Price of gasoline

[blacknblue]

I can imagine. My wife's minivan has a 27 gallon tank with a six cylinder. As you might imagine, it has been quite some time since that gas gauge needle has been in proximity to the F.

[JadziaKathryn]

Well, when milk prices go up again, I'll know it's not because Mitchell and his fellow dairy farmers are getting rich. No, the getting rich is reserved for oil companies and middle eastern nations.

This, however, is one of the benefits to my little Ford Focus, which is good on gas.

[CX]

We don't have a sin tax on gasoline. Europeans have sin taxes on gasoline (and boy do they ever). We have roads and bridges taxes on our gasoline. At least that's what it's SUPPOSED to go for.

For us it's not so much sin tax as the oil companies figuring out that they can fleece us all they want and the government won't step in. The taxes that were originally on gas back when it was still around a dollar per gallon was supposed to be for the roads and the like. Meanwhile, all the people who are actually for sin taxes on fuel are apparently loving the fact that it's difficult for people like me to get to work, that farmers are having an even harder time making ends meet, and that more and more truckers are failing to make ends meet because of high fuel cost. I mean, they must be, as I've seen quite a few of them cheering the fact that gas keeps going up.

It cost me $57 today to fuel up my pickup, which is my only means of conveyance. That was for 15 gallons of gas.

The lawn probably isn't going to get mowed this summer, because it takes 5 gallons each time to mow, which is about $15.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Well, I filled up the tank for my car today, and it cost me a whooping $97.50!

[Asso]

Not bad, uh?

[Alelou]

CX, how the heck big is your lawn? Maybe you should grow some hay.

I'm all for a windfall profits tax, or even better just taking away the tax breaks and corporate welfare they clearly don't deserve, but I think it bears examining just how how the oil companies are making their huge profits. It's probably in the refining. Crude really is a market commodity. The growing world market is driving demand and that's what's setting the price. It's not like OPEC in the 70's. The thing about the big oil companies is that they have a vertical oligopoly over the production of the final product and you could argue they've purposely under-invested in refinery capacity to cause scarcity. (They could argue back that it's too hard to get a new refinery built anywhere in this country because nobody wants one in THEIR back yard.) Gasoline and diesel prices have not been moving in lockstep with crude -- they've been slower to come down and faster to go up. And in that margin billions are being made.

[blacknblue]

The US government is soon going to be forced to do something. Its an election year. But more to the point, the economy is about to implode. The American consumer has been living on credit for the past twenty years, and we are all tapped out. We have no savings left. We are broke. Busted. POOR. The average working family in the US owes an ungodly amount and is facing the very real prospect of layoffs/termination. Home foreclosure is at or near an all time high. What happens to the economy when disposable income tanks, and the truck drivers can no longer afford to ship goods across country anyway, which doesn't matter because nobody is doing any shopping?

Like it or not, I am expecting price controls or something within the year. Otherwise we will see a repeat of the Jimmy Carter depression. Except this time we don't have any reserves to tap into.

I am not an economist. What will really happen to the world economy if the American consumer goes belly up and stops spending for anything but vital necessities?

[Elessar]

The US government is soon going to be forced to do something. Its an election year. But more to the point, the economy is about to implode. The American consumer has been living on credit for the past twenty years, and we are all tapped out. We have no savings left. We are broke. Busted. POOR. The average working family in the US owes an ungodly amount and is facing the very real prospect of layoffs/termination. Home foreclosure is at or near an all time high. What happens to the economy when disposable income tanks, and the truck drivers can no longer afford to ship goods across country anyway, which doesn't matter because nobody is doing any shopping?

Like it or not, I am expecting price controls or something within the year. Otherwise we will see a repeat of the Jimmy Carter depression. Except this time we don't have any reserves to tap into.

I am not an economist. What will really happen to the world economy if the American consumer goes belly up and stops spending for anything but vital necessities?

guns n ammo will hit an all time high premium, that's what. Actually, lead is already spiking...

[Elessar]

I am not an economist. What will really happen to the world economy if the American consumer goes belly up and stops spending for anything but vital necessities?

Guns n ammo will hit an all time high. Actually lead is already going up...

[Escriba]

I am not an economist. What will really happen to the world economy if the American consumer goes belly up and stops spending for anything but vital necessities?

Well, the Gross Domestic Product of US represents the 33% of all the world and its economy contributes the 55% of the world's economic growth.

If US costumers stop spending as much money as they used, we are in big troubles. Except if other countries' growth compensate it.

[blacknblue]

I guess it's up to you folks then. Here's the ball. CATCH!

Fortunately, I am already well stocked with ammo.

[Asso]

Oh, you're terrific!

[enterprikayak]

How many cities in Italy use canals? Is it only a few, or lots?

[Asso]

What do you mean with "canals"?

[blacknblue]

She means like Venice. How many cities did y'all build on water?

Or I think that's what she means.