Gas prices make politicians impatient, but threats do not create fuel.

Comment “Gas” and we’ll send you an article that explores this further. When leaders demand cheaper gasoline by pressuring retailers, they treat prices as political commands instead of market signals. Most US gas stations are independent small businesses, working with thin margins and wholesale costs they do not control. Their retail prices reflect taxes, replacement costs, local competition, labor, rent, credit-card fees, and the expense of staying open. If government pressures sellers to ignore those signals, the lesson from the 1970s returns: shortages, lines, rationing, panic buying, and weaker incentives to bring more supply to market. There is also a moral question. A high price for privately owned gasoline may be unpleasant, but a voluntary offer is not coercion. Buyers can compare, wait, negotiate, or walk away. Property rights include the right to decide whether to sell, to whom, and at what price. Free enterprise requires defending that right even when the price becomes politically unpopular.