Chances are you have a credit card. If you do, chances are you get some kind of "reward" on purchases, whether it's a cash refund, airline miles or some kind of elaborate point system. And chances are that your credit card company has two tiers of purchases: special purchases that give you extra points or savings or whatever, and everything else for which you get a tiny little pittance, usually worth about a half of a percent of what you spend. The "special" purchases usually give somewhere between 1 and 5 percent back.

The "special" purchases category pretty much always includes gasoline. Sometimes it's the only thing in the "special" category. Since I don't drive, I don't buy gas; at least, not directly. I do pay to use public transportation. In fact, public transportation is a major expense on my credit card statement; it's the one thing I always use my credit card to pay for.

One thing pretty much everybody can agree on is that we (as a country) use too much oil, and furthermore that effective public transportation is a good means of making economical use of that resource. Using public transportation is good for the environment, the economy, the social fabric of the city, and on a mass scale is even good for national security (dependence on foreign oil and all that). But our financial institutions specifically reward customers who choose to drive their own cars.

I'm not saying that they should get rid of the extra rewards for gas, but wouldn't it be nice to similarly reward the rest of us?