Can we please stop talking about it now?
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The Pilver 
I hear there’s an election.
I didn’t even realize. My car runs on sunshine and rainbows.
complaining about gas gives us a break from talking about the snow.
Hillary Clinton won’t let us forget. In fact, her idea for a “gas holiday” makes me laugh out loud. Because I’m a guy, and having a “gas holiday” just reeks of a good fart joke. Nonetheless, I’m with you on shutting the F-inheimer up about gas prices. Our friends in Europe laugh at us bitching about this because they’ve been paying 7 EU per litre for petrol for years and years. As a country and as citizens we’ve been coddled into believing that commodities like gas and food should be, essentially, given to us. It’s time to grow up.
gas?
Oh yah.
I figure you’ve made a choice to DRIVE YOUR CAR, so You’ve made the decision that you’ll pay for gas.
Like George Carlin Says- The only people allowed to Complain are people that don’t have a choice… hnece the reason I don’t vote.
No. Not really. I’ll vote.
as soon as I register.
How do I do that again?
I’m not going to get political or start an argument, and I hate people that beat a dead horse…but…where I live public transportation is not available, and jobs arent always close to home. The rising gas prices affect not only how much it costs for me to get to work, but also the costs of everything else i need to buy. Including food, the majority of which I already buy in bulk or at discount stores. I dont feel like a baby for saying that, and I’m not about to apologize to someone in Germany for feeling that way. The only thing that hasnt gone up is my salary, and being that I work in the transportation industry, I doubt that’s going to happen anytime soon. If costs get too high, I will probably be the first one laid off.
So I guess my point is, we can make broad statements about the state of our country or society in general, but it does affect people on an individual level. The choices arent always as obvious as getting a different job or a different car. I dont live in an expensive house, my car is paid for, I am not heavily in debt, but it’s still making a dent in my budget. Do I have to get used to it? Obviously. Do I bitch about it all the time? No, of course not, but let be real here…
I agree with Amy. It’s all relative to an area by areas needs, cost of living, wages and taxation. You can’t just look at a dollar and a gallon and expect it to translate universally to a liter and a Euro while ignoring all other factors. You can’t even go one town to the left and find the exact same prices on anything.
If speculators really do help push up the prices of oil, then we really do need to to stop talking about Gas being expensive and rather talk about that rumor I totally heard about how the national average was going to drop down to $2.50 mid-June.
I don’t drive, but I am from Europe, so I do hear about gas prices. One thing to keep in mind is that the vast majority of gas price in the UK is formed by fuel duty (the governments tax), not the actual producers/sellers prices. I think it was something like 60% of the cost is down to tax.
Of course, the british pipeline was closed down for a one-day strike, which meant it had to be turned off a week before and takes a month to get back to proper function, and we only have the one pipeline that gives us fuel.
And don’t worry, we don’t laugh at American motorists for complaining about gas prices, that’s a universal point of rage at which everyone can come together. (We laugh because of cars made out of metal that bends when you poke it, high levels of molded plastic interior, a standard size vehicle that on English roads goes over the centre line even when hugging the curb and can’t fit in a parking space at a supermarket without scratching the cars either side, and several decades of cars that were never designed to see a winding corner on a road….but at least we don’t laugh at the gas!)
but, did you know about the global sweetcorn shortage, ‘s true, because sweetcorn makes good bio-fuel. Do not try just poking corn-on-the-cob in your gas tank though, it doesn’t work.
yeah, I see both sides of it. It sucks to pay 5+ dollars for me to drive to work, yet, I could bus it. I’d just have to pay an extra 10-15 dollars in daycare for the commute time. Then again I could work closer to home. etc. etc.etc.
Is gas really going to drop to 2.50 next month? Please please please let that be before my road trip!
Yup let’s stop talk about it. Anyway it seems gas prices will go uphill even more. (oh no I talk about it again..)
Gas and living expenses are tough in genral . everyone is right on their opinion on this subject with the exception of idiot polticians trying to get a vote . I think the tough part is the fact that oil compainies are still making huge profits every year . The whole commuting issue is a tough subject this is america with the freedom of choice of where we work and live but with those choices we must deal with the consquences . It’s funny the title of this topic was to not talk about gas and now we are talking about it . What’s new with britney these days ?
Well, on the subject of choice and consqeunces, while I do agree I’d like to use an example of how a tough economy can make those consquences a lot heavier unexpectantly. Take a rural area with a patch of cities that are up and on the go.
You move into one of these cities, they’re all good choices but you choose the one in the center. It’s got many industrial jobs, several commercial outlets and as a growing city, land to sell with reasonably priced houses. A real Sim City in other words. You buy a house and you get an industry job. It pays well and you have no problem paying for the house. Then a tough economy comes along, say the 1980s and all those industry jobs shut down for good. Everyone is layed off.
Then you get a bad mayor or city organizer who missteps choices on taxes and utility cost that ends up driving the already bleeding commercial outlets right out of town. The city stops growing and it actually starts shrinking as all the residents starts packing up in droves, almost overnight. Those who are left behind are stuck in a dieing town now with houses that no one could sell if they tried.
You have a new job though, it’s 40 minutes away to one of those surrounding cities. You work hard there for many years and make good money and have no problem paying off your house. The city you work in and the other cities that surround your town had smart leaders who played it smart through the tough economy and with the new economy going up, are expanding at incredible rates. This kills any chance of the small town in the center growing. No one shops, dines or works in your town and no other place has reasons to come into your town to shop, dine or work.
Now comes a second tough economy, the one now. Oil prices spike through the roof and now that 40 minute drive is getting to be a lot more expensive. Your house is paid for but you wouldn’t get enough out of it to get another house closer to your job without having to pay a new mortgage and now your much older in years, closing in on retirement, making it more unfeesable. And uh oh, that job you’ve been working all these years, it’s a shipping company that’s bleeding money to oil and is in threat of being bought out by another company that intends to lay off your entire area.
You picked the wrong place to move to. You have a house, so no worries there but you still have bills to pay and food to buy. Is 4 dollar gas going to kill you? No. Is it going to hurt? Yes. Would 8 dollar gas kill you? Maybe not. If you get laid off? Maybe. Maybe you should have bailed out sooner and cut your loses. Maybe you should have went to college. Maybe you should have invested in the stock market. It’s all stuff that could have helped but it could have hurt just as bad and it’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback.
It’s just a scenario, not universal but not the only scenario. The point is, a bad economy affects everyone and a good choice can become a bad choice over night. To those who would shrug off everyone hurt by it the most and say “go earn more, the end”, well I’m glad you’re making it by.
dude, that’s pretty much the story of my county right there.
Sure, doho, go get all smart on us once again.