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Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Rising Gas Prices....
I am having a debate with one of my co-workers. Perhaps, you would like to add a comment and share your thoughts on the matter.
Rising Gas Prices!!!!
No doubt they are up. We know this. My co-worker has stated that Big Oil should not be allowed to make such record profits. She says that it is wrong and the government should put a price cap on oil or just plain lower the price of gas.
Wonderful. I understand her feeling sympathetic towards other drivers. Heck, I feel bad for anyone that has to use gas, which would be all of us.(Except for Denny with his excruciating commute)
However, I must say that I disagree with the Government being allowed to put a cap on gasoline or anything. America works best on free enterprise.
I don't like paying 3.50 a gallon for gas, but I do it. Therefore, I have started riding my motorcycle because it uses less gas.
If Big Gov caps oil prices and oil production costs exceed capped prices then Big Oil stops producing oil. No matter how green we try to be, we will still be at the least partially dependent on oil in the coming few decades.
If Big Gov told you that you could only sell your product for X dollars and only make X profit, you would produce a different product where you could make unlimited profit.
If Big Gov is allowed to cap oil prices, what will it cap next???
All I can say is "I wish I were in the oil business or do I?"
How do you feel?
Rising Gas Prices....
I am having a debate with one of my co-workers. Perhaps, you would like to add a comment and share your thoughts on the matter.
Rising Gas Prices!!!!
No doubt they are up. We know this. My co-worker has stated that Big Oil should not be allowed to make such record profits. She says that it is wrong and the government should put a price cap on oil or just plain lower the price of gas.
Wonderful. I understand her feeling sympathetic towards other drivers. Heck, I feel bad for anyone that has to use gas, which would be all of us.(Except for Denny with his excruciating commute)
However, I must say that I disagree with the Government being allowed to put a cap on gasoline or anything. America works best on free enterprise.
I don't like paying 3.50 a gallon for gas, but I do it. Therefore, I have started riding my motorcycle because it uses less gas.
If Big Gov caps oil prices and oil production costs exceed capped prices then Big Oil stops producing oil. No matter how green we try to be, we will still be at the least partially dependent on oil in the coming few decades.
If Big Gov told you that you could only sell your product for X dollars and only make X profit, you would produce a different product where you could make unlimited profit.
If Big Gov is allowed to cap oil prices, what will it cap next???
All I can say is "I wish I were in the oil business or do I?"
How do you feel?
Until then, no more going out to lunch for me. Ramen noodles and bologna sandwiches will have to replace my usual Bentoh's salmon salads...(a little extreme but you get my drift)
It's amazing how people balk at these prices, yet drive vehicles that get 20, 15 or even 10 miles per gallon. SUVs are extremely popular for a reason, and it's not because they are efficient. Consumers spend insane amounts of money for wasteful vehicles that they don't need, and they go crying to the government when gas hits an all-time high.
OPEC determines the supply of gasoline, and the demand drives the prices for the limited supply. This is fundamental supply and demand. Want to decrease the prices? Decrease the demand. Use less gas.
If you pay $150 per month on gas, but reduce your use by 50%, you have just saved $75 per month. This will make a far greater impact on your personal finances than any sort of governmental regulation, and this is a change you can make today.
So, Courtney, do you think we should just consider using alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles or drill in Alaska? Just curious...
I dont know why we havent built a nuclear power plant in 25 years and I dont know why we havent built an oil refinery in almost 30 years. The bottleneck is the refinery. We are near 99.9% capacity. I am an environmentalist too, but certainly there are places that we can drill and techniques we can now use to minimize the damage.
I think I am older than most people here but Jimmy Carter put caps on gas prices in the 70s and there were huge, I mean sometimes 1-2 hour wait to buy gas. The gas stations just didnt have the gas to sell due to the caps, so caps dont work.
By the way, OPEC is a cartel and they set the supply. So really, we are not working off of a true supply and demand table. I think we need to do the following things simultaneously to try to solve the problem:
1. Increase domestic supply ie. drill here
2. Increase nuclear power usage
3. Invest heavily, I mean billions and billions of dollars in alternate fuels. I attended a meeting once in Vegas where we had the head of Mission Control for Apollo 13 (the Tom Hanks movie) speak. It was an amazing talk, but I found out something that shocked me. The lunar capsule during Apollo 13, around 1971 I think, used hydrogen fuel cells for its power. You mean to tell me that in 37 years we have not been able to advance that technology for widespread use.
4.Pay down our debt. This means no more pork barrel spending. The government needs to go on a very tight budget for the next 10 years. We need to go back to the budget of the 1950s and only fund the line items that were in that budget. The rest, well too bad!.....one of the reasons for the rise in oil is the fact that our dollar is losing value and it now costs more dollars for the same basket of goods or in this case barrel of oil
5. Outlaw Ethanol. It is a net loser in energy output and all it is doing is driving up the price of animal feed, milk, meat, grains, bread etc...and contributing to the inflation.
Check the links below for world prices and per capita consumption.
http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/global_gasprices/
http://earthtrends.wri.org/text/energy-resources/variab...
It is my theory that years of low prices contributed heavily to the popularity of inefficient vehicles; both directly in that development of new vehicles wouldn't have meant that gas consumption would be a major consideration, and also indirectly in the growth of a culture that holds large inefficient vehicles as fashionable. There are also factors such as the incredible expansiveness of the country as a whole: Large roads, parking lots, and everything being so spread out means its easy to drive and park anywhere.
Contrast all this to much of Europe where there is far less space, fuel although more stable in price, has been waaaaay more expensive over the years. As a result, cars are far smaller and much more efficient. There are also relatively few pick-up trucks and SUVs which also tend to be smaller. Furthermore, hardly anyone moans about the prices.
My personal take is that although I love paying lower prices for things generally, I think the supply and demand method is the only way to go. If more people walk/cycle, combine trips, car-pool, buy more efficient vehicles, less boats/ATVs/ride mowers (It might also help with the obesity epidemic if people pushed a mower once in a while), and just plain drove less.
My utopia.... ( I am a bit of a romantic, old timey, country, milk the goats, collect the eggs from the barn type of girl) less shipping + less gas.
Wouldn't it be great if local farmers and families sale local produce, meats, dairy and not have it shipped from across country or from Guatemala. Towns and cities created and made their own goods, you know like the good ole days...Everyone has their trade and craft. Wal-Marts are great in cases of cheap fix emergencies, but wouldn't you love to have a handmade bedspread, picture frame or shoes made from Joe or old Dorothy from down the street, who's been doing it for years.
Will, let's join a commune!!!
less shipping = less gas
Love ya mean it
bek
I used to live in Alberta. Oil is huge out there. We were five hours away from the oil sands, which is where most of it comes from. I was paying between $4.50 and $5 a gallon for gas. I was mad. And I'm still paying the same amount now that I live in an area that doesn't have massive oil drilling sites down the street. More refineries are needed, and I do think a bunch of money needs to be invested in alternative resources for later on down the road. For now we drive as little as we can, and we try to make our vehicles as fuel-efficient as we can.
Money at WalMart pays overseas workers.
Many of these workers are in China.
China is buying up our national debt.
The US owes China billions and billions of dollars.
We don't like the national debt. (Yay for Keynasian economics!)
The government should cut down.
Okay, but.....
If the government balances their budget or even has a surplus, they can't invest money into alternative fuels, now can they?
If little government money is invested in alternative fuels, then they won't take off.
Coincidentally, the government MAKES money off of gasoline.
The government doesn't need to be in debt. They make money on gasoline. Hmm. Conflict of interests here.
We buy gasoline.
Prices rise to $2 a gallon.
We buy gasoline.
Prices rise to $3 a gallon.
We buy gasoline.
Prices rise to $4 a gallon.
(Getting the pattern yet?)
We've proven we will pay anything for gasoline, so why would they cut the prices?
Government's in debt, economy slides. So what does the government do? It gives away $600 checks. Where do these go? Probably to pay off personal debts. (Like credit card bills.) So the government's more in debt, the economy is not stimulated, and it seems like everything's worse.
Oh, and the people in the upper income ranges who might be able to have fun with $600 instead of using it to just get by? They don't get the money. No check for them.
Sounds like a great system.
I agree, neither is ethanol - it's not even a short term solution, as it's already caused food concerns around the world.
I agree the rebate checks are not going to help the overall picture. But, they are called "rebate" for a reason. Those in the upper income bracket paid a heck of a lot more taxes than I did. If the government is going to issue rebate checks then the upper income most certainly deserves them. After all it was their money to begin with.
http://www.bizmology.com/2007/12/26/why-aren%E2%80%99t-...
Anyway, PEGI, I agree refineries are not a long-term solution however it's silly that there aren't more of them already but like we all know, it's a very complicated issue, blah, blah, blah .
As far as prompting people to pursue alternative fuel sources, the government needs to offer tax credits for anything that saves energy, and not just little tiny tax credits but significant-worth-saving-your-receipt-to-knock-some-major-bucks-off-your-taxes kinda tax credits. Right now, it's not in many people's best financial interest to get solar panels, but if i could go out and buy them today knowing that i could take a tax credit for the entire amount of what they cost come April 15th, I'd be selling surplus power back to Duke Energy every sunny day. Same with a hybrid car (or any high gas mileage car)--I'm not going to go spend money on one right now, but if i had the financial incentive to do so, i'd have one tomorrow.
I love riding my new bike around town for errands!
"Rebate" checks--that's a flipping joke. Aren't they being funded by money borrowed from China or something else entirely ridiculous?
Gah, so glad y'all are around to talk-type about this stuff with!!!