Gas prices

They aren't so bad. They're making us do things (or not do things) that we should have already been doing (or shouldn't have been doing). Here's a list of silver linings in the clouds from CNN/Time. Some aren't really a good thing, though. Like more cops. Great. Well, see the full descriptions of each point by clicking on the link.

From http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1819594_1819592,00.html

10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas

The world had long assumed that Americans were just unrepentant energy pigs. If gas prices went up, well, we kept our Explorers aimed at the horizon, and little changed. We truthfully didn't have lots of options. Unlike Europeans, we didn't have jobs we could bike to or convenient public transit. Gasoline prices never stayed high enough long enough to force those kinds of shifts in how we lived.

Now here we are. Gas prices are near $4 per gal., as no one needs to tell you, and they are likely to stay that way. Most of us still don't have the alternatives we need to adapt

with grace, which means that many will adapt just by suffering. We will run out of gas on I-80, ease our minivans over to the shoulder and tell the kids everything is O.K. We'll fall behind on Visa bills to pay for gas so we can buy food made ever more expensive by energy costs.

But it's also true that Americans are finding options where there seemed to be none. They're ready to change — and waiting for their infrastructure to catch up. They are driving to commuter-rail lines only to find there are no parking spots left. They are running fewer errands and dumping their SUVs. Public-transit use is at a 50-year high. Gas purchases are down 2% to 3%. And all those changes bring secondary, hard-earned benefits.

"You suddenly are reminded how the economy works," says Eric Roston, author of a new book about energy, The Carbon Age. "Nobody wants high prices for oil. But there's also no faster mechanism to change behavior." The suffering will go on. But the story, like any good tragedy, is not without redemption.

1. Globalized Jobs Return Home

2. [Urban] Sprawl Stalls

3. Four-Day Workweeks

4. Less Pollution

5. More Frugality

6. Fewer Traffic Deaths

7. Cheaper Insurance

8. Less Traffic

9. More Cops on the Beat

10. Less Obesity