Letters: Missing credit for lower gas prices; Say no to booze at Beaver Stadium

Missing credit for lower gas prices

Earlier this year we saw a number of opinion pieces regarding the high cost of gasoline, along with unsubstantiated accusations that responsibility for the high prices rested solely with the Biden Administration.

These writings uniformly failed to identify the specific administration policies that lead to gas price inflation, or any logical connection between such policies and the prices. The writers routinely revealed their lack of understanding of the basic economic principle of supply and demand.

Gas prices have now declined significantly. Do these same writers now give the Biden Administration any credit for this reduction? Dream on!

Increases and decreases in prices are natural outcomes of a free-market economy, which most Americans support. Prices were low in 2020, when nobody was driving anywhere because of COVID. By early this year, with full vaccination levels, a strong return to traveling naturally increased the demand for gasoline. At the same time, supply chain issues plus the war in Ukraine limited the supply. The ensuing price increase was inevitable.

Government cannot have much (if any) effect on the demand for a product. (It can’t order people to stop wanting to buy gasoline.) It can, however, affect the cost of the product by increasing the supply, which the Biden Administration did by releasing huge amounts from our strategic national reserve.

In summary, Republicans inaccurately blamed the administration for the price increase, but failed, unfairly, to give it any credit for its part in the subsequent price decrease.

Say no to booze at Beaver Stadium

A memorial tribute bench at Community Field turned over. The little library at Friedman Park ransacked. Drunken fans running and, in some cases, driving through our peaceful neighborhoods. Will those problems get better with beer sales at Beaver Stadium?

Alcohol-related incidents make up two-thirds of all crime in State College and Penn State’s proposal to allow near unrestricted in-game access to beer inside the stadium will most certainly result in more post-game crime. Who will cover the cost of increasing police staffing for home football game days? Do we even have the capacity?

One-fifth of Centre LifeLink EMS’ call volume is alcohol-related in early fall, and the level of need to care for overly intoxicated people could significantly increase on these weekends. Who will pick up the bill to increase Centre LifeLink’s funding to ensure they can cover the increase in need? We will.

The average BAC level for student visits to Mount Nittany Medical Center was 0.246 in 2021-22. Imagine if someone you knew closely needed an emergency surgery or life-saving procedure, but dozens of overly-intoxicated individuals are already in the ER. Who gets cared for first?

What makes this proposal worse is that it was developed irresponsibly, without consultation with the surrounding local governments and without regard for our critical emergency services or hospital capabilities.

The Penn State home football game experience is not about drinking. Leave the booze behind, so we can enjoy our time-honored traditions responsibly and safely.

Lose the gambling advice

The first week of the PSU football season I was surprised to find some gambling advice in Jon Sauber’s pregame writeup. Sauber knows his stuff, I thought. Let’s roll the dice! Sadly, Sauber was wrong; I lost a few hundred dollars. The next week (vs. Ohio) he was right! I’m back on track. The following week (Auburn), right again! I’m rolling in dough!

The last two weeks have been a bit tougher: two straight losses. I’m out my house, my car, and my wife. Even my dog won’t look at me (it’s probably because I’ve had to switch to dry food). And I’m starting to rethink my enthusiasm for the Nittany Mall casino.

Just kidding. It’s silly to take gambling advice from some guy at a newspaper. But maybe the CDT and Sauber should stick to what they do well — journalism — and leave the gambling nonsense to the charlatans and con men who enjoy making money off of other people’s dreams. Even if Sauber had been right every time, this still wouldn’t be the right thing to publish. Be better, please.