Quote:

Steve T said:
Actually, British petrol taxation seems to indicate that oil prices can happily go up and people will still pay!



Of course, Britain is smaller than many of our states. So their experience may not translate well to the U.S.

The real problem with increasing oil prices, due to market forces or taxes, is that it causes inflation of everything else, as the cost to transport goods and services rises.

This can also lead to businesses having to cut labor costs (ie, layoffs) to compensate for increased transportation and heating costs.