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um ya so gas prices... (pg. 5)
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| pyro264jb |
| quote: | Originally posted by Shamez214
Everyday in this world, something is going on. There is poverty. There is dispair. Somewhere in the world, most likely within the hour, someone will be raped.
I, nor are you, affected by these everyday occurences. If there were a hurricane off the coast of Argentina or somewhere, I would not be affected at all. However, this hurricane has affected me. It has raised my gas prices.
With that being said, I am not complaining. I don't complain about much. I believe everything happens for a reason and I just take everything as it's presented to me. Just playing devil's advocate here. And a poor one, at that. :p |
translation - Im a well to do white boy who can afford these steep prices... :D :p :toothless |
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| pyro264jb |
| 4.50 under the bk bridge at some gasoline place |
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| butterfly |
| quote: | Originally posted by Groundhog Boy
I don't have sympathy for the actual prices, as they are still below what Europe pays, but I do think it sucks that they've suddenly shot up. Rather than a gradual incease in prices, let's say a dime a year, they've made up for the cheap gas of the late 80's and 90's by charging for it all of a sudden. Necessities like gas shouldn't double in price in less than 2 years.
I'm also not a fan of Exxon having the highest corporate profits ever for last year. |
i agree with you. as much as i can't afford to pay my credit card bill right now, i keep reminding myself that it is in the world's best interest for gas prices to go higher. it's the only way we will force ourselves to develop an infrastructure for renewable energy.
it just sucks because the gas prices are really affecting airfares and i have a lot of trips planned this year. the increase in gas has already cost me like an extra $2000 in airfare... |
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| Choobak |
| quote: | Originally posted by Groundhog Boy
I don't have sympathy for the actual prices, as they are still below what Europe pays, but I do think it sucks that they've suddenly shot up. Rather than a gradual incease in prices, let's say a dime a year, they've made up for the cheap gas of the late 80's and 90's by charging for it all of a sudden. Necessities like gas shouldn't double in price in less than 2 years.
I'm also not a fan of Exxon having the highest corporate profits ever for last year. |
A dime a year increase would have been nice but that would have been impossible without massive government intervention and communist like price setting. Unfortunately, oil is one of those commodities that can't be properly stockpiled in order to even out demand spikes or supply shortages. So, you're gonna get big price moves when supply or demand changes that will trickle all the way down to us consumers.
Anyway, if you think we're feeling it now, check out this inflation adjusted oil price graph. A barrel was 60% more expensive back in the late 70's/early 80's crisis peak and stayed above our current levels for almost 4 years.
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| klingklang77 |
| yeah these prices suck. i wasnt here when it happened last time. now i am back it sucks and my car needs to have super :(. could be worse though, at least my car gets like 30 miles to the gallon, which is better than those SUVs. |
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| Groundhog Boy |
| quote: | Originally posted by minneec
it's called we should start investing in alternative sources of energy...like brazil and the sugar cane(?) derived ethanol. they've been using ethanol to drive for about a decade. freaking big corporations and people who get rich on oil suppressed interest in it. |
Actually, the claim, which is backed by financial analysts and some outside commissions, is that the government-forced immediate conversion to ethanol additives is a major cause of the price increase. This is because ethanol gasoline can't be transported by pipeline because it absorbs water, unlike the gas with the previous additive, MBTE. There's a CNNMoney article about it from Tuesday - http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/18/new...hanol/index.htm
| quote: | Originally posted by Choobak
A dime a year increase would have been nice but that would have been impossible without massive government intervention and communist like price setting. Unfortunately, oil is one of those commodities that can't be properly stockpiled in order to even out demand spikes or supply shortages. So, you're gonna get big price moves when supply or demand changes that will trickle all the way down to us consumers.
Anyway, if you think we're feeling it now, check out this inflation adjusted oil price graph. A barrel was 60% more expensive back in the late 70's/early 80's crisis peak and stayed above our current levels for almost 4 years. |
I didn't mean raise it a dime exactly. I meant that the price should have moved in a similar pattern to inflation. In the past few years, it's shot up way past the rate of inflation, whereas I remember filling up my car with $.99/gallon gas when I was 16. It had been around that price for a few years before I was driving, and was still low when I was driving in college, so it wasn't moving parallel to everything else. That's one of the major reasons it's hitting people in the pockets so hard now. If we were at $3/gallon now, but gas was $2 in 1998 (as opposed to say $1.10), the complaints and financial burden wouldn't be as high because people would have learned to deal with higher prices as they slowly climbed.
Also, the gas prices in the 1970s were caused by completely different circumstances than causing them now. In the 70s, OPEC cut off supply because we supported Israel in the Yom Kippur war. I mean, there was an embargo that caused rationing of gas and lines at the gas stations. No such embargo exists today.
In good news, though, gas consumption fell .6% last month. If demand is lowered, there should be a reduction in prices. http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/20/new...emand/index.htm
In addition, maybe this could permanantly lower our gas demand so that we stop funding Iran's nuclear program with the money we're spending for their product. |
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| Choobak |
| quote: | Originally posted by Groundhog Boy
I didn't mean raise it a dime exactly. I meant that the price should have moved in a similar pattern to inflation. In the past few years, it's shot up way past the rate of inflation, whereas I remember filling up my car with $.99/gallon gas when I was 16. It had been around that price for a few years before I was driving, and was still low when I was driving in college, so it wasn't moving parallel to everything else. That's one of the major reasons it's hitting people in the pockets so hard now. If we were at $3/gallon now, but gas was $2 in 1998 (as opposed to say $1.10), the complaints and financial burden wouldn't be as high because people would have learned to deal with higher prices as they slowly climbed.
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Right, and what I'm saying is that gas prices can't move with inflation because the the price of oil is volatile and moved easily - more easily than many other commodities - by supply/demand changes.
A big reason for the cheap oil in the 80s and early 90s was an abundance of spare production capacity (especially in non OPEC countries). Demand also stagnated which saw it's low in the mid to late 90's during and after the Russian and Asian debt crises. The consequence was a huge drop in oil prices due to oil price's sensitivity to supply/demand moves. I too remember filling up the tank for $1.15/gallon back then...
Demand started ramping up quickly though and, except for a slight pause during the tech burst, continued to do so through today. Production hasn't been increasing in similar fashion due to the lack of incentive for new exploration and production. So demand's been increasing steadily and production hasn't which has lead to a fourfold increase in the price of oil due to, once again, oil's volatility and sensitivity to supply/demand moves.
| quote: | Originally posted by Groundhog Boy
Also, the gas prices in the 1970s were caused by completely different circumstances than causing them now. In the 70s, OPEC cut off supply because we supported Israel in the Yom Kippur war. I mean, there was an embargo that caused rationing of gas and lines at the gas stations. No such embargo exists today. |
Which is exactly why we're not seeing $97 oil (which was the inflation adjusted peak I believe in the 70s). If we saw that today we'd be looking at $5-6 gas. We'll need some major political catalyst to cause a spike like that again. There is a massive fear premium on oil though today. Based on supply/demand fundamentals, the price of a barrel shouldn't be more than $40-45 IMO, but we're seeing it at almost twice that because most of the stuff is sitting under "unstable" countries. |
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| sandstorm03 |
| We can make Diesel at around $60 a Barrell w/ coal, we may start doing that soon |
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| minneec |
| yep immediate conversion to anything new would totally not be feasible. you need new engines, new pumps, methods of transporting, etc, etc. the problem is that these ideas have been floating around since the time of george washington carver in the 20's and 30's with ford. they've been growing soy bean and using it to make diesel for a bit now. and it's even being sold and used and have been proven to be just as effective as oil and definitely cleaner. but because the government hasn't really been telling people and industry to look for alternatives and support these alternatives, we've been backed into this corner where we're left with 6 months to change things???someone up on top really hasn't looked long term at anything has he? if you look at brazil, it took them about 10 years to convert things to working at about 40% of national use. i'm not saying to do this overnight, but seriously, something should have been started by such a big, self proclaimed, advanced country years ago. especially since it's been proven to work and more environmentally friendly. or maybe it was just another special interest thing that locked the hands of those making policies. whatever the deal is, it's the common people that suffer. |
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| tiesto14 |
not sure why half of you are complaining. Most of you go to a club or bar and buy a 12oz drink for 6 dollars..yet complain about a GALLON of gas for 3-4 dollars? makes no sense.
And gas prices are a hell of a lot lower than they should be with inflation over the years.
Buy a 4 cylinder car and your worries are gone. |
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| matt167698 |
| quote: | Originally posted by tiesto14
not sure why half of you are complaining. Most of you go to a club or bar and buy a 12oz drink for 6 dollars..yet complain about a GALLON of gas for 3-4 dollars? makes no sense.
And gas prices are a hell of a lot lower than they should be with inflation over the years.
Buy a 4 cylinder car and your worries are gone. |
yeah well gas doesnt get me drunk :toothless |
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| Groundhog Boy |
| quote: | Originally posted by tiesto14
not sure why half of you are complaining. Most of you go to a club or bar and buy a 12oz drink for 6 dollars..yet complain about a GALLON of gas for 3-4 dollars? makes no sense.
And gas prices are a hell of a lot lower than they should be with inflation over the years.
Buy a 4 cylinder car and your worries are gone. |
Actually, a lot of us don't even have cars because we live in the city. |
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