Posted on 05/17/2007 5:48:48 AM PDT by cweese
My goodness, people! Don't you realize that there are things in your life that you really need to be worrying about? What's all this weeping and moaning over gas prices?
With every single paycheck the Imperial Federal Government seizes about 14% of the money you have earned. This money is put into an income redistribution fund from which you may or may not draw a check when and if you reach a certain age. Die too soon and that money goes to someone else .. not to your heirs. Live long enough and you may .. just may ... get most of your money back, though there is no legal guarantee that you'll get a cent.
Yet here you sit pissing and moaning about gas prices.
We did the math here last week, but let's pull out the calculator again for those of you who don't come here every day.
First, the figures:
According to the AAA, one year ago the price of regular was $2.929. Today that price is $3.114. That's an 18.5 cents per gallon increase over the past year.
Now we go for the average gas mileage for cars in the U.S. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that as of 2004 the average mpg for new cars sold in the U.S. was 24.7. In 1980 it was 23.1. So, to make a point here, we're going to go even below the average price for 1980. We're going to use 20 mpg.
Now ... for those of you who went to government schools, I'll do the math for you. You're driving your family of four 1400 miles to get to Disney World and back. That means you'll be burning 70 gallons of gas at 20 mpg. The gas is now 18.5 cents more expensive than it was last year. Let's go ahead and round that UP to 20 cents. So, we burn 70 gallons and each gallon costs 20 cents more than it cost last year. That's going to cost you an amazing $14.00.
Oh My God! What an incredible tragedy! What a devastating blow to your finances! You're going to have to spend $14.00 more to drive your family to Florida this year than you did last year! That's $3.50 for each family member! How in the hell are you ever going to be able to afford this? Alert your local radio station news department! Call the newspaper! Sound the alarm! Americans are being crippled by these rising gas prices! Call your politician. Something has to be done about the evil oil companies! Get the government involved! We need more regulation!
Oh .. and you people driving to and from work need to be outraged too! Are you doing your share of the whining?
The average commute to and from work in this country is 16 miles. Now of course we know that cars don't get the mileage on a stop-and-go commute as they do on the road, so we're going to lower the gas mileage figure from 20 to 15. So, you're driving 32 miles (on the average) to get to work and back every day. That is gobbling up about 2.13 gallons of gas. Go back to that 18.5 cents per gallon increase over last year and you'll see that you're spending about 40 cents more for gas for your commute this year than you were last year. That would be about $2.00 a week. Less than the price of a decaf skinny latte at Starbucks. A lot less.
Oh, the humanity! You're spending less than the cost of three text messages on your cell phone every day to cover the increasing cost of gas! Tell your boss you're going to have to quit! You just can handle this any more! Get fired! Go on unemployment! Forty cents a day! That's it! Your back is broken!
Come on people, wake up! Your governments -- local, state and federal -- are stealing money from you every single day to fund vote-buying programs. Your local elected officials are ripping you off to support welfare artists and to study the mating habits of Polish zlotnika pigs. How do you think they feel when they see you griping about gas prices? They LOVE it! They steal you blind and there you sit complaining because you're going to have to spend $14.00 more to drive your family to Disney World and back. They take 14% of the money you earn every day -- money you may or may get back with virtually no interest -- and you're spinning around on your eyebrows because you're spending 40 cents a day more to get to that job and back home again!
I agree! Now is a supply shortage good for business or bad for business? I would assume that any amount of supply over demand would be bad for business but good for the consumer.
I agree and I understand your point better now. Oil is the one product that our nation must have at a relatively cheap cost - at least for the foreseeable future. As you pointed out, our nation runs on oil and there are no practical large scale alternatives.
I always believed that if the cost of oil climbed too high then we would quickly move over to more affordable sources of energy. This is one area, of many, where I am terribly disappointed and disgusted with the GOP leadership.
Why hasn't nuclear power been pushed over the last 5 years? Sure, Bush has mentioned it in a speech here and there but nothing forceful. If congress is the problem (a common excuse for everything) then why not go over their heads and bring the issue directly to the american people like Reagan did. It didn't always work, but sometimes it did.
The same goes for additional oil refineries. If that is truly a bottleneck then those issues should be explained to the american people and if they still choose to prevent their construction then they have only themselves to blame.
-—based on the chart you linked, current refining is only producing ~87% of what it did in December of ‘06-—
That chart is consumption, not production. It includes import quantities.
The following link is crude and others (like natural gas liquids) being processed in the US. Remember that there is a yearly cycle, compare the same months from previous years, not from different seasons.
U.S. Weekly Gross Inputs into Refineries
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/wgirius2w.htm
This chart is for actual gasoline production
U.S. Weekly Finished Motor Gasoline Production
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/wgfrpus2w.htm
For people who are living close to the edge financially, higher gas prices do make things difficult. However, as my local fast food places are packed at lunchtime, I can't walk into any restaurant at 6:00pm on a Friday night and be seated quickly and I see thousands of people walking around with bottled water or Starbucks in their hands I have to conclude that the majority of people have cash to burn. They just get mad when they HAVE to spend it on gas instead.
Given that gas is a necessity and that price varies (and always goes up just before summer), you'd think that people might plan for higher prices.
Whoops. I misread the chart. Ended up forgetting to switch tabs to see the production numbers. Thanks for correcting me on that.
Yes, production varies month to month. So does demand, to some extent. The basic gist remains the same. Demand now is higher than supplies, which results in price increases.
If you are a corporation with stockholders and laters of bureaucracy, then do you give this money to the consumer? Or, do you find other ways to spend it?
Do your customers buy on price alone? If so I feel for you.
If the cost of a domestic software engineer goes down 7.625% but you can hire one in Bangalore yet 30% cheaper, do you raise the domestic wage 7.625% or do you use H1-B to bring a foreigner here to learn the nuance of the business and move that resource offshore once he is trained?
Why would your competitors not keep that money? Consumers aren’t given an itemized bill including “Federal corporate income taxes”.
If I were back in the US, I guess I would also be crying, but here in Europe, gas is over $5.00 per gallon !!
It is about $5.25 here in Slovakia, but much higher in some other countries.
Many here are turning to natural gas for auto fuel, and the newer buses here run on natural gas.
Cars have a 400 km range on the natural gas with a 200 km
gasoline reserve. The driver can change with the flip of a switch.
I beg to differ, though I really appreciate the old series. The TC 93-97 and the Mark VIII(the most beautiful production car ever)are true Lincolns.
The Continental had become a Taurus.
They will lose business. That's the way the universe works. Maybe Americans don't have enough money to support a Starbucks and McDonalds on every corner along with their gas.
Someone, somewhere will figure out how to solve our energy problem but they aren't going to bother if gas is cheap and plentiful. When companies think they can profit from a new, better enterprise, they will.
With all the talk of alternate energy sources, I don't know that I'd plan to spent billions to build a new refinery in the next 5-10 years.
I absolutely agree. I was talking to my liberal cousin the other day who had no idea that gas formulations are changed twice per year. We need to be doing a better job at explaining reality to people.
“I have a problem with a company doubling it’s profits in just 2-3 years when it it pinching the pockets of 1/2 of America.”
who buys 20 boxes of tampax or diapers a week. Have those prices spiked up 100% in 3 years. I don’t think so. There are plenty of products we can gripe about but that is not the topic.
I guess when they get to making 100b a year in net profit it’s ok. That is as long as they maintain the 10% profit margin it’s ok to pay $15 bucks a gallon as long as they aren’t gouging us by putting 10% in their pockets.
I’m not stupid, I know a bunch gets rolled back into exploration and research but should that come at such an extreme cost to your customers?
Our economy doesn't run on Starbuck's coffee. The average American doesn't need 15 gallons of Starbuck's coffee a week just to get to work and the grocery store.
(And, frankly, I don't remember the last time I bought a $5 Starbucks drink. When I go there, it's always a medium coffee with cream. $1.25.)
Under your scenario, the cost of the gasoline to the oil company would be around $13.50. If the oil compananies sold the oil for free it would still be over $13.
The bottom line is that the oil companies' profits are a small component of the price.
High oil prices are very bad for this country, but it is not the fault of the oil companies.
-—I know a bunch gets rolled back into exploration and research but should that come at such an extreme cost to your customers?-—
Now you understand what that cheap gasoline of 1998~99 was really saving you when the oil companies were able to invest back into the industry like they are doing now.
Not their fault but Exxon still took in almost 40b NET PROFIT. 3 of the top 5 Fortune 500 are Oil companies turning in almost 73b. I know it’s not very much of the total cost but it makes ya boil when you fill up.
Our Gov’t wont do anything to stop it by opening new resources or provide tax relief to building new refineries. We are arguing among ourselves when we need to direct this to our congressmen/senators. A direct tax on their profits is not the answer either. The need to boost production is the key. Supply and Demand will work out the rest.
Then tell me MSFT's profit margin.
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