well let me break things down for you then. things that we have come to accept as societal norms here in the united states are what have given us the reputation of being the most gluttonous overconsumers on the planet. we find it necessary to import fruits and vegetables from all over the world so that we can still eat raspberries in december. i'll use my own family as an example and say that we have one television and one computer for each member of my family in my house. necessity? absolutely not. does the idea of paying $2 for a bottle of water that's the same quality as what comes out of the tap make sense? especially since we're just going to throw that plastic away later? i could go on and on, but the simple fact of the matter is that we have become accustomed to being able to buy these incredible luxuries with our disposable income. now that the price of oil and gas is on its way up to its actual value, that disposable income buys less. because we're americans, we cry because now our plasma tv's cost more than they did before and now we can only afford 40 inches of hi definition utopia rather than 60. i don't argue that the rise in gas prices will hurt the economy as we adjust to consuming less, BUT it will recover. there will be a shift in technology, in industry, and in jobs, and this will take time, and some of it might hurt. but the important thing to take away is that this shift has to happen eventually NO MATTER WHAT. we do not have an infinite supply of oil on this earth, and drilling in ANWR is only prolonging the inevitable. why expose such an incredibly fragile ecosystem to such unneccessary risk? it just doesn't make any sense to me.
cliff notes:
prices are going to go up for everything. deal with it. ANWR is not a long term solution, so the intermediate benefit is not worth the ensuing environmental degradation.