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建议 Eyes Off the Price
AS I stand at the gas station filling my tank, the meter tallies how much it’s going to cost me. At this station, a gallon is $4.26, and as the meter passes the $20 mark, then the $30, I realize that I am paying too much attention to the price of gasoline. I bet you are too.
Looking back at my family’s expenses over the past few years, I see big increases in our health care costs and in how much we pay for food. The rise in what we spend on gas is not nearly as extreme as our increases in categories like electricity and telephone. So why does the amount we spend on gasoline feel so enormous? I think it is because of the way we buy gas.
For the several minutes that I stand at the pump, all I do is stare at the growing total on the meter — there is nothing else to do. And I have time to remember how much it cost a year ago, two years ago and even six years ago.
Yet I have no such memory about the prices of items in any other category. I have no idea how much milk was six years ago, how much bread was three years ago or how much yogurt was a week ago. But I suspect that if I stood next to the yogurt case in the supermarket for five minutes every week with nothing to do but stare at the price, I would also know how much it has gone up — and I might become outraged when yogurt passed the $2 mark.
Another odd thing about the way we buy gasoline is that we usually buy multiple units. I just bought 13 gallons for a little more than $55. The sticker shock isn’t as intense when I see the price per gallon as it is when I’m faced with the total cost. Fifty-five dollars! I remember when I filled my tank for $20 and $25 and $30! Maybe if we bought 13 loaves of bread at a time or 15 gallons of milk we might become just as sensitive to how much we spend on those items.
While we concentrate our anger on gas prices, we are ignoring increases in electricity, food and health insurance — expenses that might actually have a greater effect on our budgets.
I’ve read news reports about people who drive 20 miles from California to Mexico just to buy cheaper gas, and about people who trade in the gas-guzzling S.U.V.’s that they bought only a year ago for more fuel-efficient cars. Of course, buying cheaper gas and driving cars that use less of it is desirable. But I wonder if the person driving to Mexico considers the cost of the entire trip, including his time and wear and tear on the car. And I wonder if the person who takes a $20,000 loss on his S.U.V. ends up paying more for the trade than he can possibly save at the pump.
Perhaps it would be better if gas station attendants filled the tank for us, as they used to, so we did not stand at the pump watching the rising price of our gasoline. Maybe it would help if gas pumps came with bigger hoses so that filling up would go faster and we’d spend less time watching the meter. Or maybe we should just learn to examine all our purchases and expenses more holistically so that we see where rising costs make the biggest difference.
请转移您对油价关注的目光
当我在加油站把我油箱灌满的时候，仪表记录着我所需要支付的费用。在这个加油站，一加仑是4.26美元，而仪表的记录超过了20美元，然后是30美元。我认识到自己太在意油价了。我想你也应该如此。
回顾我们家在过去几年的家庭开支，我发现我投入到健康护理以及食品方面的资金增长很快。我们在汽油上所增加的投入其实还不及我们在电力和通讯上所增加的费用，可是为何油价的涨幅让人感觉如此巨大呢？我认为原因出在我们购买汽油的方式。
站在加油机旁边的很长一段时间里，我都是全神贯注的盯着仪表上不断增长的数字。因为确实无事可做。而且同时我可以回想起汽油一年前，两年前甚至六年前的价格。
然而我却不太记得其他项目的具体价格。我不知道六年前牛奶的价钱，三年前面包的价钱，甚至一个星期前酸奶的价格我也不记得了。但我觉得如果自己每个星期花五分钟时间站在酸奶盒子旁边，除了盯着价格看以外什么也不做，我就会知道酸奶价格的变化了。如果酸奶涨到2美元，我可能会很生气。
另一件奇怪的事情是我们总是成倍的购买汽油。我花了55美元多一点买了13加仑的汽油。当我面对每加仑汽油的价格时的心情远不会比面对最后总价格时来的沉重。也许当我们一次性购买13片面包，或者15加仑牛奶时，我们就变得敏感起来了。
当我们把注意力集中在对油价的愤怒时，我们却忽略了电费，食品以及健康保险费用的增长，而这些费用已经严重影响到我们的预算开支。
我读到一些新闻报道说人们为了购买廉价的汽油不惜驱车从加利福尼亚前往墨西哥，还有人为了买到省油的汽车不惜将自己刚买一年的“油罐子”汽车卖掉。当然这些行为都是可取的。当我想知道的是那个驱车前往墨西哥的人是否考虑了自己在旅途中的花费，这其中包括他的时间以及汽车的损耗。同时我也想知道那个卖掉自己旧车的人，如果在交易中亏损了20000美元，到头来是不是得不偿失呢？
也许加油站的工作人员像往常一样给我们的车加油会更好，因为我们也无需站在一旁看着价格飞涨。或者最好给加油机换个更粗的管子，那么加油的时间也大大缩短，我们也无需盯着仪表发呆了。又或者如果我们能更全面的计算所有购置的商品和开支来弄清楚我们到底在什么地方多花了钱，这样我们的生活会大不相同！
