But I'd Pay $10 For Good Salsa

Oil was up over a dollar a barrel today breaking the $70 barrier. Gas will crack $3.00 a [edit] gallon next week and then may go higher. I don't understand supply and demand. I'm an economics idiot. (I still remember my brother - as we were standing in line at 5:00 a.m. to buy Journey tickets - telling me in 1981 that it was important that I understand the "law of diminishing returns". I didn't then. I don't now. ) "Supply" should only be a factor if there are shortages. About 15 years ago there was a shortage of lumber - you had to wait to get it - and prices went through the roof. There is no shortage of oil. "Demand" makes a little more sense. Prices are set at what the market will support. A star athlete is paid $5 million a year because someone is willing to pay it. With that being said, over the last 10 years most Americans would have paid more than the standard $1.50 - $1.70 a gallon because they had to have it. Yet prices remained low. So why the sudden rise in prices now? I don't understand what is going on.