Gas Prices!

[Michaelangelo]

I can't stand Gas prices lately, here in Michigan they've gotten as high as $3.60 for the cheap stuff.  Right now it's gone down a little, but still not enough.  I really feel like we're all being stomped on by the people in the oil company though sadly I don't think enough people care.

I have been staying home, leaving my car in the drive way.  Refusing to go to the store, to go get food, to do just about anything.  I don't want my car to leave my drive way more than two times a week really.  Why?  Because I don't want to support the scum out there charging us an arm and a leg for Gas.  I walk to the party store or stay home.  If I know someone is already doing an erran to an area I need to go to, I will hitch a ride with them.  

Though it makes me sick to see the roads just as crowded as they always were.  Where are people getting money for gas?  You can't even get 3 gallons for $10 anymore!  This is insane and it's really hurting the people.  The gas prices affect just about everything else out there.  Once they go up, food, toys, clothes, and everything else goes up because shipping gets too high.  Gas is something the full World has come to rely upon very heavy, and I at least know those of us in the United States are suffering because of it.   I hear some states like FL and Texas are still under $3, though most people I talk to are spending at least $3.30 for gas.   This is NOT right at all and I'm so sick of it.

I want to see a gas strike... people walking, riding bikes, car pooling, using public trans and making the gas stations all feel it.  Am I the only one who feels we should go that far?

Anyone else cutting down on using gas because of the prices?

[Phoenix]

I run my tank down to nearly zero anymore... so I don't fill up as much as I use to. But unfortunately, where I live, we don't have a public transportation system worth a damn or places close enough to walk to really. I guess we do have a public transportation around my friends and family in this area. Its called me. I have probably the better of the MPG cars so I get to take people everywhere.

It does sicken me that we have to pay so much for gas when there's not a shortage or anything. I've been noticing lately that places change their prices randomly and multiple times throughout the day. BLeh.

[Michaelangelo]

Bumping this, only because it's better to see as the last topic than the spammer topic...

Anyone else want to share their Gas story woes?

[Leonardo_Mystic]

$3 and a few cents here. I only usually drive back and forth to work and nothing more. About once a week I'll make a trip to the store for necessities. It helps too to have a fuel efficient car. My little Neon is very good on gas mileage, so I fill up maybe once every week and a half to two weeks. Used to be once every month before I moved a little farther away from my job, and the nearest Super Walmart.

[Aignatius]

It's been $3.59 for the last week or so, and I had to go out nearly every day in a vehicle that gets 7-10 city, and 20-22 hwy. I don't like to drive on less than half a tank, in case I can't get gas for some reason.
I haven't had to drive much lately, thank goodness.

[Absaraka]

I CAN'T drive, so it's an academic question for me.

The subtext I'm getting is that some think it's price-gouging.  It's not.  It's a high-demand season (summer driving?  Hello?), and there are some emerging markets (China, India) which are gobbling up gas left and right, which forces up the price.  Be glad you don't live in Germany: last I heard, it was $6 and up a gallon over there.  Other factors in play: local gas blends--so-called "boutique" fuels--which lower refining capacity, thus lowering supply, thus raising prices elsewhere.  The cost of a barrel of crude is $66 and change on the commodities market as I type this--you think THAT might have something to do with it?  It was around $70 when Katrina hit.  $66 a barrel is no joke.  That's a good place to start pointing fingers, if you absolutely must.

And which would you rather have: $3 gas that's available, or $1.50 gas that's sold out?  It's the free market, folks.  Sometimes it's ugly.  But it beats the alternative.

Raka

[CriticalCrittles]

I'm not allowed to drive for medical reasons (seziures) but my bf has to drive me around everywhere I need to go, which I feel bad for (even though it's not really my fault and there's noting I can do about it) so I often help out with paying for gas. Gas around here is 3 bucks and 3-5 cents last time I checked, but it does change often. It kinda sucks around here cuz we live in a farm area and it's 20-30 minutes to the nearest mall/grocery store or any other...signs of life heh. I don't know what the full situation on the matter of raising prices is (I only watch cartoon network or nick toons 99% of the time after all lol) but I always kinda felt like...they're doing this because they know we can't live without it and no matter how high the prices are, we'll buy it anyway because we NEED it. Which is rather cruel really. Maybe I shouldn't look forward to driving one day as much as I used to.

[Aignatius]

Here's a petition you can sign, that hopefully will make a difference.

Changes come about by many small and persistent actions.

http://pol.moveon.org/pac/stoppricegouging/

[Michaelangelo]

Thanks Aig!

There has to be a stop put on this.

[Absaraka]

All right, but stop it how?  Price controls?  I don't think many of the younger set remember the gas lines of the late seventies, which is what we'd get if we went that route.  Gas was essentially getting rationed: you could only buy gas on certain days of the week--not very much of it, either--and lines were miles long.  If you want to go back to THAT mess, be my guest--I'll stick to the Metro, and wish more people used Dial.

Light sweet crude is trading at 66.21 as I'm typing this.  If it were down in the 40s and gas prices were at $3+, fine, something's wrong.  But when you've got crude trading in the mid-to-upper sixties, there's really not much any one person or organization can do.  You can sign all the petitions you want, but if crude keeps going up, gas prices won't come down.  That is basic economics.  Is gas expensive?  Yes.  But you can buy it any day of the week, as much as you want, you can be pretty sure your local station has it, and you don't have to sit in line for hours only to be limited to a five-gallon purchase.  We don't want to go back to gas lines again--just trust me on this one.  Some history is not worth repeating.

Raka

[Michaelangelo]

Your fine to your view on how it's going Raka and we can stick to ours.  There was a cap on the gas prices for many years, most of our lifes and it worked out just great.  Than the cap is removed and we're being ripped off to high heaven, prices on everything is going up because shipping is going up, but people are not making more money at their jobs... the people of our country is being hurt big time to where some states like my own who don't have much public trans are starting to cry out for a state of emergency.  Because either people buy gas or food on the table, they need the gas to get to work, but they need the food to live.

So sure, you can feel and believe what you read there, but there is NO WAY any real excuse to do this to the people, and other options should be made open for the people at cheaper prices... instead of having anything that is another rout cost too much for the people to be able to afford.

Maybe in states where public trans is an option you're not feeling it like we are.  But if you lived where there was no train/subway or even reliable bus routs.. you too would realize what they're doing to the people who before hand were already trying to survive pay check by check... who are now starving to be able to pay their bills because the food money is going into their gas tanks instead.  Though you got your public trans.  

You have a right to your word, but at the same time maybe you should check around in other areas and see just how bad this is affecting the people.  There is no help here, it's only hurting our full country and the oil people are living rich.

[Aignatius]

From what I understand, it's about charging more than they need to charge for something that everyone needs. It's not a luxury item, it's a necessity. And it's going to hurt the economy. Maybe I'm mislead, but I see it as another check and balance to keep companies from playing price games with the public.
You weren't living in CA when the power companies tied in with Enron played that game with the state. Everyone had to pay a huge increase in their power bills and there were rolling brownouts, because of a "power shortage". Sure, some people use more resources than they should. But not everyone does. Yet everyone pays. If we could do without oil products, if we could do without electricity... but we can't. The alternatives are few and far between, and have been regulated out of existence.  And only a few hold the monopoly to those necessities. We're dependent on them. So, they shouldn't be able to take advantage of that dependency. This isn't conjecture, it's based on personal observation.

Not to mention, as far as the gas crisis of the late seventies and early eighties, I used to have a small job (among others) driving peoples' cars to the gas station and camping out in the gas lines, while they were at work. You'd think the country would have awakened and come up with some more readily available, alternate forms of fuel and transportation, but everyone fell asleep again, when the crisis passed. Well, not everyone, but the minority have been buried under the comfort of big luxury cars and SUVs... Zz...

edit: Adding to what Mike said, there's very little in the way of public transit here, as well.

[Leonardo the 2nd]

Here in germany the prices are very high, too. I only don't know how much it is in your currency.
I don't have a car myself, but each time I visit my bf, I drive with his and of course pay very often. All I can say is, it really costs a pretty penny and I am only a little student, who doesn't earn money.    

[Aignatius]

Yes, gas prices have always been a lot higher in Europe, and Europe has had some compensation for that.
Smaller cars with smaller engines, in general, more public transit, not as high a number or as mobile a population, at least when I was living there. Most people couldn't afford cars, and in Spain, people had mopeds, or those little three wheeled trucks for transportation. Everyone else had horses or donkeys and carts, and human powered machines. Or they walked, or took the tramvia or the bus. There were few highways, more like narrow two-lane roads where you came upon a horse drawn hay wagon, or some fellow with baskets of stuff, riding on a donkey about the size of a Great Dane.
I'm sure Europe is not as quiet as that, nowadays, so their demand for fuel has gone up, as well. The population is increasing, and people are in a bigger hurry just as it is in many parts of the U.S.

[Raphael]

Here, we're hitting $1.10/litre (actually, closer to $1.20).

There are 4 litres to a gallon, so that's over $4.00 a gallon.  A lot of that price are taxes, not even the base price of oil.

In England, the prices are £.98/litre, which is durned close to $2/litre...or $8/gallon.  It's no wonder people take the tube...

Sadly, though, I'm with PG - our transit system sucks, so not using the car really isn't an option. And, unfortunately, boycotting or any of those methods will probably never work. There are just too many people that are addicted to their vehicles (for lack of a better phrase) and they'd give up food before they'd take mass transit. An old boss of mine lived on a bus route, the bus stopped about 20 feet from his house...and he still took a cab one night, rather than take the bus.