gas prices are out of freakin' control

[silvachris1]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

I agree with most of what you guys are saying. But there are exceptions for some of us though.
"The bottom line is, if you truly have a honest-to-God problem with gas prices, you'd stop buying it."
I do have a problem with gas prices. I cut my driving back by at least 30% aftter prices jumped above $2.25 at the start of this whole fiasco. I drive around 8500 miles a year now. My 99 has 87,500 miles on it.

I could maybe cut out another 500 miles per year if I rode a bike back and forth from class to my apartment. That's only another 22 gallons a year... about 80 bucks. I'm actually considering it, but I only have 1 semester left, so that will only be half as effective as I've shown above.

"Anyways, "Plain and simple. But, most of yall whining continue to buy it, so despite your frantic posts and rants, your actions demonstrate that you not only condone, but support high gas prices."

I do NOT condone the prices with my actions, since I have no choice in the matter. I must buy gas to get me back and forth to a job that I must work to pay for my apartment, tuition, books, and stuff. My loans don't go far enough for that. I have also taken a different job that is 11 miles from where I live, quitting my other one that was over 2x that distance away. There's no public transportation to get me to and from that job either. I highly doubt that I'd take public transit to the job if it was available anyways. I'll be really greasy every evening when I leave. Once my new work schedule gets lined out, I'm going to look into car pooling with a co-worker who lives about 4 miles from me, he works a little bit different schedule. I'll have to see what we can work out. That's only 7 miles, 14 total saved per day, but still..... I have been doing everything I can to cut down on my fuel consumption. As somebody said earlier, buy a bike, I'm thinkin about it, 50+mpg on a 3 gallon tank is fine with me. If I have to buy gas 2x per week in it, so what, I'm still only buying 6 gallons. I can prolly go all week on a single tank anyways. Problem is, they don't allow bikes on the property where I work, so that will only help me during the semester.

I, like some people, have cut back. I've cut back more than most people around here have been able to. I still say that prices are outrageous. The demand is not that much higher now than it was this time last year. The number of cars on the road hasn't went up that much worldwide in the past year. All the new powerplants in China are coal powered. I know there's other causes for the demand, but what gives? Prices really are rediculous. If I don't get the bike, I'll be holding off till 2009 or whenever, and I'll be getting the Chevy Volt (assuming it makes production).

So, all of you that are crying and moaning about gas prices, but still filling up, congratulations: you're feeding the very monster you fear so much."

I don't fear the monster, but I do want it dead. Give me another option man.

[Smoke Panther]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

I do have a problem with gas prices. I cut my driving back by at least 30% aftter prices jumped above $2.25 at the start of this whole fiasco. I drive around 8500 miles a year now. My 99 has 87,500 miles on it.

Alright, here's a hypothetical for you:
Say, after everytime you filled up, someone popped out from behind the pump and stabbed you in the arm. Bam. Just like that, knife in your arm. I'd be willing to bet you'd cut your driving back 100% pretty damn quick, now would you?

I do NOT condone the prices with my actions, since I have no choice in the matter. I must buy gas to get me back and forth to a job that I must work to pay for my apartment, tuition, books, and stuff. My loans don't go far enough for that. I have also taken a different job that is 11 miles from where I live, quitting my other one that was over 2x that distance away. There's no public transportation to get me to and from that job either. I highly doubt that I'd take public transit to the job if it was available anyways. I'll be really greasy every evening when I leave. Once my new work schedule gets lined out, I'm going to look into car pooling with a co-worker who lives about 4 miles from me, he works a little bit different schedule. I'll have to see what we can work out. That's only 7 miles, 14 total saved per day, but still..... I have been doing everything I can to cut down on my fuel consumption.

Alright, you've identified 2 things that actually matter: having a job, and using said job to pay for an education. It sounds like you live off-campus from your school; have you considered getting a job working with one of the offices at the school? That will cut down on the amount of driving you'd do in the day even more...hell, if you find someone who has classes in the morning and another person that has classes till after you would finish working, you could possibly eliminate driving all together by getting rides with them.

As somebody said earlier, buy a bike, I'm thinkin about it, 50+mpg on a 3 gallon tank is fine with me. If I have to buy gas 2x per week in it, so what, I'm still only buying 6 gallons. I can prolly go all week on a single tank anyways. Problem is, they don't allow bikes on the property where I work, so that will only help me during the semester.

Ask them their reasoning behind not allowing motorcycles on their property. If it seems antiquated and irrelevant, make an appeal for an exception. If their reasoning is logical and sound, then consider employment someplace else that allows for you to use w/e form of transportation is most economical for you

I, like some people, have cut back. I've cut back more than most people around here have been able to. I still say that prices are outrageous. The demand is not that much higher now than it was this time last year. The number of cars on the road hasn't went up that much worldwide in the past year. All the new powerplants in China are coal powered. I know there's other causes for the demand, but what gives?

The prices for all fossil fuels are not chained together

Give me another option man.

there always are options...sure, we may want to ignore them and pretend they're not there b/c they require extraordinary effort, but there still there.

[vanbibber]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

yeah but how many miles total will u get with a bike? i bet the 29mpg will get more miles to the tank

dude youre killing me. i dont even know what to say to you anymore.

[Camaro Dom]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

I am not a lawyer or economist, but I can see many ways this could go wrong. Besides price gouging, why not let the market decide? If people pay for it, then why can't companies make a profit. As Smoke already said, if prices were TRULY too high for people, they wouldn't buy it.

I agree 100% with Bush on this one. Regulation has failed several times, and I do not see the benefit here.

let me put it to you this way, unless gas costs 100 bucks a gallon i HAVE to drive to school. end of story. no way around it. I dont make any extra trips over 2 miles round trip if i dont absolutely have to either. I've cruised only twice this year so far (last year this time i was at 10) and even then it was for 20 miles...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...s_N.htm?csp=34
we ARE cutting back on our driving as a nation, but the prices are still going up.
you place the blame solly on the people buying gas but which companies are reporting the highest earnings? which sector took 3 out of the top 10 most profitable companies in 2006?
1. Exxon-Mobil
7. Chevron
8. Conoco-Phillips
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/...table.fortune/
Dont tell me that the companies arent making a killing doing this.
Yes, we were due for a market correction on the price of gasoline, and hurricanes last year made for a nice excuse to raise the prices high. The thing is however, that gas is considered an "inelastic good"... you jack up the price, and people are forced to pay whatever you jack it up to for the most part. same with electricity or natural gas, or cable to a lesser extent. The only saving thing is that over time, all goods become "neutrally elastic", which means that any price change will trigger an equal rise or fall in demand. people will move closer to work, buy cars with lawnmower engines, and buy year-round bus passes. But that also means that we have to part ways with our love affair with driving. we'll slowly but surely turn into how Europe is now, with gay little underpowered diesel cars and huge gasoline costs. Not only that, but inflation is going to go thru the roof in the interim too because of increased transportation costs. The milk and eggs, veggies and ground beef you pick up at your local supermarket doesnt come from the farm they got out back. that crap costs money to get there, and being that so much of our food comes from the plains states, i dare say that we pay more to have the food delivered locally than we pay to have the stuff produced in the first place.

Bottom line, theres something fishy with the way these companies are dealing with an absolutely necessary good, and it means that AS A NATION, we will have hard times as a result of it. Democracy is all good and well, but the corruption that comes from companies buying publicly elected lawmakers is just intolorable.

[airattack111]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

yeah but how many miles total will u get with a bike? i bet the 29mpg will get more miles to the tank

LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO

OMG THIS GUY IS A ****ING RETARD!

[kala]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

yeah but how many miles total will u get with a bike? i bet the 29mpg will get more miles to the tank

I agree with him :rolleyes:


:)

[Smoke Panther]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

lBlah blah blah

But that also means that we have to part ways with our love affair with driving. we'll slowly but surely turn into how Europe is now, with gay little underpowered diesel cars and huge gasoline costs.

blah blah blah

And we get to the heart of the issue...you don't care about the economy, corruption, or democracy...you just don't want to give up the keys to your precious F-body.

Yea, you're right up there with the soccer moms that complain about filling up their Excursions.

[Oi Bird V8]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

my beater gets 9-11 mpg :( i hate it i drive 45 a day

[Fireball27]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

Hehe, 45 bucks... haven't spent that little in a while now...

Outside Yosemite it was $4.65/gallon :omg:

[00 Silver 6]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

that you don't directly pay for.

we dont pay for gas in cabs? does it just appear there? what about these golden buses you speak so highly of that use barely any gas? long story short, cab fares in chicago have gone up DRAMATICALLY since last summer, and 2 summers ago i could have paid out of the coins in my pocket. Bus routes in my area have been cut in half since the gas price increase last summer, who knows how many routes we'll lose this coming year. It is becoming more and more difficult to find a route to take you to a certain place at a certain time. Moving downtown is not a logical plan either, seeing as how a family of 6 would probably find difficulty living in an apartment in the city where their dad works. Schools in the city would be even more horribly overcrowded than they are now. I know how you're going to respond to this smoke panther, something quite witty about me avoiding the issue by going into these "what if" situations. the problem is that there are so many reprocussions to your "solutions".

Yeah gas prices suck. Yeah I still have to go to work all the time, and require a car to get there. Yeah I have to drive to school this summer, and also require a car to get there.

I'm not saying I want gas to be free. All I said with my first point was that gas prices exploded upwards in the beginning of summer, right when people start driving a little more, while the price of a barrel of oil hasn't fluctuated all that much. Several people responed intellegently, saying it probably has to do with the big oil companies having enough influence to get away with things like that. They gouge us because they can, it's not right, but it's reality. They make huge profit margins, and could most definitely afford to drop the price of gas, but they won't as long as we consume it. And consume it we do, all of us, in some way shape or form, put money into their pockets every day.

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

let me put it to you this way, unless gas costs 100 bucks a gallon i HAVE to drive to school. end of story. no way around it. I dont make any extra trips over 2 miles round trip if i dont absolutely have to either. I've cruised only twice this year so far (last year this time i was at 10) and even then it was for 20 miles...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...s_N.htm?csp=34
we ARE cutting back on our driving as a nation, but the prices are still going up.
you place the blame solly on the people buying gas but which companies are reporting the highest earnings? which sector took 3 out of the top 10 most profitable companies in 2006?
1. Exxon-Mobil
7. Chevron
8. Conoco-Phillips
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/...table.fortune/
Dont tell me that the companies arent making a killing doing this.
Yes, we were due for a market correction on the price of gasoline, and hurricanes last year made for a nice excuse to raise the prices high. The thing is however, that gas is considered an "inelastic good"... you jack up the price, and people are forced to pay whatever you jack it up to for the most part. same with electricity or natural gas, or cable to a lesser extent. The only saving thing is that over time, all goods become "neutrally elastic", which means that any price change will trigger an equal rise or fall in demand. people will move closer to work, buy cars with lawnmower engines, and buy year-round bus passes. But that also means that we have to part ways with our love affair with driving. we'll slowly but surely turn into how Europe is now, with gay little underpowered diesel cars and huge gasoline costs. Not only that, but inflation is going to go thru the roof in the interim too because of increased transportation costs. The milk and eggs, veggies and ground beef you pick up at your local supermarket doesnt come from the farm they got out back. that crap costs money to get there, and being that so much of our food comes from the plains states, i dare say that we pay more to have the food delivered locally than we pay to have the stuff produced in the first place.

Bottom line, theres something fishy with the way these companies are dealing with an absolutely necessary good, and it means that AS A NATION, we will have hard times as a result of it. Democracy is all good and well, but the corruption that comes from companies buying publicly elected lawmakers is just intolorable.

Yes, oil companies made a killing, and good for them! THEY DONT' SET THE PRICES. Oil companies are not a major factor in the price of gasoline.

Democrats are trying to pass a "feel good" law. It's politics, Bro, with no real world effect except for getting votes. Don't fall prey to their plan.

As long as the market supports the prices, then that's what we should pay. Every time the gov't steps in, it's a step away from capitalism.


"Price-gouging legislation is a solution in search of a problem and totally contradicts the advice given by the Federal Trade Commission," said Charles Drevna, executive vice president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association.

The FTC has not uncovered any anti-competitive behavior or other illegal business practices by oil companies that have caused current record gasoline prices, an agency official told reporters Wednesday.

[Smoke Panther]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

we dont pay for gas in cabs? does it just appear there? what about these golden buses you speak so highly of that use barely any gas? long story short, cab fares in chicago have gone up DRAMATICALLY since last summer, and 2 summers ago i could have paid out of the coins in my pocket. Bus routes in my area have been cut in half since the gas price increase last summer, who knows how many routes we'll lose this coming year. It is becoming more and more difficult to find a route to take you to a certain place at a certain time. Moving downtown is not a logical plan either, seeing as how a family of 6 would probably find difficulty living in an apartment in the city where their dad works. Schools in the city would be even more horribly overcrowded than they are now.

then continue to pay out the butt and enjoy it since you've created the scenario you live in.

I know how you're going to respond to this smoke panther, something quite witty about me avoiding the issue by going into these "what if" situations.

Just like you have been doing?

the problem is that there are so many reprocussions to your "solutions".

that shows that my solution is real, rather than your "letz jst maek gas cheeper wit teh magix" solution.

All I said with my first point was that gas prices exploded upwards in the beginning of summer, right when people start driving a little more, while the price of a barrel of oil hasn't fluctuated all that much. Several people responed intellegently, saying it probably has to do with the big oil companies having enough influence to get away with things like that. They gouge us because they can, it's not right, but it's reality.

So oil companies are responsible for hotel rates going up in the summer? And surely, they must be behind why renting beach property in the summer is sometimes 3x as expensive compared to in the fall/winter. It's called the "travel season" for a reason, and it's not because of some conspiracy involving oil companies.

They make huge profit margins, and could most definitely afford to drop the price of gas, but they won't as long as we consume it.

Do you even know how the fossil fuels get from the ground to your car? They don't just yank it out of the ground and put it in your car. The fossil fuels have to be refined, which is where the real problem is. The reason their profits are as high as ever is because the price of crude oil and the demand for crude oil is high as ever. The price of crude and the price of gasoline don't react at the same time; there is quite a bit of lag between the two. If there were more refineries, I think you'd see oil companies producing as much as they can to take advantage of these higher prices...but that capacity just isn't there.

Also, Oil companies by and large do not sell gasoline. There are a handful of companies that drill oil out of the ground AND refine it AND sell it to you. The rest, some odd thousand companies you know nothing about and have never heard of, only sell oil to refiners or people who want to sell it to refiners (someone that will "take our production").

A lot of people that sell gasoline do not have their own exploration arm. They just sell gasoline. They might not even refine themselves, just buy gasoline from a refiner and sell it.

But the only model anyone thinks about is the giant integrated (ex:BP). Yes they explore for oil, refine oil and sell gasoline. But it is not all the same product, as they are constantly buying and selling other stages of product (crude, gasoline) to other companies. They don't sell everything they refine, and they don't refine everything the find in the ground.

They are making money right now on OIL, not the gasoline, which they sell for pennies of profit, not dollars or even half dollars.

I'll put it to you this way. Right now across the way there are 4 guys I know. They are an exploration and production company. They find oil in the ground, and get it out. Nothing else. They are an oil company. They do not refine, and they certainly do not operate any convenience stores. They are raising $100M for a drilling program to drill some wells to produce some oil to sell to aggregators or refiners. Beyond that, they know absolutley nothing about where the oil goes or who takes it or where the gasoline and diesel that it gets made into gets sold. Not a thing. Just 4 guys with science and engineering degrees, some business sense and entreprenurial ability.

They do know that if they spend $100M drilling a few wells successfully (no gaurantees) that that $100M could easily be $500M, $750M or $1B depending upon how much oil they flow. They could also lose it all, but if they are good, they won't.

But if the demand were not so high, they would not be able to make so much up side on what they find. In the mid nineties oil was next to worthless. $100M invested might not make more than $150M. At that point, you might as well invest in McDonald's.

No gasoline. No refining. Just an oil company looking for oil. That is where the profit is btw for anyone looking to invest. Not in gasoline and not refining.

So again, get your terminology right...gas, oil, and crude oil all have different prices and different factors that determine said price. Using them interchangeably is only going to skew the facts and reality of the situation.

And consume it we do, all of us, in some way shape or form, put money into their pockets every day.

damn you capitalism :[

[JusFlyinBy]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

Back in 1998 when I was 16 and paying 89 cents a gallon to fill my 40+ gallon tank in my Bronco, I read an article in a magazine explaining how gas stations make their profits by marketing their Plus and Premium gases and stating how they were better for your vehicle. They would profit a penny per gallon on the 87, but jacked the prices on 89 and 93 to make some money.

For as long as I can remember, the transistion has always been 10 cents.

87 = 3.00, 89 = 3.10, 93 = 3.20. Can everyone agree with that?

So I noticed as soon as we all started freaking out about gas prices a few summers back now, stations were starting to increase the price gap between 87, 89 and 93. Its very noticeable today. Im seeing, 87-3.00, 89-3.20, 93-3.35.

In those cases, im starting to wonder if Mr. Gas Station owner is as innocent as they are saying? I can understand why the price of 87 went up. What I don't believe is that the cost of producing the higher grade fuels went up also. Am I wrong in my thinking, or do you think Joe Schmo is trying to bank off the increase a bit because everyone focuses on 87 costs anyway?



Anyway, for most people, using less gas would require a dramatic change to their lifestyle. Most of us wouldn't uproot an entire family to live closer to an urban area to minimize our commute. So yes, we will just bend over and take it and let gas prices soar. Lets not forget the fact that property values closer to the city tend to be much higher, and whatever you save on gas you'll be paying more in mortgage. Sure smoke, everything you say is feasible alternatives, but lets be realistic, they aren't easy fixes and as you said would require extrodinary effort that most likely wouldn't lead to you saving a dime in the end anyway.

Take a cab? Hah. At 45 cents a mile, I could drive much much much cheaper than that.

[BLLDOGG]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:



/thread

[kala]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

:cry: :cry:
/thread

Agreed!



:)