For most of my life, I have considered myself somewhat of an environmental minded individual. Being part of the generation of Woodsy the Owl and other seventies environmental mascots, I have always felt that it was vitally important to be environmental stewards of our resources.

As I have come to understand how economies work, however, I've come to see why a free market economy is FAR superior than a socialist based economy to achieve those goals, and nothing could have made that clearer than the recent gas price hikes.

You see, all of the environmental information of the seventies didn't change our habits. While products made from recycled products have certainly increased on our store shelves, they are far outnumbered from products made entirely without recycled products. And the alarming rate with which we are filling our landfills suggests we haven't made a significant dent in the amount of garbage we throw away with reckless abandon. But most importantly, our per capita gasoline consumption has reached all time highs as many families have three or four drivers with as many cars and sales of gas guzzlers through last year continued to proceed at a pretty healthy pace.

The fact is, legislation didn't work. Propaganda didn't work. What worked is, astonishingly enough, the free market.

See, many of us in the working class operate on pretty fixed incomes. If I can budget, say $60 a week for gasoline, and it is at $1.50 a gallon, I have 40 gallons that I can consume before my budget is depleted. If gas hits $3.00 a gallon, I have twenty gallons.

With 40 gallons to spare, I can continue driving the way I always have: 70 MPH on the highway, and side trips whenever I feel the need. At 20 gallons, I have to stop and consider what's really important. My trips become planned, meaning fewer impulse buys and a budget that is better managed than it would be if I had excess gas to take a trip to the kwikee mart to buy a bladder buster soda for the same amount of money I could spend on ten pounds of potatoes on sale. I drop my highway speeds to 55 MPH, meaning that the highway is safer if, God forbid, I should lose control of my vehicle, and that my stress level is lower as I am not in the rush I was in before. I start walking when I must, meaning my health improves. I'm producing fewer greenhouse gases due to my decreased driving, and the grocer on the near side of town gets more of my attention than the Mega Mart which requires an additional 5 miles of driving. I'm putting in a woodstove to save on home heating costs, and near neighbors are using corn and/or pellets

Don't get me wrong, the oil companies aren't headed by saints attempting to bestow their benificence on society. But if I, or the microcosm of society with which I interact on a daily basis are in any way reflective of the way the nation is changing their lifestyle habits, then the recent oil price increases have accomplished in two months what the environmental movement couldn't do in twenty years. And the environmental stewardship that may well result stands to benefit ALL of us.