gas prices are out of freakin' control

[Smoke Panther]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

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.

So the easy fix of somehow mandating lower gas prices is more realistic than carpooling or using public transit?

[camaroman1181]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

So the easy fix of somehow mandating lower gas prices is more realistic than carpooling or using public transit?

i'm just curious but have you ever been to a rural area?? not every location even has public transportation. In my home town, its 15 miles to the nearest tiny strip mall. 5 miles to a grocery store. Bikes aren't feasible, and a complete lack of transportation make us completely dependant on gas.

And carpooling isn't always an option either. If you work in a town where you don't know anyone else who works in the same area as you (remember, if its 5 miles to a grocery store, chances are you aren't that close to your employer either), let alone someone who works a similar schedule.

It's not as simple as reducing usage, if there is very little chance to cut back on the miles you drive.

and this is coming from someone who's driven his motorcycle to work as much as possible recently, to save a few bucks.

And still, my personal gas usage isn't that much of an additional strain on my wallet. The problem is EVERYTHING is tied to the price of gas. When it goes up, the cost of all goods and services go up accordingly. So even if I could cut back my personal usage, it still takes a certain amount of gas to drive a mail truck to my mailbox, ship oranges to the north east from florida, and move shipping containers of mass produced, chinese garbage from port to retailer.

what isnt always talked about it that the oil companies are constantly shutting down refineries.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Indus...3176143&page=1

From what i've been reading, oil companies claim that increased emmissions standards have made it less profitable to keep more refineries open. Opening new refineries is seen as too costly, due to all the environmental issues.

Yet, big oil keeps hammering home the excuse that recent price increases are due to production shortages at refineries... production shortages that they've helped create.

[Smoke Panther]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

i'm just curious but have you ever been to a rural area??

yea, I lived in one for 15 years. My parents had a 40 minute trip to their jobs, each way. And you know what we did? We got the hell out of the sticks, and moved closer to where they worked...and we did it all without having high gas prices pressuring us. There's many more benefits to living closer to where you work aside from the simple one of money saved with gas, and my parents weren't so blind as to not see them. but since that's the subject of this thread is money spent on gas, I have limited the discussion to just that.

not every location even has public transportation. In my home town, its 15 miles to the nearest tiny strip mall. 5 miles to a grocery store. Bikes aren't feasible, and a complete lack of transportation make us completely dependant on gas.

see above

And carpooling isn't always an option either. If you work in a town where you don't know anyone else who works in the same area as you (remember, if its 5 miles to a grocery store, chances are you aren't that close to your employer either), let alone someone who works a similar schedule.

So, in your town, you're the only one that's employed? Where does everyone else work?

It's not as simple as reducing usage, if there is very little chance to cut back on the miles you drive.

there's always options. You may not like them, but they're always there

and this is coming from someone who's driven his motorcycle to work as much as possible recently, to save a few bucks.

congratuations

what isnt always talked about it that the oil companies are constantly shutting down refineries.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Indus...3176143&page=1

From what i've been reading, oil companies claim that increased emmissions standards have made it less profitable to keep more refineries open. Opening new refineries is seen as too costly, due to all the environmental issues.

Yet, big oil keeps hammering home the excuse that recent price increases are due to production shortages at refineries... production shortages that they've helped create.

Again, get your terminology right. Oil companies, by and large, do not sell gasoline. There is a world's difference between oil and gas.

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

i'm just curious but have you ever been to a rural area?? not every location even has public transportation. In my home town, its 15 miles to the nearest tiny strip mall. 5 miles to a grocery store. Bikes aren't feasible, and a complete lack of transportation make us completely dependant on gas.

And carpooling isn't always an option either. If you work in a town where you don't know anyone else who works in the same area as you (remember, if its 5 miles to a grocery store, chances are you aren't that close to your employer either), let alone someone who works a similar schedule.

I agree; however, as I look out my office window I can tell you the majority of cars in the parking lot are large v8 SUVs. The rest are decent size sedans. So yes, given our layout, our nation is dependant on gas. But the cars in the lot show me (warning, sample space of one - ymmv) that the price is not effecting people that much. When the lot is full of Aveos and Yaris, then the price of gas will come down. Look at the hour plus long line of cars on every major highway into every major city. Those people do have the option of public transpo, but they choose not to use it. Millions of cars sitting in traffic idling eating up gas. And people get mad at the oil companies? At Bush? Get mad at the consumers. THEY keep the price up.

BTW, that's not a criticism. I own three cars, one of which is a v8 truck. When the weather is nice, I still drive my FB instead of the 4-bang VW.

[airattack111]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

You guys argue over the stupidest ****..

[PalmHarborBlkv6]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

Yeah, most of us have the bucks to pay $3.50 to drive 15 miles
in our Camaro/Firebirds. No sweat...since Bush we are all making so much money, I hardly no where to spend it.
If anyone would have told me that when this guy took the oath
of office, we would eventually be in the middle of a war that costs $2,000,000,000 a week and we would be paying $3.50 a gallon for gas and that he threatened to veto any bill that would penalize the oil companies or anyone else for gouging I would have said they were nuts.
Didn't they tell us that if we did not go to war in Desert Storm,
the price of gas (kuait) would go up to $2.00 a gallon?

[Fireball27]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

^ Ok, you hate bush... we get it.

[rt1]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

You guys argue over the stupidest ****..

But they're not spending money on gas either. LOL

Arguing on the internet < Gas prices

Rob

[camaroman1181]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

yea, I lived in one for 15 years. My parents had a 40 minute trip to their jobs, each way. And you know what we did? We got the hell out of the sticks, and moved closer to where they worked...and we did it all without having high gas prices pressuring us. There's many more benefits to living closer to where you work aside from the simple one of money saved with gas, and my parents weren't so blind as to not see them. but since that's the subject of this thread is money spent on gas, I have limited the discussion to just that.


see above


So, in your town, you're the only one that's employed? Where does everyone else work?


there's always options. You may not like them, but they're always there


congratuations


Again, get your terminology right. Oil companies, by and large, do not sell gasoline. There is a world's difference between oil and gas.

*shakes head*

[dmw319]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

You guys argue over the stupidest ****..

+1325314

[DAS BOOT]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

Yeah, most of us have the bucks to pay $3.50 to drive 15 miles
in our Camaro/Firebirds. No sweat...since Bush we are all making so much money, I hardly no where to spend it.
If anyone would have told me that when this guy took the oath
of office, we would eventually be in the middle of a war that costs $2,000,000,000 a week and we would be paying $3.50 a gallon for gas and that he threatened to veto any bill that would penalize the oil companies or anyone else for gouging I would have said they were nuts.
Didn't they tell us that if we did not go to war in Desert Storm,
the price of gas (kuait) would go up to $2.00 a gallon?

damn dude, take a deep breath... go watch a michael moore movie or something and relax.

[vanbibber]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

its the internet. its for is pissing matches duh.

[silvachris1]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

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?

Hypothetically speaking, the bastard would be taken to jail for assault with a deadly weapon. I wouldn't cut back 100%, if the stabber was still around, stabbing me, I'd bring a gun next time I buy gas....... hypothetically. He'd be more cautious of stabbing me.

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 you've guessed, I do live off campus, 0.9 miles from where almost all of my classes are. This coming semester, all of my classes are 0.6 miles from my apartment. It's cheaper to live off campus in an apartment and buy food, than it is to pay room and board on campus. On campus housing doesn't offer anything for married couples anyways, so that's out. WVUTech is a relatively small university (under 2500 students, last official number I saw was 1800), so there aren't that many work study jobs available. Either way, I don't qualify for work study because of some reason or another. I can't remember why. I can eliminate the driving back and forth to classes each day, but as I said in my other post, that's less than 10 miles a week in classes when I don't walk.

Another point about the working, I only work during the summer, paid internships and such. This way I can stay focused on classes (had 21 hours and 5 labs last fall, 19 hours and 4 labs this spring, goin for 3 degrees). I work all through the summer to pay for the rent and utilities, books, tuition, etc. This is the last time for me though. I'm done in December.

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

It's federal regulations, based on safety concerns. No open top vehicles, ATV's, Motorcycles, or scooters on the property. Hard hats are necessary everywhere you go on the property when you're not in a vehicle or indoors.

The prices for all fossil fuels are not chained together

I didn't mean to say that they were. I was talking about China's growing demand for oil. I know their power plants are mostly coal fired plants, so the only added demand there is by cars. Their economy still isn't strong enough that everybody has "3 cars in every garage" or whatever. All the recent auto sales growth in China (though impressive) aren't really that large. I was just asking where the real added demand is? I'm not seeing a whole lot more demand now than there was last year. That was what I was asking, cause China's power plants aren't oil based. Sorry for the confusion.

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.

As a couple other people have mentioned, living in a rural area makes it difficult to car pool, and the public transportation just isn't available.

With the median home cost value at $230,000.00 right now, and living in an area where your house wont sell for $40,000 because of "location", it's difficult to pick up and leave. There's 190K to make up just to leave the area. And then there's the matter of the job market. It's not that strong in WV, my parents can't just quit their jobs and go to "the city" and try to find work. Sure they could find something in the city that pays $10 less per hour, but that's going to make it even more impossible to afford that extra $190,000 to move. I know that cheaper houses can be found, but not within 10 miles of "the city", I've been watching the housing market here in WV for the last 2 years, I wanna know what I'm gonna be getting into when I graduate.

Like I said, I've already taken a different job that's closer to home. I'm still looking into carpooling with a couple of co-workers, even though it will mean getting up 30 minutes earlier each day. It will just take a little time to find out exactly what this new company expects of me. I may be able to ride in with somebody else. I'm not whining like alot of these responses seem to be, just concerned with what's going to happen when prices keep going up.

SmokePants, I tried to address the responses you had for me. If you see any other options for me, other than moving (since that really wont work right now), please let me know. I'd like to cut out more, anything to hurt the oil industry for stabbing me in the arm every time I fill up.

[kala]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

Arguing on the internet < Gas prices

QFT



:)

[96_Fbird]

Re: gas prices are out of freakin' control

3.59 here :( Chicago and northwest Indiana have the highest in the nation