I was told a story once that if you dropped a frog into a pot of boiling water it would immediately jump out.

If you put a frog in warm water, and steadily increased the heat, it would eventually boil to death. Why? Becaue the frog progressively alters what it considers "normal" temperature, and makes an adjustment and learns to live with it. Eventually, the water will boil, but the frog never gets that profound signal to jump out.

So it goes with gas prices. Our household uses 40 gallons of gas on an average month. At $2.00, that's $80 / month. At $3.00, it's $120. Turn it up slow enough, and it's difficult to detect an extra 2-3$ / month. Even at a $5 / month increase over 8 months, it's difficult to detect. If tomorrow gas was $4.00 a gallon, you'd see people trading in their cars that week. Do it slowly, and people learn to live with a new "normal" gas price.

We're being intentionally socially engineered when it comes to gas prices. If we had access to oil company offices, we'd see this plan taped up on a conference room wall (right next to the report for Shell Oil's 26% profit increase last quarter). When will people learn? Hopefully before the water boils.

*** Retired after 65,000 outstanding miles ***