Hold on to your shorts, $5 a gallon gasoline coming soon

Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
$5 a gallon gas might sound kind of cheap to some of our European friends but it certainly is not cheap for us Americans. Gasoline is edging over $4 a gallon now and will be $5 by end of May, some experts say.

This is going to be bad,

Guess I am going to have to start riding my bicycle at least to the bus stop. I'd like to ride all the way to work but there is really no safe way to get into town without going a pretty good distance out of my way.

I can use the car less but that is not going to solve the problem of everything else going up in price.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
I've seen it $5.45 in 09 in GA. So I'm sure its no doubt. Its already $4.and summer hasn't hit. They love to cut supply for 4th of july and summer.But in the end even raising it to 6 a gallon we still pay way less them most western countries.
 

Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
Wow $5.45! It never got that high here. Maybe a bit over $4. When I first started driving I was paying 60-65 cents a gallon in Texas. When I was a kid, my friend had a minibike. We would get up a quarter between us and just about fill the tank and ride all day. Those were the days.

One problem here is the country is too darn big and we are too spread out. They don't have that issue in Europe.
 

justtrying

Joined Mar 9, 2011
439
Actually the problem is that N. America chose highways and suburban sprawl as its main mode of living. I am going to guess that car manufacturers lobbied for that quite a bit. In most other places people commute by bus or rail.
 

debe

Joined Sep 21, 2010
1,389
Here in Australia it $1.56 a Liter & if you live in the countryside there is no public transport. & the fuel is dearer out side of the citys. Nerest city is a 3Hr drive just to get there.
 

panic mode

Joined Oct 10, 2011
2,715
$1.40 CAD per litre here. it is just a money grabbing scam.
i was paying close attention to price trends over last ~15 years.
it wasn't hard because when barrel of crude costed $50, fuel at the pump costed $0.50;
when barrel was $60, fuel was $0.60,
when barrel was $80, fuel was $0.80,
when barrel was $100, fuel was $1.00,
when barrel was $120, fuel was $1.20,
etc.
see the pattern?
and now barrel is down to ~100 but fuel is $1.40...
someone is quietly skimming 40%.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
Greedy European governments add a huge tax to the cost of gasoline.
When an oil company raises the price then the greedy government gets more money to throw away on more luxuries for government employees.
Like pensions. Government employees work for a few years then keep on getting paid the same in a pension when they stop working. They are paid to do nothing. They were also paid to do nothing when they were government employees.

Then the government does not want to reduce its tax back down to what its income was before.
 

amilton542

Joined Nov 13, 2010
497
Here in the UK we are paying around US$2.30 per litre or around $8.70USD for a US gallon and rising at about 10cents a week
It's madness, we're being priced off the roads. I've never seen such carnage at a petrol station when people panic-buy, I only wanted a 1/4 of a tank.

It's funny how this is just the beginning on whats to come. The issue stands up and stretches its legs and look what happens.

When the oil reserves reach the danger zone, £1.42 per/litre will be nothing.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
Many of the monster 500hp gas-guzzling American cars are gone.

My daughter filled up her Ford Taurus company car yesterday. They pay for all its gas. It took $88.00 and it wasn't even empty.
My car is not much smaller and it takes half that cost for a fillup.
 

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
The bike is faster in traffic across town,the traffic channel shows traffic

in the red on most city streets. No short cuts,the side streets are lined

with cars. I can bike to the beach in the same amount of time it takes to

drive. No place to park .
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,706
When the oil reserves come face-to-face with the same fate as the dinosaurs, 'extinction.'
Of course, I am not being naive when I posed the question.

What is a litre or a gallon of petrol (gasoline) worth?

We are only paying for what it costs to extract it from the earth, refine and deliver it to the pumps, plus profits and taxes.

What is it worth when it is all gone?

What is its true cost when you factor in the damage caused by tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, floods, drought, lack of drinking water?

I know I am crossing the line here but I wish everyone that complains about the price of gasoline is prepared to face the consequences of burning fossil fuels.

If you want to see the price of gasoline fall in a hurry, stop using it!
 

VoodooMojo

Joined Nov 28, 2009
505
Leaving all Political and Environment issues and opinions aside:

When compared to the price of gold, there has been no increase in the cost of gas whatsoever.
Devaluing the currency is what is causing the increase in price.

When gold sold for $300 per ounce, gas was near the 65 cent per gallon price.
That equates to about 0.0625 grams of gold.

With gold at $1600 per ounce, that same 0.0625 grams of gold equates to around
$3.50.
About the cost of a gallon of gas now.

Politicians have a great way of having people focus on other scarey monsters instead of themselves and their policies.



1 ounce = approx 28 grams
$300/ounce = approx $11 per gram
$1600/ounce = approx $57 per gram
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,706
I agree. It is not the price of a commodity that is increasing. It is the value that we place on our currency that is decreasing.

The traditional textbook purpose of money is:

(1) a medium of exchange
(2) a unit of account (a measure of value)
(3) a store of value

We will soon learn that (2) and (3) are no longer valid assumptions.

The fundamental purpose of money is (1) to facilitate exchange and otherwise is of no value.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Theres many reasons for the gas increases. Heres a few
1.Cartels control the oil supply and can cut production and increase production at will allowing them to max gas prices when we need it the most.
2. While the gas is increasing the dollar and Euro are falling. So when the currency drops prices go up.
3. Oil is a limited resource and the ME and other oil hotbeds are wondering how long we can keep up this amount of production.
4. Oil is used in tons of other products so if their demand increases prices will go up for the raw oil.
5. The oil companies see the end of oil and are investing in other energy sources that oil has to pay for.
6. Gov Taxes on oil and petrol
7. China is now trying to buy more oil and has the money to do it, so now we've got another huge superpower coming to age needing more petrol every day.
 

justtrying

Joined Mar 9, 2011
439
I wish that every single person says no to car transportation. Why were people so easy to convince that you need to drive a piece of metal to survive? People would actually lower their food budget rather than go without driving. Does that make sense?

There was some analysis done on pipeline expansions proposed by Enbridge - to justify them, they oil sands will be gone in 20 years. How is it reasonable to use water and burn fossil fuel to extract oil??? Who buys into this? Only government and the car-dependents.

time out...
 
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