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At least somebody is enjoying the high gas prices

I'm all for businesses making money but being consistently over $2/gal. is ridiculous when for so many years we were way below. Is there really a shortage ? Is there really an increase in demand ? NO. :thumbsdown:
 
I'm enjoying them too - I love the face of Excursion drivers when they fill up their gas tanks and realize that they're dropping so damned much money gas.

I drive a Scion xB, and consistantly get 30+ mpg, so gas prices have yet to effect me (and I deliver pizzas for a living).
 
Originally posted by: rh71
I'm all for businesses making money but being consistently over $2/gal. is ridiculous when for so many years we were way below. Is there really a shortage ? Is there really an increase in demand ? NO. :thumbsdown:
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Hurricane, refinery fires, lots of rain, there are still tons of excuses to say that the refined gas supply is getting low.
 
Oil is a commodity. Just like gold, corn and beans. When prices go up, dealers and producers make more money.
 
I'm still confused why a refinery going down for a week or two brought a permenant $0.40/gal increase, as did hurricane Ivan.
 
Originally posted by: Svnla
Originally posted by: rh71
Is there really an increase in demand ? NO. :thumbsdown:
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Are you serious? Yes, there are demands for oil (China, Third World countries, US for the winter, ect.). I am not happy about paying more for gas either but it is very simple economic situation, Demand over Supply = Higher Price.

Click me to know more about demand for oil
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My point is how is this different than any previous years when we weren't being charged so damn much ?
 
Jumping 80% in two years is just stupidly fast. (more than doubled if you don't include taxes) Sure, oil costs have gone up, but the gas companies have said that the price of oil is only 40% of the cost of gas. 40% of $1.40 is about $0.56, so if the oil price has doubled, gas should be at a top price of $1.96, not $2.40. If you don't include taxes, it should only be $1.80 tops. And why is it that EVERY gas station can increase the price so fast, at the same time, and not be investigated for anti-trust laws. When electricity in California did that, people's heads rolled.
 
Originally posted by: rbloedow
I'm enjoying them too - I love the face of Excursion drivers when they fill up their gas tanks and realize that they're dropping so damned much money gas.

I drive a Scion xB, and consistantly get 30+ mpg, so gas prices have yet to effect me (and I deliver pizzas for a living).
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I too find all the whining to be deeply amusing. 😀

 
I'm surprised people are surprised. Did you really think oil companies were looking out for your best interests? Why have they increased prices so much? Because they can.
 
<-- has no public transportation options, bicycling would barely be an option for Lance Armstrong, the job market for techs in the area has gone to crap since Intel laid off a bunch of people so getting a closer job isn't an option. Getting a new car would cost more than the gas price savings. My car isn't terrible on gas, isn't a land barge, but suddenly having it cost an extra $1000/year to operate is noticable. Especially given that because of the crappy job situation in the last two years my pay has increased less than the rate of inflation because of some stupid job situations (parent company goes bankrupt because the CFO f's up parent company, we get bought out, new company doesn't care about the employees...). Between that and rising house costs my plans on buying a house are looking bleak. $100 more in gas cost is $100 less that I can afford for mortgage payments.
 
Originally posted by: rbloedow
I'm enjoying them too - I love the face of Excursion drivers when they fill up their gas tanks and realize that they're dropping so damned much money gas.

I drive a Scion xB, and consistantly get 30+ mpg, so gas prices have yet to effect me (and I deliver pizzas for a living).
Click to expand...

I drive a 39mpg civic and the prices affect me. I drive 400 miles a week and that has only increased my spending by $5-7. However, your tip and my pay now have less spending power now that all these companies are starting to offset higher fuel costs by adding that increased expense into their products.
 
Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
I'm still confused why a refinery going down for a week or two brought a permenant $0.40/gal increase, as did hurricane Ivan.
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well easy.

its up the $.40 and people are paying it. So why not keepit there? all it does is increase profits. I really can't blame them either. IF i was in controle of the company i would be doing the same thing.


 
It'll hurt them in the long run. People can't go and switch cars month to month. Demand doesn't change quickly, so when it goes down, it'll likely stay down for quite a while. When cars suddenly become on average smaller and more fuel efficient, the CAFE standard can be easily raised, and the lower demand is locked in. The higher demand will never come back unless they change the laws.
 
Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
It'll hurt them in the long run. People can't go and switch cars month to month. Demand doesn't change quickly, so when it goes down, it'll likely stay down for quite a while. When cars suddenly become on average smaller and more fuel efficient, the CAFE standard can be easily raised, and the lower demand is locked in. The higher demand will never come back unless they change the laws.
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That example does not make sense because it assumes that we could some how stop using gas and that the company would be unwilling to lower the price to meet lowered demand.

You're right, demand doesn't change quickly...so they know they'll have us by the balls for a good solid while. And then can milk us hard right now.

Demand is high right now, it will get higher, not lower as Americans have shown little to no propensity to do anything to decrease it and many new world markets are coming together that will also serve to increase demand elsewhere. The demand will probably stabilize, but after we're used to paying an extra 40cents they have no real need to lower it because no one will really notice.

Demand will not go down because oil is a limited commodity.

Lets look at the past here. There was a gas crisis in the 80s where there just wasn't enough gas, much, much worse then what we're seeing now. People started to get some more fuel efficient cars, people wanted more fuel efficiency. When the crisis ended, people just ended up worse then they were before by making the SUV the to have car for a family, minivans replacing a station wagons job before that, etc. As soon as the problem wasn't there anymore, we stopped our efforts to prevent it from hurting us so bad again.

They are in this to make more money. I would likely be making the same decisions if I were in charge of that company. It will do nothing to them in the long run, because we'll still need it. Even if they have to lower prices later, they still can make a bucket load of money now.
 
Originally posted by: waggy
Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
I'm still confused why a refinery going down for a week or two brought a permenant $0.40/gal increase, as did hurricane Ivan.
Click to expand...

well easy.

its up the $.40 and people are paying it.
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This is not a valid excuse for them. You can say this if it were $3/gal.
 
Ping: reduction in use and elimination are two different things. Oil is largely depended on because it's cheap. If it stops becoming cheap, people start looking elsewhere.

Look at places like Europe where gas is $4/gal. What do you see there? More small cars, more diesels, more mass transit. The changes won't happen over night, but they'l happen. It happened in the US during the '70s.
 
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