There's an opinion going around that rising gas prices are good for us. OK, maybe not for me and you, but for all of us, collectively, as a nation.

In the op-ed pages of influential newspapers and magazines lately, there's been a spate of articles suggesting that the current gas prices — $3.50 a gallon and counting — may be just the wake-up ticket for a nation that's hooked on oil.

The reasoning goes like this:

Americans consume about a quarter of all the oil in the world. Our per capita use of oil is double that of other developed countries. Until now, at least, gas has been very cheap when compared to the rest of the world.

On the other side of things, everyone knows the world's oil supply is going to run out someday, probably sooner than later. Even now, we're not doing much about it: No new oil refineries have been built in the United States since 1976, and alternative fuel technology remains in a nascent stage. Even the driver of the biggest SUV can see possible problems ahead: shortages, ever-high prices, oil wars, and eventually a collapse of the easy driving life we know today.

So, the argument goes, the latest price increases, which seem here to stay, are probably the best thing that could happen to America, forcing us to take off the blinders and get serious about alternative fuels.

Maybe and maybe not. While all of us may be making little driving and lifestyle changes — taking the bus occasionally, trying to consolidate trips, inflating our tires correctly — there's been comparatively little real commitment to the bigger changes yet from politicians and business.

One indication of this, New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki pointed out recently, are the proposals floating around to give Americans a break at the pump. In Hawai'i we have the gas cap, which may or may not yet turn out to be a winner. And here and elsewhere throughout the country, there's a lot of talk about repealing gas taxes.

Nothing could be worse from a big-picture point of view, Surowiecki argues.

In Honolulu we pay 62 cents per gallon in federal, state and county taxes, plus the 4 percent state excise tax on the total purchase. While we may not like it, those taxes serve many purposes. Not least, they fund much of the highway improvements state and county officials are able to make.

Beyond that the gas taxes help offset many of the hidden costs of the cheap oil we've enjoyed for decades: congestion, pollution, subsidies to energy companies and a huge military presence overseas very much designed to ensure our continuing access to world oil supplies, Surowiecki says.

If drivers understood all that, they might not be so eager to see a gas tax moratorium.

On the other hand, giving drivers a tax break and then hitting them — POW! — with the taxes all at once again might just be the slap in the face they really need. And it might just be the thing to get politicians serious about facing the real rapidly arriving gas crisis that we're all going to have to deal with.

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.