Gas pricing and the NEW normal

I find it interesting that you can look almost daily in the press and find an article talking about how gas prices are going to ease this summer in the sub-$3.00 range. Conversely, as with nearly every other issue from sports predictions to the weather, you can easily find another that's talking about how we'll be at $4.00 in no time.

Here in the Midwest, we may have it easier than others (Minneapolis recently had the lowest average price in the country) but I doubt people have hit their breaking point yet, where it actually may affect their lifestyle. I overheard a guy at the Chrysler dealership this morning (while my wife's minivan was ousting a bad fuel injector) that he was "parking the truck in the garage" and driving his company car instead.

Once a threshold is reached and people adapt to it for a period of time, I think it beomes the new normal. I think your average person will probably admit that the days of $2.00 gallon gas over a consistent period of time are probably over.