Do rising gas prices REALLY affect us all that much?

[MilDoc]

Summer = Vacations = Higer gas prices (Same seems to happen around Thanksgiving and Christmas)

Just heard on the news that we could see $4.00 or more per gallon, "just in time for the summer vacation season."

[onedash]

I hate these prices as much as the next guy but No one is complaining that that candy bars cost more than a nickle and milk is more than gas.
And quite frankly a gas tax that is 1/5 or 1/6th the price of gas vs 1/10 or less should seem worse.
should gas prices remain frozen forever at 50 cents a gallon with no tax?
id be much happier if i could buy a house for the same price my parents did than i am that I can not buy gas at the prices they did at my age.
if you go back 30 years and adjust gas for inflation tell me how we are doing? the only problem is it has gone up to much to fast that has everyone upset. of course the liberal media will blame our President since everything bad is his fault and since he is a oil tycoon and him and halliburton cooked this up to be rich just like peanuts more than double in price while jimmy carter was president.
on the plus side some of our mutual funds have Exxon stock so i can earn some profits when they do.
And to be long winded if you were like jed clampet and you struck oil in your back yard and you can't afford to pump it you will probably call someone like exxon or a smaller company and let them pump it as long as you keep some profits. So the dirty nasty oil company that everyone hates isn't so nasty anymore if you are making money off it. but if they decided you didn't have enough oil in your yard to make it worth the investment of time and equipment to pump your black gold than they are nasty greedy pigs again.
just kidding about peanuts. that guy got a nobel peace prize???i guess michael moore and al gore are next in line...i got some carbon credits for sale for those gas guzzlers out there.....
don't ban for my slight politcal outburst please...

semper fi

[Ed62]

I think there has been 3 or 4 posts regarding politics. This is not the place for it. Thanks.

Ed

[dlminehart]

When I started my current job 2 years ago, I seem to remember gas prices were about $1.85. They're now $3.35 here. My 154 mile round trip, at about 32 mpg, takes me 4.8 gallons per day, 24 gallons per week, or about 1200 gallons per year. Two years ago it cost me $2200 per year. It now costs $4020. This $1800/year difference has eaten up the raises I've gotten. And, as others have pointed out, everything else I buy has gone up due to increased shipping costs.

[leehljp]

I think there has been 3 or 4 posts regarding politics. This is not the place for it. Thanks.

Ed

Thanks Ed for noting this.

Lets please keep this to the relevant topic. Write what you want to write, but BE SURE to go back and see if "political leanings" are injected there. Then take that out.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I hate the "Summer Driving Season" arguement. How much does the average family travel increase during Summer? Surely, the decrease in heating oil/propane/natural gas would help offset this (understanding only heating oil is closely related to gas).

[Russianwolf]

I hate the "Summer Driving Season" arguement. How much does the average family travel increase during Summer? Surely, the decrease in heating oil/propane/natural gas would help offset this (understanding only heating oil is closely related to gas).

Jeff, that would be logical, but since when has any of this been logical?

There have been more abandoned technologies that could have decreased our oil dependance than I care to count. Chrysler had a car back in the 60's and 70's that used a Turbine as the engine (could run on just about anything, gas, deisel, alchohol, Vetable Oil, etc.). The Charger was supposed to be the first limited production model for sale, but they canned the project.

Jay Leno is actually building a Turbine car from scratch right now.

[jackellis]

The amount of driving does increase in summer as families take off on summer vacations. But even if the amount of driving stays constant, we're buying 6 million barrels of oil and 1 million barrels of gasoline each day from abroad. Those folks are under no obligation to sell us oil on our terms when the whole world is clamoring for the stuff, and sellers have as much right to demand whatever price the market will bear as we have to demand the market price for our homes or our BT3 parts or whatver we're selling at the moment.


If, per chance, speculators are "hoarding" the product by buying it up, they still have to store the stuff, which is expensive. Eventually they have to sell it and when they do, prices will crash as all the speculators try to get out, which will be good for the rest of us. However it's pretty tough to corner the market in oil unless you have a lot of it in the ground and are in a position to just sit tight. Which no producer really is.

All this explanation doesn't make it any less painful, especially for people on fixed incomes, and I'd love to get all the gasoline I can use for little or no cost myself. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that and dozens of investigations (aka witch hunts) in California over the last 30 years have failed to turn up any sign of collusion, price fixing or other forms of market manipulation in gasoline and oil markets. Of course, the government could put in price controls and rationing. We had that in the late 1970s and it was so...much...fun!

[430752]

Yeah, but no.

That is, yeah I understand the rise in prices is not really a big deal, say, like getting an immediate IRS bill for $1000 or an emergency plumbing repair of $500. But, on the other hand, it affects two ways: the first is that many people live on fixed incomes or tight budgets. I negotiate many contracts for workers' wages and we always try to get a 3% annual, if only to keep with inflation. Now, 3% ain't a lot on a $30K per year salary (equals 900 annually or $75 per month), but the rise in gas prices might be that $75/month (or a good chunk of it). Add on an increase in other stuff, like groceries rising, insurance rising, etc. and a guy is falling behind, not getting ahead. Some people, myself included not too long ago, had a budget mapped out that I had to stick to rigidly or would go poor. An extra $10/wk ain't a lot, but $50 a month can be. Which leads to the second point, which is that even if you can abosrb this, at the end of the year you might be out $$520 (10/wk). Now 500 ain't a lot either to some, but that's a new bandsaw each year, or 1/2 a vacation to some (or to others, a whole vacation), or cutting back on kids school clothes. Death by a thousand cuts is still death, you just bleed slower.

I dunno, you look around and things seem well, a chicken in every pot and shoes for the kids. But, I can't deny that bankruptcies, foreclosures and credit card debt are on the rise. This is not a political insertion, just an everyman observation. I don't know the solution, but I can see that rising gas prices will hurt many.

Curt J.

[ragswl4]

Equalization

Gas/Fuel prices will continue to increase until we are equalized with the rest of the world. We use the most so we now get a break on price compared to other countries. Until a newer, better source of enery is found to move our vehicles we will continue to see higher prices. Energy related industries make a lot of profit to be sure, but no choice when it comes to energy from oil. Before retirement I commuted 140 miles per day, diesel fuel mileage was 20mpg. At $3 per gallon thats over $4000 per year. I had to make $8000 in wages to net $4k. It was one of the reasons I chose to retire. Just have to make adjustments. Our house cost $85,000 to build 20 years ago, just sold it for $1,000,000. Everything goes up, I'm not complaining. Just my opinion.

PS: Stock prices of companies involved in energy production and distribution has soared. Should I invest???? Hmmm!

[Alex Franke]

Until a newer, better source of enery is found to move our vehicles we will continue to see higher prices...

...PS: Stock prices of companies involved in energy production and distribution has soared. Should I invest???? Hmmm!

I think the Flintstones had the right idea. Invest in oil companies? I sure do! I've had Haliburton for years, and even cashed out my original investment some time ago.

Where did you get the 10% number?

If this is a question for me, I just made it up in my original post.

Now 500 ain't a lot either to some, but that's a new bandsaw each year

Ahhh, now this puts things into perspective!