On Tue, 23 May 2006 14:22:58 GMT, in a place far, far away, Fred J.
McCall made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

:Caring about gas mileage does decrease demand.

But only if it lasts for a relatively long time. Decreased demand due
to gas mileage tends to be a very laggy phenomenon, since people don't
immediately throw away their cars and rush out to buy new ones.

:Six bucks a gallon
:would have the economy seriously in the tank.

Why do you think that? Prices in Britain are currently over $7/gallon
and they don't seem to be "seriously in the tank".

Because they're long used to it, and have much more fuel-efficient
vehicles. They're past the lag that you note above. And much of
Europe's economy is in fact in the tank (though not just because of
high fuel prices).