The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Opinion
Wednesday, April 13, 2022 — 9
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EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
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Zack Blumberg
Emily Considine
Brandon Cowit
Jess D’Agostino
Ben Davis
Andrew Gerace
Shubhum Giroti
Min Soo Kim
Jessie Mitchell
Zoe Phillips
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Joel Weiner
Erin White
Devon Hesano
Rushabh Shah
Alex Yee
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Jack Tumpowsky
T
hanks to the compounded
negative
effects
from
multiple recent events, gas
prices have surged across the country
— averaging more than $4 a gallon as
of April 10, 2022 — which has been
cataclysmic for the average worker
and the economy alike. Efforts by
the United States and its allies to halt
purchases of Russian oil to reprimand
their invasion of Ukraine have been
largely to blame for the skyrocketing
prices. Most gas stations around the
country have only two to three days
of product in stock, and are therefore
forced to charge customers what
it will cost to refill their reserves,
a concept known as “replacement
cost.”
However, gas prices have been
steadily increasing in the United
States since the initial stages of the
coronavirus pandemic, when costs
plummeted so much that they even
briefly turned negative. As families
sheltered in place at home, the
average family’s driving was cut in
half, according to AAA. This plunging
gasoline demand resulted in OPEC
and other oil-producing nations
reducing production by 10% of the
world’s supply. Once restrictions
eased and families returned to work
and school, demand for oil once again
increased but could not be satisfied
after
significantly
diminished
production. Thus, gas prices began a
steady upswing, rising to the extreme
levels we are facing now.
When President Biden took office
in January 2021, prices had already
reached $2.38 a gallon. Now, crude oil
averages around $100 a barrel. While
many have tried to point to Biden’s
policies as a source for this surge, there
is little to no evidence for this. As soon
as he took office, Biden terminated
the Keystone XL Pipeline, a decision
that not only gained him his fair share
of criticism but also signaled hostility
to the oil industry. However, even if
the Keystone Pipeline were in place
today, the impact on prices would be
measured in pennies. Prices would
have continued to rise nevertheless.
Biden’s staggeringly low approval
ratings have necessitated lowering
gas prices on a bipartisan level.
While some politicians have called
for suspending gas taxes, this short-
term solution would not only serve
to be ineffective but would also
betray our climate goals, as well as
take away funds from Michigan’s
transportation fund. As economists
explain, “a full suspension of the
gas tax would not lower the price of
gasoline by the full amount of the tax
because producers bear some of the
tax burden.” What’s more, during
past gas tax holidays in Indiana and
Illinois, “researchers found that
consumers don’t get the full benefit of
the gas tax suspension; (rather,) some
of their savings flow to oil producers.”
A more effective short-term policy,
proposed by Illinois, would instead
freeze the gas tax at its current rate,
allowing consumers to save millions
of dollars while simultaneously
honoring
our
country’s
carbon
neutrality commitment for 2050.
Another short-term solution would
be applying pressure on our country’s
largest oil companies to incentivize
drilling. Currently, around 9,950
issued drilling permits are unused by
oil corporations. Biden has accused
these corporations of “sitting on”
From The Daily: What to do
about high gas prices
I
n July 2020, I purchased a
pair of generic white New
Balances.
I
loved
those
shoes. They fit right in with the
rest of my modest wardrobe, and
I was sad to throw them out this
month, after almost two years of
their distinguished service to my
feet.
I am not a fashionable person.
I couldn’t even begin to describe
what makes “good” or “bad”
fashion sense. And yet, it appears
that my seemingly inconsequential
shoe choice coincided with the
decline of a mid-2010s fashion
trend, “normcore.” Popularized
by
“trend
forecaster”
Sean
Monahan of the K-Hole collective,
“Normcore, as it came to be
understood, was about embracing
the banality of plainness, of not
being alternative, and of not
seeking difference to affirm your
individuality,” writes Donovan
Barrett
of
Highsnobiety.
By
wearing New Balances, I had
accomplished each of these goals
— even if I did so without much
grace.
Unfortunately, I am still behind
the curve. A year after I purchased
those shoes, Monahan predicted
on his Substack and in The Cut
that American (read: millennial
New Yorker) culture is already
experiencing
another
“vibe
shift.” Goodbye, he postulates, to
Jerry Seinfeld’s bulky jackets and
chunky sneakers. Welcome to the
renaissance of Effy Stonem, indie
sleaze and the end of the hyper-
digital, hyper-“cancel culture”
era.
After the profile in The Cut,
the term “vibe shift” began to
take shape in the media as an idea
that extended beyond just fashion
trends.
Buzzfeed
columnist
Elamin Abdelmahmoud argues
that “vibe shift” can also function
as a framing device to analyze
broad
changes
in
American
culture. In his opinion, the
pandemic,
anti-establishment
Trump politics and now the war
in Ukraine have all contributed to
a decline in social trust. America’s
democratic
institutions
are
being challenged, and foreign
countries are demonstrating that
autocratic regimes will not easily
capitulate,
rebuffing
political
scientist
Francis
Fukuyama’s
bold prediction that stable, liberal
democracies would become the
dominant world order.
The “end of history” argument
arose in response to the Soviet
Union’s
dissolution
in
1989.
America believed, after the Cold
War, that the project of liberal
democracy had been vindicated as
the supreme form of governance.
However, as we have seen over
the past two decades, efforts to
democratize in other parts of the
world have been overwhelmingly
futile. It is amusing, therefore,
that
Generation
Z
would
revitalize the late ’90s-Y2K-early
2000s aesthetic in which that
optimistic spirit was born.
America then is unlike America
now. In the late ’90s, the internet
and other technological progress
spurred
an
economic
boom.
Productivity soared, wages grew,
incomes rose and, at the turn of
the century, the unemployment
rate dropped to 4%. In 2018, Neil
Irwin of the New York Times
wrote that the modern economy
might be on a similar track
towards ’90s-level growth. The
labor market was (and still is)
“tight,” which means the ratio of
job openings to job seekers is high,
and a persistently low interest
rate has kept investors confident
enough to keep pumping money
into the stock market.
Then, the pandemic happened.
Investors remained optimistic
and the stock market flourished,
but the effects of the pandemic
were not felt evenly among
Americans. If positions could not
go remote, people lost their jobs
or were forced to put themselves
at risk of contracting COVID-19.
Fiscal stimulus measures from the
Trump and Biden administrations
helped keep people afloat, but
now, after a little more than
two years since the start of the
pandemic, inflationary pressures
have forced the Federal Reserve
to begin raising the interest rate
in an effort to prevent the post-
pandemic economy from spiraling
out of control.
It remains to be seen what effect
raising the interest rate will have
on the economy. Rate increases, if
they happen too fast, can cause a
recession. A potentially troubling
development is that the yield
curve, a measure of investment
in U.S. government bonds, has
inverted. This means that either
investors are less confident in
the U.S.’s long-term economic
prospects, or, a more benign
cause, the Fed’s decision to end its
program of purchasing bonds is
starting to affect the bond market.
Even if the economy does not
enter a post-pandemic recession,
the economy will still be a vibe
killer. Gen Z’s nostalgia for the
turn of the century is harmless,
as long as we simultaneously
maintain a sober perspective
on the economic direction of
our country. When we leave the
University of Michigan, we will
not enter a housing market as hot
as it was in the ’90s, especially
if we don’t build more homes.
And, if the precarious, stunted
experience
of
the
millennial
generation is any indicator of
what Gen Z will face as we
lurch into adulthood, unabated
optimism is not how I feel about
life post-graduation.
So, go ahead and buy that outfit
you’ve saved on your Pinterest
Y2K moodboard. Maybe don’t
start smoking cigarettes again,
something that I witnessed a
group of assumedly freshmen do
over the weekend. But as you ride
the vibe shift’s wave, keep an ear
to the ground (as I know we all do)
and plan your economic future
with prudence. It does not yet
appear that the vibes of our time
are spilling over into a speculative
fervor on Wall Street, but we
should be careful to not let that
become our reality.
Don’t let the “vibe shift” warp
your economic outlook
ALEX YEE
Opinion Columnist
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
EDITORIAL BOARD
S
amsung has become what
some would call a “meme”
to Generation Z today. No
matter how many new models
come out, no matter how amazing
their cameras are, no matter how
easy their user interface becomes,
they will never be able to infiltrate
the technological culture of today’s
youth. This is for one reason: Apple
didn’t make themselves better
than their competitors — they
made it impossible to leave their
web of interconnected products.
The second you stop using
an iPhone, you lose a world of
capabilities as well. You can’t join a
group chat with over 10 people. You
can’t receive AirDropped pictures
or send pictures to iCloud. Say
goodbye to Apple Pay, iMessage,
Apple Wallet and more. Good luck
transferring your contacts and
data with no iCloud and a new
interface. There may be a million
reasons that a new phone company
transcends Apple, but they will
never be able to hold a candle to
Apple’s digital army.
This quite literally captivating
nature demonstrates the ways
in which technology and social
media companies have trapped us.
As a young adult, it is impossible
to live without an assortment of
technology tools that have become
as essential to us as food and
water. In high school, I was the
last of my friends to get Snapchat.
A seemingly insignificant plight
in today’s world, this one detail
proved to be a large impediment in
communicating with my peers.
The modern world of flirting
takes place increasingly online,
and especially over Snapchat (ask
any girl the last time a guy asked
her for her actual number; I can
guarantee she will have a hard
time remembering). I watched
as my friends “snapped” their
love interests, made group chats
and posted stories. All the while
I watched from afar, in the social
media-less jail I felt I was in.
What people don’t tell you,
however, is that this spectacular
world of social media, led by
the confines of Snapchat and
Instagram, isn’t so glamorous
after all. Those “guys” my friends
were talking to were really just
asking for nudes. Instagram wasn’t
about promoting confidence, but
instead tearing it down. This life
was a numbers game: how many
followers, how many likes, how
many streaks, etc.
So why do we do it? Why do we
feed into a system that continually
hurts us, tears us down and takes
away from our face-to-face human
connections with others? The
answer isn’t in the allure of what
these companies have to offer,
or the factors — addictive colors,
algorithms and even notification
sounds — that keep you in. It’s in
the reality of being unable to leave
once you’ve entered.
The way technology companies
market, whether it be hardware
(Apple, Samsung), cell service
providers (AT&T, Verizon) or social
media
(Instagram,
Snapchat),
is making it harder and harder
for you to leave. They’ve taken
over communication. iMessage,
Snapchat, Instagram and Tiktok
Prisoners of modern technology
CLAUDIA FLYNN
Opinion Columnist
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