVE popcorn.  It is my go-to snack food at any and all times of day, and when I was abroad in Italy last year, it was one of the things that I missed most.  I will leave you with a piece of advice that my sister likes to tell me sarcastically, but that I usually follow anyway; “When the going gets tough, eat popcorn.”