Quote:
Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour
Mavis: That's mostly your government's taxation scheme, right?
Everyone in the USA.... I live in Houston, TX and have neighbors and clients who work for oil and gas companies. This cheap barrel pricing due to OPEC is gonna hurt our economy here quite soon and layoffs are already occurring and a lot more to follow on January 2 after the holidays.
I don't mind paying $30 more for a tank of fuel to be honest with you all.
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It's definitely going to hurt your local economy but it's going to literally help everyone else's. Starting with the holiday shopping season which would have otherwise been a wash out.
I'm not sure how this affects home heating but if it's less money out of winter weather states' pockets that will have a knock-on effect come spring as far as consumer confidence. But in the end this is all just temporary because bearish speculators will get bullish again sooner or later and we'll be right back at $100 barrels. Contrary to what most people think the price of oil stems from the
expectation of demand not the actual supply. Demand was falling short of global supply when we were above $100 barrel and was pinned there until recently. Who can ever know what's in the speculator's mind about the future at any one time. So it's great for most that we have lower gas prices but when more people have more spending money to burn they either pay bills, save or get in their cars to spend. You know which of the three we're most famous for. Which means demand will steadily inch higher again. Also China's got some big economic issues and they have little history of managing capitalism. May not end well.
Here in NJ we have some of the cheapest gas in the country and I've noticed that the gap between regular and premium has settled into very wide gulf. They must figure that if you have a car requiring premium then you can handle the $6-9 difference to fill up. I remember when I first bought the Boxster over a decade ago and the gap was maybe 20 cents apart.