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!
Funny, I was told with all the illegal aliens working for cheap, everything would be cheaper. They lied again. Looks like instead of passing on the saving of overseas off-shored cheap labor in China, they just kept it instead of passing any saving on to the consumer.
Do you understand anything about the oil business?
This isn't hard to understand friend. Doing any business, and buying products from most companies nowadays is almost punitive.
That is because the dollar is worth far less than it used to. We don't notice it quite as much because we purchase so many day to day things that were imported from China who has their currency value pegged to the dollar.
The blame goes to the GOP leadership who has devalued the dollar, not the companies that are importing non-chinese products.
It isn't worth squat in my opinion. Problem is, most everyone's wages are not keeping up with the cost of everything. It's laughable...You go by a gas station in the morning, and come back in the afternoon, and the price has jumped. This happens every week now.
US Steel just bought a producer of downhole tubular products. What do they know that we don’t?
15 gallons x $.20 more a galling* is $3.00 more per fill-up, which is prolly less than one of them there LA-tays. Dunno, 'cause I makes my own Joe.
10,000 miles per year divided by 25 miles per galling = 400 gallings x $.20 a galling more = $80.00 more per year.
They nick me more for plates than that.
*a galling of gasoline is whats Popeye uses in his car
Wherever there is a positive action there is a negative reaction. A lot of people only want to look at one side of the scale. The one that fits them and their situation.
haha - good point. I have heard some complain about the high price of stocks, however :)
There is ample evidence that there are many small minds that cannot grasp this simple concept.
Why would an oil company spend the time and money to submit a request for permitting when they know full well it will be rejected or will sit on some bureaucrat's desk gathering dust? The same could be said for nuclear plant permitting.
excellent take
Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa all have their own car and go their own ways each day.
Not putting these folks down at all, but it’s a way of life that dips into the check book every month that we didn’t have 20 years ago. So I agree with Mr. B. STOP THE WHINING or change your lifestyle. We have choices!
Yet, Americans do have enough money to support those businesses AND buy gas when the price at the pump is lower.
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 remember the gas crisis in the 70s and Carter's response. The oil reserve was created, standards for home insulation were established, CAFE standards established, and incentives for the development of alternative sources of energy. The problem is that it all worked. Oil imports from the Persian Gulf decreased by 87% in 7 years and we had an oil glut.
I remember a joke from that period; What's the difference between a pigeon and a Texas oil man? Only the pigeon can make a deposit on a new Mercedes.
Fortunately, the US oil industry was rescued, standards were rolled back, oil imports increased and thus our dependence on foreign oil. Interest in the development of alternative sources of energy waned.
American auto makers were liberated to produce gas guzzling behemoths and hooked their wagon to that star, while the Japanese continued to take fuel efficiency seriously. (be careful what you lobby Congress for; you just may get it)
Also during this period, the process of shutting down refineries began - abundant supply produces lower prices (blaming environmentalists and OPEC for the price at the pump).
That strategy was used during the California energy crisis too - those darn environmental wackos wouldn't allow new generating plants to be built in California - when the reality was that new plants were sited and permitted and the industry itself, made the decisions not to build.
If history repeats itself, my guess is that the oil industry will win some concessions from government (drilling the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge), maybe a little tax payer welfare too, the price of gas will come down before we get too serious about conservation and new energy sources.
end of rant
You ask.... “If the states cut out the tax who is going to build the roads?
I would ask you, If the companies dont make even 10% profit on exploring in God-forsaken places like Nigeria, the South China Sea, North Sea, frozen Alaska, and countless other places, all for 10% profit margin, if they cant make a profit, who will produce the oil & gas so the state can collect its 40 cent tax to build our roads?
Remember hillary saying , “I want to take those profits and .....”
Last I looked, we havent slipped totally into a Socialist system here in America. Heres to hoping that we dont.
I was agreeing with your analysis all the way up to you getting angry with the oil companies not building any new refineries.
Keep in mind that because of the enviro-wackos and govt tax grabbers, it takes 10 yrs from conception to opening, the costs have quadrupled, the regulations have exploded, most locales dont want a refinery, and countless other obstacles to getting them built.
Remember when California had its electricity crisis a few yrs back? Instead of admitting they havent built a new power genertion facility in almost 20 yrs, they blamed the electric companies...
Dont forget the other half of the contribution that your company is required to make-another 6.5%
So double your numbers and you will be dead on...
As it turned out, it was the fault of the industry - do you remember the trials and convictions?
I loved it when years back Rush compared the gasoline to the prices that people pay for other fluids... say beverages at convenient stores or high-end coffee bistros.
I now am amazed at how much people will spend weekly for bottled water, and still complain about the price of gasoline.
Tell me XOM’s profit margin.
Then tell me MSFT’s profit margin.
Great question
Exxon made $10 billion on $100 Billion in sales
Microsoft made $12 billion on $44 billion in sales
Bank America made $5 billion on $18 billion in sales
Should I go on????
Yup, me too. It’s amazing that those same people think there are absolutely no other areas in their spending where they can come up with the extra $ needed for gas. I guess people just like to complain and cast aspersions towards an industry they have very little, if any, knowledge about.
Let me correct my previous post re: Exxon’s numbers...that was the quarterly report...but the % profit was the same.
Microsoft quarterly was $14 Billion in sales and $5 billion in profit...
MSFT is running about 33% profit margin...three times Exxon
Good for them, too.
Lets leave Exxon alone. We need them to explore & produce...
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