The price of gas is going up, and up, and up.
With it, the price of food and other things are rising, because of the cost of transportation.
Some experts have said that the price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. could hit $4.00 in some areas by spring.
There goes my dream of owning a V8 muscle car, at least for now.
I need more muscle in my wallet.
With a sinking economy, record home loss, job loss, and other things going bad, this news could not come at a worse time.
I am not going through the hard times that many others are, but I do feel for them.
I feel for them very much, and hope that things turn around in a hurry.
As we "Gather" here, I hope that all of you are doing well.
If not, grow corn.
I read that corn can power cars.
It also goes great with butter for a side dish in the summer.
Speaking of summer ... WHERE ARE YOU!!!!!!!!!!
George Vreeland Hill
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Comments: 102
Yup, the cost of food and all other goods rises because it costs more for fuel for the trucks to haul everything.
I love corn, too (Wisconsinite, after all), but I read recently that because of the corn used to make vehicle fuels, the cost of corn and products that use it is going up, too.
I feel like W is standing on my head.
Did you notice the price of milk is shooting up as well. This is because of the state of the economy but more directly because, again, corn is used to make ethanol but also to feed cows. The supply of corn has not caught up to the demand yet.
Like you I'm eagerly awaiting summer too but we need more ethanol in the summer, I believe so prices will only continue to go up.
If the government wants to ward off a recession, placing a cap on profits from Gasoline would do it. Gas companies are recording record high profits, and we're supposed to believe that this is the cheapest gas can be??
If gas were lowered, the cost of manufactured items would lower, because shipping costs would lower. The price of items from groceries to clothing to new TV's and stereos would lower. The cost of services such as taxis, snow plows, and tow trucks would lower.
In the end, the recession could be warded off simply by putting a cap on the amount of markup a gas company can place on their product.
We don't go much now as it is. If the price keeps going up we won't be going but maybe twice a month.
I am near Gainesville, FL.
I have to agree with Heather, though. If the government really wants to do something for the economy, sending us rebate checks is not the answer. Nice, but not the answer. They need to force the oil companies to reduce the price of their products to more reasonable rates, cutting them by at least half. There's no reason the oil companies should be showing record gross profits in the BILLIONS while those of us dependent on their products are living at or below the poverty line simply because it's either buy gas or groceries.
So I feel cheated. Hope the rest of you are doing better. Wish I could still ride a bike or walk.
Utilities, groceries, services- it's all going up, up, up, while the gas companies sit around rolling in money.
MyHotComments / HotFreeLayouts
The Return of Aesop for Today February 28
Did you know that if gas prices were $1.25 20 years ago, today's prices reflect an increase greater than if inflation ran at an average of 3% over that time? $1.25 in 1988 would be $2.26 today. At 4% inflation, it would come to $2.73.
Using corn for fuel (alcohol) is stupid. It costs too much to grow that much corn. The costs I am speaking of are not just the money but what it does to our land and our agriculture and so forth. The TCP process (you can find it on wikipedia) is much more reasonable because it take any hydrocarbon (plastic, old tires, dead tree branches, land fill, sewage, tar) and converts it to oil. The process uses about 15% of the energy in the stodk being processed and has fertilizer and recyclable materials and carbon black as byproducts. The water it uses in not contaminated. Check it out.
Ft. Lauderdale
AS for food prices, yes I have noticed that in my shopping as well. espically since I am on a tight budget. It hurts when I have to put something back I usaully get because I only have certain amount to spend. As for cutting back. I have done all the cuts we can do. So, now it is waiting game til summer is over.
Summer.......I am wondering where spring is..it is freezing in Southern Florida today.
However, the value of the dollar also passed the 40 year low mark a few days ago also. Therefore, one can clearly see that this is Inflation as the value of the dollar is now less than it was worth in the sixties.
It really varries a lot depending on where you are in our state.
We're lucky to have a good public transportation system, and if I'm really lucky, starting next month we should only need to use our car twice a week--once to pick up my fiance when he works late, and once to go grocery shopping. Other than that, though, we'll probably not use the car much!
Luckily, I have a hybrid-- it really does help to save on the gas!
Why?
Because more than half of the country will soon be on the road to realizing that all of our problems were not due to him. It may take some of the more dense several Presidential terms to do so as there are still holdouts ranting about how Bill Clinton screwed up the country so bad we are still recovering from it, but at some point, maybe when there is no economy, no lights, riots in the streets and the military patrolling our cities like during Katrina that it might just occur to people that this might have a little to do with energy extortion and terrorism from the Middle East.
MyHotComments
Those were mostly tax breaks on drilling. If $100 dollar per barrel oil isn't enough impetus for drilling, nothing is. Removing those tax breaks will have little if any effect on prices.
Only when everyone has to pay at least that much will anyone really try to build cars that USE LESS GAS!!!
Sad, but true...
During a White House news conference Thursday morning, President Bush said the country is not headed into a recession, noting that the government has acted "robustly." His view of the economy, however, is far more chipper than that of many economists, who fear the country is entering a recession (or may even already be in one. In fact, when asked by a reporter about what advice he'd given an average American, who is faced by the prospect of $4 gallon gas, the President responded: "That's interesting. I hadn't heard that. ... I know it's high now.
If you listened to 43's speech today, he says one solution to our gas prices would be to start drilling in environmentally protected lands.
He also said that we need to build more oil refineries within our borders and suggested that we might want to start building them on military bases. This comment really threw me. He seemed to be implying that we (the American people, via our government) are responsible for making sure our country has enough oil refineries.
Last time I checked, oil and gas were fully privatized industries who are posting record profits. So, exactly how and why are we (the American people, via our government) suddenly at fault for the fact that American oil companies are not building enough refineries?
It has already been well printed and discussed that keeping a low number of refineries in the country serves the oil companies well; as it restricts the available flow of gasoline and helps keep prices high.
I assume that 43 was saying if those pesky oil companies won't keep up with demand that the government should build refineries for them.
I say fine; as long as the private oil companies are not allowed to reap any profits from our government investing in oil business's needs.
If the government started producing and supplying the nation's gasoline, then perhaps the government could enjoy record incomes, and pass those stellar earnings onto the people, with, say, universal health care coverage for all Americans.
1) Everybody blames the government for our dependence on oil, when it's really our fault, by that I mean everybody here that consumes oil.
2) People think they're entitled to cheap gas. Nothing in the constitution says "and ye should all pay no more then $1.50 for a gallon of gasoline".
Our civilizations are quite different in this regard.
I blame our governments (federal, state and local) for all the foot-dragging over building mass public transit systems, or constructing and maintaining viable bicycle paths around urban areas.
Columbus Ohio has been funding studies for light-rail solutions for decades. The public always responds positively to the idea, but all of the plans end-up vaporizing for lack of government leaders who will stick with them and push them through. Major lobbying interests work against these ideas; most strongly are the oil and gas concerns. They do not want to lose the revenues they rake in from those millions of Americans who drive themselves to work everyday.
Is it the government's fault that an enormous number of Americans live in large suburban houses that take a lot of energy to warm and cool, and live far away from where they work so they have to commute from miles, and that American's don't value fuel efficency, where people's choice of cars is more influcenced by the number of cupholders a car has than it's fuel efficency?
Exactly.
That's Indiana for you! (or maybe just my luck!)
1. more than I want to, since like anybody I do not like to spend money
2. much less per gallon than I spend for a bottle of good Zinfandel wine
3. much less than the gas is actually worth, if you factor in how much money it is costing to build all the roads that my car uses, and if you factor in the hundreds of billions of dollars we are spending on playing cop in the middle east because that is where gasoline comes from.
The solution to the gasoline problem is not to force prices down so that we can use more of it. The solution is to use LESS of it, not more. Ethanol in my view is not the best way to accomplish this, it is merely imitation gasoline. the better way is for our car industry to develop plug in electric cars ahead of Toyota, thereby creating a new industry that will no longer rely on foreign oil or the retooling of american agriculture. The electricity could come from our existing mix of power plants, and in the future more of it could come from solar and wind.
Any more questions?
Milk is $3.99-$4.99/gallon (it was $2.50 a year ago).
Bread ... lets not get started.
The inflation index needs to be adjusted to reflect the real rise in costs.
We all need to save as we can, conserve as we can, and help one another.
If you're prepared to put up with the discomfort of travelling on our roads by coach you can travel much more affordably. For the journey I have given as an example, the cheapest ticket would be £39.00 but the journey of 180 miles would take up to 5.5 hours. However, most of our goods are taken by road. Almost nothing is taken by any other means even if we do have buses, trains, coaches, canals etc. And, of course, unless you're suggesting we have horses or camels as an option, all the available means of transport are dependent upon fossil fuels to drive them. This means that fuel prices impact directly on cost of living here whether you're buying food, furniture or washing machines.
Any of you who have visited the UK will be able to testify how expensive it is compared with the US so I'm afraid none of you will get sympathy from this quarter - at least not until you're paying well over US$7.20 for a US gallon of fuel!
"Analysts have said that gasoline could reach $4 a gallon by this spring, due to strong demand and a change in formulation, among other reasons.
When taking the question about the $4 milestone, Bush told the reporter, "That's interesting. I hadn't heard that."
http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/28/news/economy/bush_energy_policy/
We have a problem when the Commander-in-Chief is in a fog.
i can not fathom paying equivalent to European pricing!
cheers,gayle
The oil drilled in the United States is apparently NOT being sold to us, so why drill more and despoil our national parks and wildlife areas? None of it makes sense, and we have a president who doesn't even care enough to pretend he is concerned. Remember what his mother said about the people displaced because of Katrina? The privileged, extremely wealthy have no concept or care what life is like for most of us.
The fact is, I'm ahead of the trend. Millions of former bicycle commuters in China are switching to cars. We in the US cannot change this fact, but we can offset it by riding bicycles to work every day. We also won't be as fat.
Have you seen the new highway sign post for gas station for "Gas Station ahead?" It's a "Stick Man" bent over near a gas pump. The gas nozzle is stuck up his rear end...
It couldn't be expressed any better.