Gasoline prices are rising, which will be bad for the U.S. economy. Although, as someone pointed out, it will inspire people to buy new cars with better gas mileage. Car-buying is a wonderful thing for the economy.

Getting old gas-guzzlers off the road permanently is good in another way, too, because the scrap metal can be recycled instead of buying expensive new metal. Although that doesn’t do the mining industry any good.

Also bad for the economy: high government spending and huge government payrolls, which prevent you from spending your money on things other than taxes. Of course, if we try to improve the economy by cutting government employees, that increases unemployment, which is bad for the economy. And a lot of that government spending goes to private companies, which is good for the economy.

Speaking of government, some fear that federally mandated health-care coverage could be bad for the economy. Although the upward spiral of health-care premium costs that we were already seeing certainly hasn’t been good for the economy, unless you run a health insurance company. But at least we’re keeping the makers of medical equipment and medicine busy, proving that bad health is good business.

In state government, it will benefit the economy if we cut commercial property tax rates. Unless the tax load gets shifted to the stressed consumer, which certainly will not do the economy any good.

Sticking with Iowa concerns, ethanol production uses a lot of the corn that we grow so well and provides jobs, so it’s great for the economy. Still, heavy production of corn does require lots of chemicals and produces a haze of tractor engine fumes.

Chemical production requires employees, so it is good for the economy; chemical usage might be creating long-term health problems, which are, as we have established, both terrible and beneficial. Engine fumes could be an economic factor if they lead to global warming.

Global warming is bad for the economy in Fort Lauderdale, because eventually Northerners won’t have to travel there to get warm, and because the Atlantic Ocean eventually will enter the hotel lobbies (welcome news for the manufacturers of floor mops). On the other hand, global warming will lengthen the growing season and make the Midwest an easier place in which to live and retire, so that’s good for the Iowa economy.

Retirement is rather bad for the economy, because retired people don’t produce anything. However, retirement makes job openings for young people, and retired folks still consume lots of products that come from factories and distribution centers, so retirement is also quite good for the economy.

The government keeps toying with the idea of more stimulus spending, which some economists think would boost the economy. But that money eventually comes from your taxes, draining away money you could have spent on building a new house, which certainly would have been a nice bump for a local contractor.

Spending that government money on roads and bridges would prevent disasters and make your shocks and struts last longer, which is good for your peace of mind and personal economy, but hurts the car parts industry and is only so-so for construction. Wait for the bridges to fall down, and it’s even more work for crane operators. Of course, it’s no match for a good hurricane, which keeps the plywood production line humming at Weyerhaeuser Co.

Weyerhaeuser also produces paper, which you should avoid using whenever possible to save our trees. Still, the paper is made from trees that are grown to make paper, and if we had less demand for paper, nobody would bother replanting them, and so we would have fewer trees.

But let’s not get started on environmental issues. Too complicated.