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Should we feel guilty that gas is so cheap here in the U.S.?
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guilty....no. plus, we should gripe as much as possible about paying anything over 1.40 for gas. wtf - a couple weeks ago a gallon was it was around 1.10. i think the b*tching is more about the fluctuation than the actual price. if it was 1.80 all the time, it'd suck at first, but after awhile it would become the norm. what pisses people off is having it spike 30 cents for no apparent reason, then come back down, etc. what other consumer good can price fluctuate like that??
Amused
Elite Member
Originally posted by: Jmman
I love how any discussion of oil, gas, cars, etc, somehow results in a discussion of SUV's.......
Who says mind control is impossible......
Amazing, isn't it?
So far, because of my arguments in favor of freedom, I have been accused of being a homosexual heartless person who hates poor people, drives an SUV, and I'm a druggie who smokes cigarettes.
Natural gas sure as hell can. Georgia has been a total mess in the winters ever since we deregulated the natural gas market here. I went from paying maybe $100 or so for the coldest months to almost $250 for January a couple years ago. All the gas companies claimed it was out of their hands due to supply issues....while posting record profits. :|
As for the gas thing; I think everyone has the right to drive whatever they want, but I do NOT want to hear any whining about gas prices if you drive something that gets 14 mpg, okay? You knew when you bought the thing that it got lousy mileage and that it's no guarantee gas prices will stay low so just deal with it.
Amused
Elite Member
Oh BS. That's like saying unless you live in a small shack you have zero ground to complain about real estate prices, utility bills, or taxes.
Crap. As a consumer, I have every right to complain about the price of anything I buy.
BTW, I drive a VW sedan. I just thought I'd clear that up before I was accused of being a smoking, homosexual, SUV driving druggie again.
In all cases though, you pretty much know what you're getting into before you leap. Furthermore, should you have purchased a small shack in an area that went through the roof three years later (jacking your property taxes up) you'd also make a killing when you sold it. Bought a big house? Welcome to big utility bills. Don't like that? Get something smaller or get smart about insulation. Every tradeup in the consumer market has some kind of catch that you're going to know about ahead of time.
Edit- I'm not saying you don't have the right to complain, just that you as a consumer have many more legitimate beefs than gas prices (at least as they are currently). When we start getting into a situation like the one I described above (GA- natural gas) where the consumer is being blatantly gougued then we can start really bitching for real about gas.
StageLeft
No Lifer
Amused I can see your point. I suppose that mine is that while the US is the richest country in the world among developed nations it has some of the lowest gas prices (maybe the lowest?). This means that the average person is using a terribly small percentage of their incom on fuel. Many drive vehicles that guzzle a lot of gas, and some of these purchases are fueled by nothing but status, which is why I have no sympathy for somebody driving a 15 mpg vehicle and complaining about gas prices when there are dozens of vehicular alternatives - alternatives that would in fact give the individual just as much comfort and safety (or more), if they were willing to overlook their perceived need to drive an SUV.
I am saying, that this freedom statement is stupid. Through high gas prices the consumer behavior might be a little steerable but certainly noone is limiting freedom. Off course ideally ppl would notice by themselfs that usually it is just a waste to drive an SUV (or other clearly gas wasting vehicles) but that is not the case so high gas prices are a good measure to tip consumers (and therefore industry) in the right direction.
But this still doesnt explain the stupidity of his argument. Ok, little example: u cannot freely buy certain drugs that would be bad for u when using them continuously (psychopharmaca), yet noone complains about this not existing freedom. Or weed is even prohibited, yet when using it you would be harming (the harming part depends on viewpoint 🙂 only yourself. Now imagine everyone would take the freedom of driving SUVs (imagine including 1.3bill chinese and 1 bill Indian) because everyone should have the freedom to consume how much he wants. If this means taking away the freedom of living (or even just quality living [I consider being able to breathe halfway clean air an essential living quality]) from everyone else - so be it??? That would be the consequence of his statement. My concept of freedom is that personal liberty should not infringe on the freedom of the others.
Since neither our Air supply nor the oil supply are limitless our consumption needs to be limited. Its not yet crucial for survival but if u live a densly populated area u can feel it very clearly already now. So steering consumption through prices seems not like such a bad idea (since it doesnt limit the freedom to still disregard reason and guzzle away the gas by cruising around McD in a fat ass SUV or whatever u like.
Oh come on....they're not THAT expensive. Even if you drive something that gets crappy mileage, you're still only looking at a few hundred extra bucks per year on gas.
Let's say your car gets 18mpg in town and you fill your 25-gallon tank once per week (on average).
Gas @ $1.40/gallon = $1820/year
Gas @ $1.66/gallon = $2158/year
Gas @ $2.00/gallon = $2600/year
So even at 2 bucks a gallon, you're spending about $800 extra per year, or $15 per week even if you're driving a gas hog.
These numbers are of course even lower if you drive somthing a bit more fuel-efficient. My Altima, for example, takes a bit over 12 gallons per fill-up and gets about 27 in town. So assuming I fill up once per week (which I don't):
$1.40/gallon = $874/year
$1.66/gallon = $1035/year
$2.00/gallon = $1248/year or $7.20 more per fillup than at $1.40
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