Why a MP$ calculator?
In the past you might ask someone, "How far to Kansas?,"
and he'd respond, "Oh, that's a three-day journey."
(Of course, back in America's Dark Ages, the 1960's
and 1970's--you might have been told, "That is a three-beer trip.")
Once we realized, however, that time equals money, we started thinking
differently. We each decided, "If time equals money and it takes three
hours to drive to a destination, not only am I losing those three hours
that I could be spending making money, I am also losing money on the
gas to get there." Americans now became obsessed with
MPG (miles-per-gallon). It didn't matter to us that we were driving
cars that sucked up gas; as long as our cars had a higher MPG
rating than those of our neighbors, we convinced ourselves that all was well.
At some point the Powers That Be decided that political instability in
the world would be the determining factor in setting the price of gas.
(Never mind that nations have always been, in one way or other,
unstable--long before petroleum became the cornerstone of the world
economy.) Average Americans were soon obsessed with watching the supposed
parallels between world events and gas prices. Fluctuating gas prices
became more fun to watch than the stock market. No one ever seemed able
to explain why gas prices changed the way they did. Sure, the old
"supply and demand" excuse was given, and that seemed a simple enough
explanation, but it didn't bear up to close scrutiny.
And so now we come back to the original question: Why do we need a
miles-per-dollar calculator?
It's simple. It's time that we add a new weapon to our arsenal of
thought, a new way of seeing the economy and our shiny new Web 2.0
world. Believe me--when you start thinking about how much money it
costs to drive one mile it changes your whole perspective on life.
You start to question reality--the world as it really is versus
the world as it has been presented to you. And with this changed
perspective you might one day even hope to
understand "supply and demand."
