Forget the Prius I like my Charger

A writer from USA Today claims that, "Price holds [the] key to ending nation's addiction to oil". He portrays the argument, "In June 2008, Americans drove 12 billion fewer miles than in June 2007, part of the longest sustained drop in driving since high prices discouraged driving in the 1970s. Car buyers suddenly wanted smaller, more fuel-efficient cars and began to try to shed their SUVs. Sales of Toyota's 50-mpg Prius hybrid shot up by 69% in 2007, exceeding those of the popular Ford Explorer SUV. The Toyota Corolla was the No. 1 selling car in the country in June 2008, while the Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado pickups — traditionally best-sellers but comparative gas guzzlers — had dropped to fifth and sixth place. But once prices fell, so did sales of the Prius and Corolla. The F-150 and Silverado again rose to the top of the heap."
The argument here is geared toward society as a whole due to the fact that we all fall victim to gas guzzling. However the validity of his statements come into question when he doesn't consider the other areas of the economy where gas prices come into huge consideration. In 2007, when the gas prices rose, sure it convinced people to buy more gas efficient cars, however what do we do about the increase heating bills for our homes and the high prices airplane companies have to charge to break even. It would cost billions to build new homes with more efficient heating systems and design new airplanes that have better miles per gallon!
The public lined up at gas stations in 2007 and 2008 that offered price reductions for a day and other sales pitches such as that. The American public isn't ready to spend more money on the cars they love and don't want to get rid of. We have become a generation of people who use gas everyday and strive on it to get from place to place at a reasonable cost. Unless the government offers us a span of, for example, 5 years to purchase better looking and more gas efficient cars as well as new airplanes that won't cause the cost to fly to skyrocket, the American public is not ready and will not respond lightly to a force increase in gas prices.