Benefits of cheaper oil outweigh its burdens

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I like lower gas prices. It saves me money.

Rich Hamrick

With many stocks losing so much value, combined with the wild fluctuations in the market of late, I’m not sure I’m ready to celebrate cheaper oil.

Bill Wilson

Sure, $1,200 more in your pocket each year (the amount the average driver saves now that gas has dropped from $4 per gallon to $2 per gallon) is great, but it does nothing to reduce income inequality. Wages still don’t go up, and middle-class Americans with their retirement accounts tied to the stock market also suffer.

Branden Makana

Americans now have more money to spend on products instead of pouring their paychecks into their gas tanks.

I understand low oil prices are bad for American oil workers, but they have to be good for people in other sectors.

Dave Valant

This is simple economics. The money that consumers are not spending on fuel is being spent elsewhere or saved. It’s still a zero-sum game; somebody wins and somebody loses.

Ted Schmitt

Increase the gas tax, and use it to fund the revival of our decrepit infrastructure.

Take advantage of the opportunity now.

Dan Porath

I’d go along with increasing the gas tax if there were more accountability in the government. I wonder what percentage of the new tax dollars would go to rebuilding the infrastructure?

John Thomas

The government should be adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at these prices. The $30 per barrel of oil now likely will be $60 per barrel in several years.

Mickey Cashen