Remember how much of a fuss we made about $3/gallon gasoline?  Man were we irritated.

Well, guess what.  Gas is $3 again.  Where’s the panic!?   Where are the angry op-eds?  The Twitter #gasgriping?  The Facebook status updates of gas price-induced fury?

Ya know, human adaptation sure makes us look like a bunch of over-reactionary liars sometimes.

But luckily, I see a return of media (social or non-social) angst just over the horizon.  The AP kicked off the New Year announcing that gas price experts are predicting the price of gasoline will get up in the $4/gallon range in up to 15 states by Memorial Day, thanks to a recovering U.S. economy and China’s increasing need for oil.  (No need to worry here in Georgia in the short-term.  That arbitrary new .00-mark will only be reached in states with the most aggressive gas taxes.)

And while you could argue that ho-hum $3/gallon fuel HAS had an impact on the nation’s psyche – propelling the population back to the city and influencing the % of teens with driver’s licenses – these effects surely didn’t live up to all the hype.

In that regard, will $4 gas prove to be more of the same?  Promises and predictions of drastic changes to our daily lives followed in short-order by slight, actual changes by the population-at-large.  Or will it amount to something else?  Will majorities once adverse to public transit suddenly stick a MARTA Breeze Card in their purse or wallet?  Will ‘burban families start ponying up for electric vehicles?  Will “stay-cations” become so common that we’ll never have to hear or read that ridiculous word again?

I don’t have the answer, but if I were a betting man I’d probably putting my money on the former.