$2.29 a Gallon!!

[Perfectlap]

I rely on public transportation for 90% of the driven miles I travel.
If I had to commute daily via car I would not hesitate in buying a Prius.
BoxsterS for weekends only.
I think we need to start charging people gas prices base on the cars they
drive. Desperate times call for bla bla bla

[z12358]

1. Oil companies don't need to manipulate oil and gas prices in the open markets in order to turn a profit. What their lobbies ensure is that there will always be a profit for them no matter where those prices are. The power of those lobbies extends from as close as tax subsidies at home, to as far as influencing US foreign policy to act as a carrot and a stick to the countries auctioning their energy assets to these companies.

2. Apart from the enormous executive pay packages (which are wrong and undeserved but that's a different subject wider than the issue at hand) if one believes these companies have the game rigged in their favor (which they have), free markets allow for their shares to be bought in the open market so anyone could benefit from that edge (fair or unfair).

3. It is only fair for the users of gasoline (same as all other polluters) to pay to society for the damage they are doing to it. Clean environment is a resource (asset) equally owned by every citizen. The ones that are depleting these assets need to pay a tax (reimburse the rest) for the damage done. The reimbursement should equal the cost of reversing the damage done to the resource. There are studies done to estimate this cost but we could start with a 100% tax on gas and invest the proceeds in research on cleaner sources of energy, and take it form there. The Kyoto Treaty tried to apply this simple principle on a global scale but...

4. The US automobile and oil lobbies have influenced policy for so long (decades) that now it may be socially prohibitive (recessions, unrests, etc.) for all polluters to pay for the damage they are causing to the environment (millions of lower class commuters that depend on their car and cheap gas for their livelihood). Without the influence of these lobbies, and starting from the New Deal onwards the optimal way would have been for US to invest much more in public transport infrastructure instead of highways and roads for individual vehicles. Now we are all paying the price for the bias in those historical policy decisions. These lobbies have even influenced marketing and through movies, books, magazine articles have brainwashed people to think of public transport as something "lowly", "unindividualistic", "for poor people", "against the American free spirit", "call of the open highway", etc. They are still as powerful as ever. Campaign finance reform should address their influence but theres' no one to push things in the right direction, yet.

Z.

[Brucelee]

Blah, blah blah.

I am still waiting.

How much SHOULD gas cost and how did you arrive at that number?

[Brucelee]

"Desperate times call for bla bla bla"

Whose desperate, I am not!

I love free markets. If I want to drive a Prius and save on gas costs, I can.

If I want to drive a Hummer and pay to fill that up, I can.

As gas prices rise, more Prius' tend to be sold, less Hummers.

Demand diminishes, supply stays the same, prices drop.

The reverse is try also.

Let the good times roll.

Unless you want to rail against the MAN.

[Perfectlap]

well the rest of us are desperate!
The family of four that now has to pay 100% more to heat their already expensive to heat home and fill up their gas tanks now and have less money to kick into their non-existent 401K and junior's college fund. Which therby forces them to shop at Walmart with what is left which leads to them relying more heavily on "made in China" which sends another's family's job to Beijing and they're now on umeployment/public assistance.

Meanwhile the top dogs of the oil and gas industry are picking out the latest offerings from Maranello. Ha!!

Make no mistake we are in the midst of an energy crisis that has lead us into a war that has severely undermined our militaries reputations and we're all going to take a bite out of that S#*T sandwich to pay for it all.

Gas should cost what you are willing to pay for it. I'm willing to pay $1 per gallon.
Guess what? Aint nobody selling it for a buck so my BoxsterS sits collecting dust.
Guess I'm going to have to pay $2.80 for 93. Whatever they feel like charging we have to pay! It's like saying how much do you want pay for that Liver transplant?
It doesn't matter what you want to pay whatever they charge you have to shell out. Or you can die a slow painful death. If the Hospital decide to triple the cost even though their costs aren't rising proportional to the increase it doesn't matter. You still have to pay because you can't get your Barber to do the liver transplant (well not anymore)!
Add to that manipulation of the market by speculators (much like the currency markets going haywire because the Treasury Secretary catches a cold) and BINGO allot of people have made a ton of dough betting on futures while we are cursing the gas pump at the Exxon.
p.s. most individual investors lose money buying unleaded gas futures.

[Brucelee]

"Gas should cost what you are willing to pay for it. I'm willing to pay $1 per gallon"

I love this statement. In your line of work, you should get paid what you think you deserve.

Do you?

Likely not! What you are paid is that point where the compensation is equal to what you are willling to TAKE and what one employer is willing to PAY.

That would be supply and demand meeting at an agreed upon rate of pay.

How much is your boxster worth, same thing!

Your thoughts on how much you want to pay are irrelevant to Porsche. That number is always very low. I want my Boxster for 15 grand please!

However, in the aggregate, what millions of folks are willing to pay IS relevant to Porsche.

So it is with gas. If folks are NOT willing to pay $3.50 per gallon IN THE AGGREGATE, the price will fall.

How do they do that? They simply buy less of that $3.50 price. That HAS been happening recentlyh and will continue to happen as folks search out substitutes.

Scooters, small cars, motorcycles, driving less etc.

That is the way it works now.

Or, you can have government controlled pricing.

Want to try that for a while?

I don't think so.

BTW-We Americans have the highest standard of living on average in the world. Why are you trying to get me to cry for our economic plight? We have the lowest gas prices and yet you whine about it because they are higher than they were.

Grow up, commodity prices change often and more often than other goods and services.

Deal with it.

[Brucelee]

"Meanwhile the top dogs of the oil and gas industry are picking out the latest offerings from Maranello. Ha!!"

Sounds to me like you simply jealous!