GAS PRICES REALLY SUX

[technophile82]

its about 3.40 around here. i drive 38mi to work everyday in my civic. typical fuel up is 30-35$.

 

[exdeath]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Maybe some of us would just like to see some attempt at conservation and a few less giant SUVs on the road hauling one person's fat ass around instead of the constant whining about high gas prices.

Guess what, if demand is lower then prices will drop.

Don't buy into the whole demand has gone up BS.

I'd like to see less SUV's and cars that get 50 mpg gal like we did in the mid 80's but don't let the Government sucker you into believing their false numbers.

If demand truly went through the roof and refineries truly can't keep up we would have empty gas stations all over the country.

No one can show one empty gas station so it's Bullspit.

Totally BS. Refineries are at 110% capacity blah blah high demand growing at an ever increasing rate blah blah, we've heard the same story year after year after year. Were they lying to us last year or this year?

I'm all for capitalism and profits and all that, but people who try to fit oil prices to supply and demand alone are full of it because they leave out several key elements which are vital to the free market system and it's ability to function as it should:

Demand for oil is inelastic. People can only change their lifestyles so much before they are already driving the minimal amount possible. People need to drive at one point or another, and they will have to pay whatever the price happens to be. Price can go up, and demand will shrink to some extent, up to some lower limit that will remain static as price continues to rise. (ie: people don't go out anymore but still have to at least drive to work, everyone in the world drives a hybrid but still needs some gas, etc) The alternative of not working is unacceptable. Moving closer to work so you can walk or bike? If you live close enough to work to bike, you weren't driving that much to begin with. Getting up two hours earlier, however, and biking to work for twenty miles is unrealistic, esp for people who actually have more to take with them than their McDonalds cap :laugh:

Lack of competition. In order for free markets to work there must be competition and suitable alternatives to every good and service. All gasoline supplies come from relatively few providers. $2.97 at one pump and $2.96 at the pump down the block is NOT competition. When is the last time you heard of an oil company going out of business due to cutthroat competition? Thats what I thought. Before OPEC, oil providers were cutting each others throats to be competitive. Now they sit on their crown thrones shaking each others hands to hold back production to some target value to keep costs where they want them. If that isn't price fixing, I don't know what is.

When milk is $10 a gallon and orange juice is $15 a gallon we can fall back to tap water. Unless prices drop, a lot of milk and OJ is going to sour. There is no such competition and no equivalent substitute to gasoline. Better yet what if tap water was controlled by three entities who doubled the price on speculation that the water tables were running out (for the 25th year in a row :roll: )

Oil prices are set by a arbitrary fake market otherwise known as 'futures' not real market supply and demand. That means the cost of gas might go up to $1,000,000 a gal tomorrow because of scientific evidence showing that the sun will turn into a red giant in 5 billion years and destroy the Earth. :roll:

Driving more 'fuel efficient' cars is not the entire answer either. So we all buy hybrids and watch the price of gas continue to rise and oil profits continue to skyrocket. Then what? A Prius still uses SOME gasoline last I checked. When everyone in the world is driving a Prius, and when those Prius owners are paying $10 a gal, gas will cost more for that hybrid than what a Hummer costs in gas right now for the same distance covered, and gas will prices will still go up. Then what? Drive a more fuel efficient car than that gas guzzling Prius? Make a law that demands that gasoline double it's available energy content in five years or else? Fear our sanctions you greedy barrel of gasoline, we know there is more energy in there!!! :roll:

And how does the government say "you must carry 3000 lbs of safety stuff by federal mandate, but you must also get 500 mpg by 2009". How can you regulate via law of man, the laws of physics, which says that there is a fixed amount of energy in a gallon of gasoline and a certain amount of energy is needed to accelerate a vehicle of xyz mass? Thats right, it's not the first time politics ignored the laws of physics aka reality.

Anybody who thinks simple free market economics is the whole story behind gas prices is bullshitting themself.

 

[lupi]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
$2.88 here. That is why cali sucks, a gazillion stupid regulations and taxes to drive up prices.

Hang tight Ohio, your $4 will be there shortly.

When cali is $6, so it'll still be better here

Funny now, seeing gas almost $3 a gallon now and thinking about pumping in $4 per doesn't make it so funny

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: exdeath

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Maybe some of us would just like to see some attempt at conservation and a few less giant SUVs on the road hauling one person's fat ass around instead of the constant whining about high gas prices.

Guess what, if demand is lower then prices will drop.

Don't buy into the whole demand has gone up BS.

I'd like to see less SUV's and cars that get 50 mpg gal like we did in the mid 80's but don't let the Government sucker you into believing their false numbers.

If demand truly went through the roof and refineries truly can't keep up we would have empty gas stations all over the country.

No one can show one empty gas station so it's Bullspit.

Totally BS. Refineries are at 110% capacity blah blah high demand growing at an ever increasing rate blah blah, we've heard the same story year after year after year. Were they lying to us last year or this year?

I'm all for capitalism and profits and all that, but people who try to fit oil prices to supply and demand alone are full of it because they leave out several key elements which are vital to the free market system and it's ability to function as it should:

Demand for oil is inelastic. People can only change their lifestyles so much before they are already driving the minimal amount possible. People need to drive at one point or another, and they will have to pay whatever the price happens to be. Price can go up, and demand will shrink to some extent, up to some lower limit that will remain static as price continues to rise. (ie: people don't go out anymore but still have to at least drive to work, everyone in the world drives a hybrid but still needs some gas, etc) The alternative of not working is unacceptable. Moving closer to work so you can walk or bike? If you live close enough to work to bike, you weren't driving that much to begin with. Getting up two hours earlier, however, and biking to work for twenty miles is unrealistic, esp for people who actually have more to take with them than their McDonalds cap :laugh:

Lack of competition. In order for free markets to work there must be competition and suitable alternatives to every good and service. All gasoline supplies come from relatively few providers. $2.97 at one pump and $2.96 at the pump down the block is NOT competition. When is the last time you heard of an oil company going out of business due to cutthroat competition? Thats what I thought. Before OPEC, oil providers were cutting each others throats to be competitive. Now they sit on their crown thrones shaking each others hands to hold back production to some target value to keep costs where they want them. If that isn't price fixing, I don't know what is.

When milk is $10 a gallon and orange juice is $15 a gallon we can fall back to tap water. Unless prices drop, a lot of milk and OJ is going to sour. There is no such competition and no equivalent substitute to gasoline. Better yet what if tap water was controlled by three entities who doubled the price on speculation that the water tables were running out (for the 25th year in a row :roll: )

Oil prices are set by a arbitrary fake market otherwise known as 'futures' not real market supply and demand. That means the cost of gas might go up to $1,000,000 a gal tomorrow because of scientific evidence showing that the sun will turn into a red giant in 5 billion years and destroy the Earth. :roll:

Driving more 'fuel efficient' cars is not the entire answer either. So we all buy hybrids and watch the price of gas continue to rise and oil profits continue to skyrocket. Then what? A Prius still uses SOME gasoline last I checked. When everyone in the world is driving a Prius, and when those Prius owners are paying $10 a gal, gas will cost more for that hybrid than what a Hummer costs in gas right now for the same distance covered, and gas will prices will still go up. Then what? Drive a more fuel efficient car than that gas guzzling Prius? Make a law that demands that gasoline double it's available energy content in five years or else? Fear our sanctions you greedy barrel of gasoline, we know there is more energy in there!!! :roll:

And how does the government say "you must carry 3000 lbs of safety stuff by federal mandate, but you must also get 500 mpg by 2009". How can you regulate via law of man, the laws of physics, which says that there is a fixed amount of energy in a gallon of gasoline and a certain amount of energy is needed to accelerate a vehicle of xyz mass? Thats right, it's not the first time politics ignored the laws of physics aka reality.

Anybody who thinks simple free market economics is the whole story behind gas prices is bullshitting themself.

Nice post.

One has to wonder the motivation for those that push the supply and demand BS.

 

[patentman]

Originally posted by: homercles337

Blocked me on PM? Surely that is a mistake. No problem. Here is my reply:

Advanced degrees? Working as an "analyst?" Thats interesting. So, would you mind if i shared your grammatical skills with some colleagues. We have been discussing the horrid nature of the current american educational system graduates. Mainly focusing on how so few have the basic ability to use proper grammar or develop a cogent argument and support it in written form. Do you happen to have any essays you wrote in "college" i could share? That would be great. So, just to clarify, by "several graduate degrees" you mean a masters right? Or by advanced do you mean "advanced past high school"? If you mean masters, your thesis would not be a good example to share since im sure that it was heavily edited by your adviser(s). Something written solely by you would be ideal. Thanks a lot!

He gets it, your grammatical penis is bigger than his. Stay on topic. Your posts are annoying. And it's "That's interesting" not "Thats interesting" and "I'm not "im." Moreover, the phrase, "american educational system graduates" makes no sense, not to mention that American is a proper noun and should be capitalized. And for god sake, "I" is a first person singular pronoun that should be always capitalized. For someone b1tching about grammar, your grammar stinks.

The moral of the story? If you are going to harrass someone for posting grammatically incorrect sentences, you better make damn sure your posts are grammatically perfect. Otherwise you just look like an ass and a hypocrit.

How's that for grammatically correct?

Wannabee grammar nazi 0
Patentment 1

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: exdeath

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Maybe some of us would just like to see some attempt at conservation and a few less giant SUVs on the road hauling one person's fat ass around instead of the constant whining about high gas prices.

Guess what, if demand is lower then prices will drop.

Don't buy into the whole demand has gone up BS.

I'd like to see less SUV's and cars that get 50 mpg gal like we did in the mid 80's but don't let the Government sucker you into believing their false numbers.

If demand truly went through the roof and refineries truly can't keep up we would have empty gas stations all over the country.

No one can show one empty gas station so it's Bullspit.

Totally BS. Refineries are at 110% capacity blah blah high demand growing at an ever increasing rate blah blah, we've heard the same story year after year after year. Were they lying to us last year or this year?

I'm all for capitalism and profits and all that, but people who try to fit oil prices to supply and demand alone are full of it because they leave out several key elements which are vital to the free market system and it's ability to function as it should:

Demand for oil is inelastic. People can only change their lifestyles so much before they are already driving the minimal amount possible. People need to drive at one point or another, and they will have to pay whatever the price happens to be. Price can go up, and demand will shrink to some extent, up to some lower limit that will remain static as price continues to rise. (ie: people don't go out anymore but still have to at least drive to work, everyone in the world drives a hybrid but still needs some gas, etc) The alternative of not working is unacceptable. Moving closer to work so you can walk or bike? If you live close enough to work to bike, you weren't driving that much to begin with. Getting up two hours earlier, however, and biking to work for twenty miles is unrealistic, esp for people who actually have more to take with them than their McDonalds cap :laugh:

Lack of competition. In order for free markets to work there must be competition and suitable alternatives to every good and service. All gasoline supplies come from relatively few providers. $2.97 at one pump and $2.96 at the pump down the block is NOT competition. When is the last time you heard of an oil company going out of business due to cutthroat competition? Thats what I thought. Before OPEC, oil providers were cutting each others throats to be competitive. Now they sit on their crown thrones shaking each others hands to hold back production to some target value to keep costs where they want them. If that isn't price fixing, I don't know what is.

When milk is $10 a gallon and orange juice is $15 a gallon we can fall back to tap water. Unless prices drop, a lot of milk and OJ is going to sour. There is no such competition and no equivalent substitute to gasoline. Better yet what if tap water was controlled by three entities who doubled the price on speculation that the water tables were running out (for the 25th year in a row :roll: )

Oil prices are set by a arbitrary fake market otherwise known as 'futures' not real market supply and demand. That means the cost of gas might go up to $1,000,000 a gal tomorrow because of scientific evidence showing that the sun will turn into a red giant in 5 billion years and destroy the Earth. :roll:

Driving more 'fuel efficient' cars is not the entire answer either. So we all buy hybrids and watch the price of gas continue to rise and oil profits continue to skyrocket. Then what? A Prius still uses SOME gasoline last I checked. When everyone in the world is driving a Prius, and when those Prius owners are paying $10 a gal, gas will cost more for that hybrid than what a Hummer costs in gas right now for the same distance covered, and gas will prices will still go up. Then what? Drive a more fuel efficient car than that gas guzzling Prius? Make a law that demands that gasoline double it's available energy content in five years or else? Fear our sanctions you greedy barrel of gasoline, we know there is more energy in there!!! :roll:

And how does the government say "you must carry 3000 lbs of safety stuff by federal mandate, but you must also get 500 mpg by 2009". How can you regulate via law of man, the laws of physics, which says that there is a fixed amount of energy in a gallon of gasoline and a certain amount of energy is needed to accelerate a vehicle of xyz mass? Thats right, it's not the first time politics ignored the laws of physics aka reality.

Anybody who thinks simple free market economics is the whole story behind gas prices is bullshitting themself.

Nice post.

One has to wonder the motivation for those that push the supply and demand BS.

I'm really a shill for the oil companies...:roll:

Tinfoil hat crowd unite!!!

 

[dmcowen674]

Breaking News:

Iowa and Indiana refinery outages cause Midwest to run out of gas.

Gas being shipped by truck from Illionois

5-2-2007 Iowa refinery snags may raise gas prices

DES MOINES, Iowa - Refinery snags that left two Iowa storage facilities short of fuel over the weekend are a reminder of how tight the U.S. gasoline market has become and why average prices could soon top $3 a gallon, experts said Tuesday

"We're in big trouble," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. He noted that inventories stand at 194.2 million barrels ? or slightly above the levels reported in the days after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005 ? and he predicted that that the average prices this summer will surpass the 2005 record of $3.06 a gallon.

"There's a fear built into the market that there won't be enough gasoline for the summer driving season," said Eric Wittenauer, an energy futures analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis

The recent dearth of fuel was partly explained by a fire and explosion Friday that temporarily shut a 50,000-barrels-per-day Gary Williams Energy Corp. refinery in Wynnewood, Okla. Making matters worse was the idling of one of the nation's largest refineries, a 420,000-barrels-per-day BP plant in Indiana, cutting supplies throughout the Midwest.

Lucian Pugliaresi, an analyst for the Energy Policy Research Foundation Inc., said that while the situation appears to be improving, "a combination of a lot of different things have gone bad in the last couple of months."

For example, a 170,000-barrels-per-day plant in McKee, Texas, is in the process of restarting after shutting down for a month and a 470,000 barrels-per-day plant in Texas City is operating at less than half capacity. And a ConocoPhillips' refinery in Sweeny, Texas, was partially shut down Saturday due to power outages.

"When there's not as much product refined and consumption rates are historically high, outages are going to pop up especially in the outer reaches of the pipeline systems," said Randy Lusby of Maryland-based Oil Price Information Service.

As a result of the weekend incident in Iowa, truckers were called in to drive to Illinois on Sunday to get gasoline before stations began running out, said Dawn Carlson, a spokeswoman for the Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Stores of Iowa.
=================================================

Wow, look at all that incompetence bolded.

and this industry gets rewarded for it.

 

[Pabster]

The incompetence, Dave, is all your liberal friends who have vehemently opposed (and continue to) the construction of new refineries.

The country continues to operate with a pathetically small amount of refinery capacity, yet demand has skyrocketed from the time those refineries were built. It is a pretty simple equation. All your muttering about incompetence and greed is lost in the truth.

 

[Rogodin2]

There is no such competition and no equivalent substitute to gasoline.

That's it!

Find out about the procuction of crude-look deeply into how we acquire our oil and where it comes from.

Rogo

 

[Rogodin2]

Wow, look at all that incompetence bolded.

I'm curious about what you want AMERICA to be deve.

If you're genuine and you actually want to deprive the huge oil companies their vast revenues you'll reduce your oil consumption.

If you're just a troll you'll not care and continue your burning.

Rogo

 

[freegeeks]

hehe, you guys have it good

Belgian gas prices

$7.21 per gallon for regular

luckily I have a company car

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Bottom line this is America.

We are busting our perverbial asses for the oil as well as losing American soldiers lives for it.

Some of us expect better than to be robbed by pump-point.

That's a pretty asinine comment.

I mean, you act like there are no other choices and that you can't find out the price of gas before leaving home... let alone seeing it on the signs from half a mile away.

Why did you think that gas prices were going to be cheap forever?

The only thing we are busting our perverbial asses on is being too stubborn to change our ways in favor of our flashy cars and big homes that require a lot of driving to get to work. The blame lies in the American people. At least moreso than the oil companies.

 

[exdeath]

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Bottom line this is America.

We are busting our perverbial asses for the oil as well as losing American soldiers lives for it.

Some of us expect better than to be robbed by pump-point.

That's a pretty asinine comment.

I mean, you act like there are no other choices and that you can't find out the price of gas before leaving home... let alone seeing it on the signs from half a mile away.

Why did you think that gas prices were going to be cheap forever?

The only thing we are busting our perverbial asses on is being too stubborn to change our ways in favor of our flashy cars and big homes that require a lot of driving to get to work. The blame lies in the American people. At least moreso than the oil companies.

Oh yes we should live in mud huts and walk around bare foot again, that will fix everything. If we live like a third world country, we will have the non existent energy demands of a third world country, *gasp* you're a genius! :roll:

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124
Hovers around $2.99-$3.09 here in FL for Premium. FL FTW

Not in the Boca area. It's about $3.40 for premium here.

 

[topslop1]

Originally posted by: slsmnaz

Originally posted by: Clocker
Anyone else feeling this pinch?

Did you do a search for "gas" before posting this?

Don't like it, drive less.

It's not drive less... It's MAKE MORE MONEY. That's my answer to it anyhow. I'm not going to limit the roof of my income like so many of you daily job working types do. I can't stand to take orders, and I can't stand to work for someone else.

That leaves me with 2 options.

Go big, or go broke.

And that leaves me with: Open up my own business of whatever sort and be profitable, or be broke. If I'm broke at least I tried and I'll have a good story to tell.

If I go broke I'll end up dealing drugs to your children instead... ;D

 

[exdeath]

Originally posted by: topslop1

Originally posted by: slsmnaz

Originally posted by: Clocker
Anyone else feeling this pinch?

Did you do a search for "gas" before posting this?

Don't like it, drive less.

It's not drive less... It's MAKE MORE MONEY. That's my answer to it anyhow. I'm not going to limit the roof of my income like so many of you daily job working types do. I can't stand to take orders, and I can't stand to work for someone else.

That leaves me with 2 options.

Go big, or go broke.

And that leaves me with: Open up my own business of whatever sort and be profitable, or be broke. If I'm broke at least I tried and I'll have a good story to tell.

If I go broke I'll end up dealing drugs to your children instead... ;D

:laugh:

Seriously though, gas goes up $1 a gal, avg tank is 15 gals, even if you fill up once a week thats $60 a month more.

People pay *more* than that for comparatively worthless things like *one* premium cell phone plan with all the bells and whistles to show off to their friends, two or three brand new DVDs that they only watch once, one video game purchase a month, one night a month of eating out, the premium cable TV bill every month, etc.

But they complain that they have to spend $60 more a month on gas... People buying PS3s and $650 video cards are complaining about gas being too expensive... People who are 'poor' and need welfare but have RAZRs and can afford to eat out and go to the movie theater and buy $10 popcorn for everyone, are complaining that gas prices are too high... People paying over $50 a month for broadband service are posting here about spending $10 more at the pump twice a month. Once again the plague of entitlement and backwards priorities strikes :laugh:

Hint: estimate and budget your required or desired mileage per month, and set that much in gas money aside as if it were a regular static monthly bill like everything else. It's no longer a matter of 'put a $5 in the tank on the way' with whatever change you happen to have in your pocket or dig out of the sofa. Plan for it in advance like your other bills. If you still can't afford it, either make more money, or make trade offs; start with your $100 a month cable TV and the $25/mo video streaming service you pay for on your cell phone, you don't need them, and I'm betting that driving is more important.

I'm not saying gas shouldn't be cheaper or that I am happy with the pricing trends either, but in the mean time we have to deal with it and keep it in perspective. Someone who eats out every weekend or grabs fast food for lunch every day isn't in a position to be complaining about spending $60 a month more in gas. This includes the poor & starving who have big screen TVs and can afford McDonalds every night and the theater every weekend.

All that said, the OPEC cartel and the REAL factors that contribute to ridiculous gas prices (such as fake markets based on speculation, restrictions on building new facilities, etc) need to be abolished.

 

[iversonyin]

This thread delivers. :thumbsup:

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: exdeath

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Bottom line this is America.

We are busting our perverbial asses for the oil as well as losing American soldiers lives for it.

Some of us expect better than to be robbed by pump-point.

That's a pretty asinine comment.

I mean, you act like there are no other choices and that you can't find out the price of gas before leaving home... let alone seeing it on the signs from half a mile away.

Why did you think that gas prices were going to be cheap forever?

The only thing we are busting our perverbial asses on is being too stubborn to change our ways in favor of our flashy cars and big homes that require a lot of driving to get to work. The blame lies in the American people. At least moreso than the oil companies.

Oh yes we should live in mud huts and walk around bare foot again, that will fix everything. If we live like a third world country, we will have the non existent energy demands of a third world country, *gasp* you're a genius! :roll:

Yeah, I'm really suggesting we should go back to the stone ages. you stupid bastard. Now let's highlight random things to prove nothing.

The point you are so clearly missing is that we will buy $25,000 cars because they look good and have plenty of cupholders, moon/sun roofs, power everything and asswarmers, but we're too stupid to realize the atrocity of the situation when gas prices rise a little bit. We all want houses with plenty of space between our neighbors and lots of spare rooms to house all of the ****** we don't need, but we get pissed when we get the bill for cooling/heating. How does that ****** imply that we should live in mud huts ? Unlike you, I had a a clue when making a post, so don't try to imply that I don't. I'm not the one bitching about gas and energy prices without taking a step back and taking a look at what I can do about it instead of just assuming that I shouldn't do anything but still be paying less..

 

[exdeath]

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: exdeath

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Bottom line this is America.

We are busting our perverbial asses for the oil as well as losing American soldiers lives for it.

Some of us expect better than to be robbed by pump-point.

That's a pretty asinine comment.

I mean, you act like there are no other choices and that you can't find out the price of gas before leaving home... let alone seeing it on the signs from half a mile away.

Why did you think that gas prices were going to be cheap forever?

The only thing we are busting our perverbial asses on is being too stubborn to change our ways in favor of our flashy cars and big homes that require a lot of driving to get to work. The blame lies in the American people. At least moreso than the oil companies.

Oh yes we should live in mud huts and walk around bare foot again, that will fix everything. If we live like a third world country, we will have the non existent energy demands of a third world country, *gasp* you're a genius! :roll:

Yeah, I'm really suggesting we should go back to the stone ages. you stupid bastard. Now let's highlight random things to prove nothing.

The point you are so clearly missing is that we will buy $25,000 cars because they look good and have plenty of cupholders, moon/sun roofs, power everything and asswarmers, but we're too stupid to realize the atrocity of the situation when gas prices rise a little bit. We all want houses with plenty of space between our neighbors and lots of spare rooms to house all of the ****** we don't need, but we get pissed when we get the bill for cooling/heating. How does that ****** imply that we should live in mud huts ? Unlike you, I had a a clue when making a post, so don't try to imply that I don't. I'm not the one bitching about gas and energy prices without taking a step back and taking a look at what I can do about it instead of just assuming that I shouldn't do anything but still be paying less..

I don't care about cup holders and DVD screens in my car, I prefer not to have them at all. I just want four wheels, something that looks nice, and lots and lots of horsepower. I willingly pay for that horsepower.

I don't get pissed that I have to pay more for gas than someone who drives a Prius, that much is obvious. I do question however that both I AND the Prius owner have to pay more, period, and we are lied to that the problem is a simple as 'supply and demand' when it isn't.

Gas doesn't cost what it costs because my car has a V8, it costs what it does because it's based on a fake market of arbitrary speculation and controlled by a cartel that lacks competition in a market of inelastic demand.

My point was, how far back do you want to go? Ok so 8 DVD players is excessive and we don't need them in our cars (completely agree here, I think it's stupid myself). Gas prices go to $5 a gal. We get rid of SUVs and make cars lighter and more efficient. Gas prices go to $10 a gal. We get rid of power this, power that, and make cars weigh 1000 lbs and get 75 mpg. Gas is now $15 a gal. Keep making sacrifices and we still have the problem.

Next logical step is not driving at all. The reason going back that far seems absurd and doesn't make sense to you, is that you sincerely believe that going back just that little bit and stopping there is enough to magically solve the problem once and for all. You don't accept the possibility that maybe advances in luxury and available technology are not the sole contributor to rising gas prices.

But once the immediacy of the problem goes away only to catch up and creep back again later, whats the next step? The same thing you propose now, that we must change our lifestyles again and eliminate something else. Change out lifestyles even more, that will solve the problem, right? 50 years from now we all live in 500 sqft houses and everyone in the world carpools in their Prius, but gas prices are still rising past $50 a gal. What is your solution? Likely the same thing it is right now; that we need to cut back and live more responsibly by making changes in our lifestyle.... yet again.

Just like in the 50s when big block muscle cars where getting 8 MPG we had to be more responsible. Today someone tells me my supercharged V8 Cobra is irresponsible even though I can get 25 mpg. What happens when we reach the pinnacle of how much of the limited energy we can most efficiently extract out of a gallon of gasoline and we can no longer attain higher MPG? We've been running out of gas and facing global warming for the last 50 years and cars have gotten more and more efficient since then, yet the problem, for some reason, hasn't gone away. Shock and awe I know. See where I am going now?

So we keeping making these changes, we go back on the last 10 years of advancement in technology and society in order to be more responsible. We feel good temporarily, but the problems keep coming back and gas prices keep going up.

How far back do you want to go?

Thus, my reasoning: give up all luxury and convenience and lets cut to the chase: no cars at all and we live in mud huts that require no heating or cooling. That is the only real long term solution.

Many problems in the world are PEOPLE, PERIOD, and unless we start proposing eliminating mass numbers of human population, problems such as increasing energy demands and CO2 emissions are always going to be with us, even if we are all burning logs to stay warm.

You just think if everyone drives a Prius that suddenly global warming will go away and gas prices will fall under $1 a gallon. And if those things don't happen, then what? The Prius is too luxurious and a gaz guzzler?

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: exdeath
How far back do you want to go?

Rickshaws

 

[Rudee]

Home office with zero commuting costs FTW!

 

[exdeath]

Originally posted by: Rudee
Home office with zero commuting costs FTW!

But you are still exhaling CO2, running heating and cooling, and taking a dump and using too much toilet paper. Be more responsible and breath less!

Eat two times a day instead of three, then you'll have to wipe less too! Save the trees!

 

[natto fire]

Whew, I was worried about this thread not having the infinite wisdom of Rogdin. He was just slow on this one I guess.

To summarize, Petrol is going to get more expensive as the years wear on. Deal with it.

 

[flunky nassau]

I bought a 2006 Civic & I filled up the tank once every 2 weeks.

I really don't care about gas prices right now.

*shrugs*

 

[chinkgai]

paid 3.67 yesterday to fill up for premium =(

slightly over 50 bucks total