What happened to the low gas prices?

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: qwerty1234
When gas prices get over $4 I greatly reduce the amount of miles I drive. It's not rocket science. They know that Americans are addicted to their automobiles. If it get up to $6 a gallon people will whine and cry but most will continue to drive the same.


...and be much poorer, and have far fewer things, and be worse off...except oil industry execs....

 

[Mr Nice]

$2.29 Orlando for 87 octane.

 

[Al]

Originally Posted By: CKN

Written by somebody who must not do any amount of appreciable driving.

Written by someone who drives 20,000 per year no matter the cost....$1.60 or $5. Just the way it is. I drive a 2001 Nissan with 148K miles and a 2008 Subaru wqith 160K miles.

Retired reasonably well off (not (rich) 70 years old.I can more than afford it.

 

[javacontour]

So is sub $2 gasoline. It's practically impossible to provide sub $2 gasoline in a sustainable fashion.

What you are saying is you want someone else to do the difficult work, cheaply, but don't want to consider a scenario where you have to do the difficult work or pay others more for their product.

Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Originally Posted By: Tempest
Originally Posted By: IndyIan

It could, meat would be expensive and maybe 10% of us would become farmers again.
It would be interesting to see how the world would change if fossil fuel supply dwindled to 1-2% of current production.


Lots of bodies in the streets.....

Not in my area, but sure some places like LV wouldn't be sustainable without cheap oil. But the UK still had 25-30 million people before oil became a fuel, and 10 million before coal powered steam engines were common.
Stuff still got done before fossil fuels were common.


Yes, but all of that was BEFORE society was built around cheap commerce...going back to that way of living would be extremely difficult, if not impossible...

 

[qwerty1234]

Oil is a bit like the U.S. drug problem. They need to stop the demand and things will improve.

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted By: qwerty1234
Oil is a bit like the U.S. drug problem. They need to stop the demand and things will improve.
Do you think of anything other than booze and drugs? High demand keeps prices relatively low. Economy of scale.

 

[qwerty1234]

Originally Posted By: hatt
Originally Posted By: qwerty1234
It's the American way.
Some people like cheaper gas. Just like some people like to drive around with a .20 BAC.


Kind of a low blow.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Farming with horses isn't going to feed the United States.

I didn't say it would or that we should even try. I stated that if my grandfather could farm solely with horses and go to church every Sunday and get his kids off to school without a car, many of us can run our own little lives without cars, if we really want to do so badly enough, at least those of us who feel most ripped off by pricing.

 

[Al]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
So is sub $2 gasoline. It's practically impossible to provide sub $2 gasoline in a sustainable fashion.

What you are saying is you want someone else to do the difficult work, cheaply, but don't want to consider a scenario where you have to do the difficult work or pay others more for their product.

Yep all the producers in the gasoline production food chain need to take less so he can get a cheap product and live better, at the expense of others. Greed can be on the demand side or production side as well.

I was once a dishwasher in a decent restaurant and saw how hard waitresses work, and many times got a small tip from some cheap bstard. I always tip at least 30% many times more.

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Farming with horses isn't going to feed the United States.

I didn't say it would or that we should even try. I stated that if my grandfather could farm solely with horses and go to church every Sunday and get his kids off to school without a car, many of us can run our own little lives without cars, if we really want to do so badly enough, at least those of us who feel most ripped off by pricing.
I'm curious as to why farming with horses wouldn't feed the USA? If you don't have 8 wheel drive tractors or 18 wheelers you'd farm differently. Most grain is used to produce stuff we shouldn't even be eating anyway. Once you stop growing grain for as far as the eye can see in all directions, a simpler way of farming becomes apparent.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: hatt
Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Farming with horses isn't going to feed the United States.

I didn't say it would or that we should even try. I stated that if my grandfather could farm solely with horses and go to church every Sunday and get his kids off to school without a car, many of us can run our own little lives without cars, if we really want to do so badly enough, at least those of us who feel most ripped off by pricing.
I'm curious as to why farming with horses wouldn't feed the USA? If you don't have 8 wheel drive tractors or 18 wheelers you'd farm differently. Most grain is used to produce stuff we shouldn't even be eating anyway. Once you stop growing grain for as far as the eye can see in all directions, a simpler way of farming becomes apparent.


I dunno. IIRC a pound of meat takes something like 7 pounds of grain. Slash agriculture by a factor of 7 and you'd get... a huge amount of land just the same. Only now you'd need teams of horses and men to work it--horses don't work for free, any less than the men. [Sorry women, you're free to help too.] So you'd still need a good amount of feed grain.

I'm sure it could be done. Just leave it out in the Midwest, New England is all forested back over now, no need for all that land being planted or cut for fuel. I guess we could bring back wood (or coal?) fired trains to transport that grain (and meat?) to the coasts? [Yeah even New England would get large areas plowed over to make food, no way around that. Bummer about getting fresh veggies in winter though.]

*

In college I biked to school for a year plus. It was actually great, once I got used to it. I still miss those days. But I'm not sure I'd want to get a horse so as to make the trek to the grocery store, pretty sure the upkeep on a horse makes a 50's vintage car look meek.

 

[qwerty1234]

I agree with ya. Some of the folks who claim driving is a necessity probably never even looked into other options. I guess, taking the bus/el train or commuter train isn't as cool as driving?

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
So is sub $2 gasoline. It's practically impossible to provide sub $2 gasoline in a sustainable fashion.

What you are saying is you want someone else to do the difficult work, cheaply, but don't want to consider a scenario where you have to do the difficult work or pay others more for their product.



Not at all. The oil industry operates for profit, and I expect them the sell their products for a reasonable price that gives them a reasonable profit. However, market manipulation for record profits is unethical, immoral, and it should be illegal...

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Farming with horses isn't going to feed the United States.

I didn't say it would or that we should even try. I stated that if my grandfather could farm solely with horses and go to church every Sunday and get his kids off to school without a car, many of us can run our own little lives without cars, if we really want to do so badly enough, at least those of us who feel most ripped off by pricing.


And again, this simply is not practical in today's society for most people...

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: Al
Originally Posted By: javacontour
So is sub $2 gasoline. It's practically impossible to provide sub $2 gasoline in a sustainable fashion.

What you are saying is you want someone else to do the difficult work, cheaply, but don't want to consider a scenario where you have to do the difficult work or pay others more for their product.

Yep all the producers in the gasoline production food chain need to take less so he can get a cheap product and live better, at the expense of others. Greed can be on the demand side or production side as well.


Always with the exaggerations...

 

[sciphi]

Still pretty reasonable around me at the warehouse clubs. $2.15 or so for RUG and $2.35 for PUG. Non-warehouse-club prices are $2.35-2.40 for RUG and $2.85-3.00 for PUG. Glad that two warehouse clubs are on my way home.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: CT8
Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Originally Posted By: double vanos
Gasoline is a supply / demand product. The Saidis have increased the supply more than demand increased and the result is low gas prices. The Saudis and OPEC have a goal in mind and we all know what that is.

If you are price swing averse, get a high mileage car as a hedge. At this point in American transportation history petroleum is king. But the times they are a' changin'..

Elon Musk is just the first shot across the bow of the petroleum juggernaut, and eventually one will find oneself in the dealership deciding which vehicle to buy - gas or electric. And I ponder how nice an electric car might be to maintain; no oil or coolant changes, regenerative brakes etc.

The land mass we call America offers plenty of opportunity to make the electricity we need, we just have to decide that we need to make that jump. To a degree it's already happening - anyone who has driven I-10 from Fort Stockton towards Houston surely has noticed the wind farm that goes on for miles as far as the eye can see on both sides of the highway.

When the scale finally tips, that'll be an interesting Middle East soap box opera.....


Reasons why I'm excited to see the new Volt and Bolt....
Where is the electricity going to come from?



Ummm...the 220 charging station in my garage...why?

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: qwerty1234

You never answered my question from before. How much public transportation is available to those living in rural areas?

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: qwerty1234
When gas prices get over $4 I greatly reduce the amount of miles I drive. It's not rocket science. They know that Americans are addicted to their automobiles. If it get up to $6 a gallon people will whine and cry but most will continue to drive the same.


+1

Pretty much....

 

[qwerty1234]

Originally Posted By: grampi
You never answered my question from before. How much public transportation is available to those living in rural areas?


I'm sure there is another alternative for you but you don't look and prefer to complain about rising gas prices. What about carpooling or Uber/Lyft? I don't mind the higher gas prices because I get 30 mpg city and now it's summer I can ride my bike. Hopefully, our friends from "across the pond" can chime in here and give their opinion.