General »   Do the gas prices effect you?

This is something that I've been wanting to post for a while but haven't had the solid ground I've wanted. That was until yesterday when the announcement was made that AAA's national gas price average has reached $4 a gallon for the first time in history.

My question for the group is, does this rise in the gas prices affect you?

Me personally, I find myself only getting aggravated by the price hike when I watch the nightly news and they remind me.. and people at work and in public talk about it over and over.

So what are your thoughts?

My thoughts are, It's fucking ridiculous that It costed me 75 dollars to fill my car up last night.. Something needs to be done to fix this bullshit. hehe I'm gonna have to ride my bike everywhere if it continues to get more expensive. Someone mentioned to me last night that it's supposed to be up to $5 a gallon in the next few months.. That would aggravate me really bad. I may be completely retarded and out of the loop with what's going on in the world since I live in a van for most of the year but, why is this happening? What's behind the severe increase in gas price?

you're unpatriotic

The only thing it really effects for me is how much i put into savings each month. My girlfriend doesn't have a car and I work pretty far away so it def adds up.

People like to bitch about gas prices all day long. If it's an issue, put the pressure on car manufacturers to make it right. We've had the ability to produce cars that get 25-30 mpg or more since the seventies, when the last gas crisis hit the US, but manufacturers continue to produce vehicles that get between 12 and 20. The other thing that bothers me is this: We've been living cushily in terms of gas for years. For most of the world, aside from countries where the gas/oil industry is state run, they've been paying up to three times the amount we pay per gallon for years. Yeah, it sucks that gas is costing more these days, but, we aren't really doing much to change the situation as a nation. And if somebody wants to bring up hybrids, thats cool, but remember, that technology has been around for how long? And it's JUST NOW being picked up, and still in ways that continue to make gasoline the dominant part of the vehicle.

there is really only a couple solutions to this....

1) invest in ALTERNATIVE FUELS - there are many new technologies that are worth investing in and if we go the ethanol route, i feel that the US should lift the tariffs on sugar because making ethanol from sugar is way more efficient than making it from corn - plus if there were no tariffs on sugar then coca-cola would put real sugar in their drinks rather than high fructose corn syrup (score)

2) supply and demand -
DEMAND - there is a lot more demand for oil/gas now because countries that didnt have a lot of automotives are developing enough that everyone is starting to drive cars. so if there is more demand for a good, then the price goes up. US consumption doesnt help much in this category either. business is business and if we are willing to pay for it, the prices will continue to rise. only when consumption falls (not for some one day stupid scheme) but consumption over all falls, only will we see price to fall. the consumers control the demand side....so our habits will have to change if we want to see this side change....so carpool, public transportation, buy better fuel efficient cars, etc

SUPPLY - this is where the government needs to take charge and bite the bullet of environmentalist complaints. dont get me wrong, im all for conserving nature but there may be a line we draw. there is a lot of oil under US soil, especially in alaska. if we just tap into that then we would have our own supply. our dependency is all on foreign oil so once we have control of a supply source, we can start making some drastic changes.

businessmen will never "give someone (or billions of people) a break" if the billions of people are willing to pay as much as they do, regardless of their complaining.

my point with the foreign oil is that they have the supply. they are the main carriers of the supply so they have large control. if we tap into the resources we have, we have control over the raw material. granted, american companies will probably act no different than foreign companies but the US has strict monopoly/duopoly laws that may help out with competition.

regardless of control, if there are more refineries and more oil being pumped out, then the supply will increase thus the suppliers will have no choice but to compete with each other and that will drive prices down

"86 percent of respondents believe gas prices will top $5 a gallon this year." - CNN

Okay, that's pretty scary. Maybe it's time to start looking for a job closer to my apartment.

that too.

it effects Giant immensely. We wont be touring half as much as we would like, because we all have to save up to come out of pocket for touring.
It doesnt matter who you are or what you say (or how much money you want to make sure everybody knows you make), the tripling of gas prices will effect you one way or another. Plane tickets, road trips, investment priorities, who you vote for, etc... It simply will effect you in some way.

I'm just glad that I got rid of my gas guzzling Jeep when I did. Now hoping that this higher paying job comes through for me.