The high price of gas these days is a sting felt across the marketplace. Whether you’re buying groceries or your favorite gizmo, everyone will soon feel the fuel pump bump.

But high energy prices don’t hurt everyone equally. They hurt inefficiency the most. Some analysts predict $200 barrels of oil may be on the horizon, a state which could usher in deep changes to the typical American way of life. Correction - make that totally crush the most opulently materialistic suburbanite lifestyles.

But with all the bad publicity out there, for a change let’s examine the Top 5 silver linings in the high cost of oil:

5/ Less Junk Electronics: Do we really need made-in-China $50 portable DVD-players? Lowest-end electronics are the bane of landfills everywhere!

Ultra-low-end consumer electronics are a wart on our civilization. Sweat shops in Sri-Lanka begin making our future garbage, then it’s flown to Malaysian Export Processing Zones for assembly. After that, it’s flown again to ports all over the world.

The high cost of energy may kill the already pencil thin profit margins on low-end junk assembled across the third world. Hopefully more people will conclude it’s better to own fewer, better quality electronics than to fill your Wal-Mart shopping cart with junky impulse buys.

4/ Boost Alternative Energy: The ultimate gadgets are the electric cars of our near future. From wind in the Midwest, to solar power in the South, to geothermal up North to nuclear everywhere, there are plenty of alternatives. The price of oil is making alternative energy development ever more attractive.

3/ The Opulent SUV: Think it hurts filling up the Honda Civic every week? Try filling up an Escalade every few days. Sure, the self-absorbed Ford Expedition-soccer mom crowd are wealthy enough to afford pricey gas, but not without sacrifices. The local Auto-Trader has plenty of SUVs and oversized pick-ups for sale. There’s something comforting about seeing people who desired the accoutrements of opulence without a secure foundation being bitten in the behind.

2/ Starve Suburbia: Nothing will choke suburbia more effectively than $200 barrels of oil. Far too many faux-environmentalist yuppies think living close to housing developments somehow transforms them into a modern Henry David Thoreau. Only, these nature lovers trade living off the range for hopping into the Range Rover to drive 20 miles for carry-out at Thai King.

1/ Numbers Roll Faster and Faster: I admit to getting a kick out of seeing numbers roll faster and faster and faster. It gets me in touch with my inner Bevis trying to pick out numbers in the single cent column as they flash by on the flickering liquid crystal display. You know the price is really, really bad when all you can see is a solid number 8 flashing away faster than all your pocket change.

Tags: Green Gadget

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 9:07 am and is filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.