Are gas prices too high or too low?

[XemaSab]

People bitch and moan about the high price of gas, but don't forget, gas here is cheaper than in most of the rest of the first world.

That low, low cost is due in part to large subsidies to the oil and gas industry, and the burying of the true costs of gas deep inside the federal budget.

You pay for gas at the pump and you pay for gas with your taxes, and much of this money goes towards drilling public lands, compensating CEO's, and fighting illegal wars.

So would you prefer the industry to be MORE heavily subsidized just so you can drive junior to the soccer game for less money?

Think about it.

[rucky]

1. Prices too low...but profits are too high.

If we closed the gap between current prices and ridiculous profits with a (non-regressive??) tax to fund programs for making oil obsolete, then the prices would seem alot more fair.

[silverojo]

8. Not that overseas nonsense again!

Maybe we could afford higher prices as they can, if we had free health care as they do.

Until all Americans can go to the doctor for free or nearly so, we deserve lower gas prices.

[rucky]

10. I did say "not regressive"

It would be easy to issue gas cards like they issue food cards, that give folks a graduated tax break based on need.

[rman]

13. Not that free health care nonsense again

Over here in Europe health care is being privitized. And guess what, it's more expensive now while the insuance corporations make more profits.

[nonconformist]

27. You do have health care, do you not?

I don't.

[rman]

32. yes i do

I'm sorry you don't.
But in Europe to health-care is no longer 'free', which it never really was - but it's more expensive now that it has been privitized.

[Skittles]

15. that's what I told my English brother

when you pay $5000 in one year on dental bills, then you can bitch to me about our "low gas prices"

[tritsofme]

19. There's not a lot of slack in prices.

Wholesale gasoline is trading at $2.20 per gallon.

[rucky]

20. Profit for Oil companies, not stations.

Whenever I pump gas, the owners lament about prices almost as much as the customers do.

[Tesha]

24. What rucky said. (NT)

[cynatnite]

2. Too High!

Our livelihood depends on gas prices. Hubby is an owner/operator truck driver. The rising prices cut into what he earns. If they get over $4 per gallon we will have to seriously rethink whether or not he should remain an owner/operator.

The higher the prices go, the harder it is on truck drivers. The harder it is on them, the harder it is to get freight to where it needs to be. Groceries, medical supplies, and other necessities would rise in price...thereby hitting the consumer in the pocket book for more than just gas.

Think about it.

[nonconformist]

7. My father in law is a former truck driver, owner/operator

He sold his rig and went into a different field about 6 years ago (in his 50's!) due to some health issues with my mother in law, so he didn't have to travel anymore. He told us on Easter that he was damn glad he did, otherwise he'd probably be bankrupt by now.

[nonconformist]

3. I see your point, as it pertains to the overall picture

But these high prices are hurting those who can least afford it. We're also a very large country with a lot of rural areas, and many people have no choice but to commute for work - and moving isn't an option, because they can't afford to live in the larger cities. And then there's people like my husband - who is currently laid off but worked in construction, and would have to travel over 50 miles one way daily in different directions, depending on where the jobsite was.

Again, I understand your point and I think that anything that reduces consumption and wakes people up is a good thing. But the working class people are the ones taking a beating on this.

[cynatnite]

5. And this country has a pathetic public transportation system

Too bad we'll never have a decent nationwide system.

[nonconformist]

6. Very good point.

Most of this country has no public transportation to speak of.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

21. What are you talking about?

We've got Greyhound!!!! :sarcasm:

[bluestateguy]

4. The only people who think the price of gas is too low

are oil company head honchos, and radical environmentalists who are giggling and laughing that this is all taking place.

[Tesha]

25. Not true; *I* think gas prices are too low.

Basically, as a society, we face a choice:

o Wean ourselves off oil *NOW*, while there still is plenty
flowing around, creating appropriate alternative energy
programs and sculpting a society that can live with far
less oil consumption, or

o Keep going exactly as we are, with demand rising every year
(including vast new demands from India and China), until the
shit really hits the fan and we are forced to *ATTEMPT* to
convert away from oil rapidly, with no real alternatives
developed and with ensuing global chaos, world wars,
massive famines, and the like.

Me, I'd rather see us dampening demand now, and higher
prices (fueled by increased fuel taxes to pay for the
switch-over away from oil) seem likes the far better
alternative.

And no, I do not no work for an energy company and
never have.

Tesha

[XemaSab]

34. I'm not talking about an increased gas tax

I'm talking about lowering gas subsidies, which is what your regular federal income tax goes towards.

Then either lower federal taxes or... God forbid... use the money to create a real public transportation network.

[rfkrfk]

9. tax on jet fuel for international flight is zero, not a penny

tax on jet fuel for US domestic flight is
four cents a gallon, four cents

[Protagoras]

11. Way Too low if we're talking about a finite resource

and calculating the destruction of the environment, our willingness to invade countries for it, and our idiocy and unwillingness to really develop alternative fuels.

WAY TOO HIGH if all that the cost is doing is lining the parachutes of the maggots at Exxon so they can retire with 400 million dollar payouts and brag about 10 Billion dollar profits per quarter.

Maybe we need to cut out the absurd profit AND raise the price...

[Norrin Radd]

12. Kucinich has an interesting bill regarding this:

http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0412-03.htm

[Savannah Progressive]

14. Let's be honest, the Earth needs us to have higher prices now.

Billions of tons of Global Warming Gasses are pumped into the atmosphere daily, much of it because our society hasn't grasped the need of our conservation and reduction of use of these fossil fuels. Temps are up, Hurricanes are more violent than during any time in history, and we complain because we can't fuel our SUV's and gas guzzling V-8 engines as cheaply any more?

We are literally destroying the earth, and we have the audacity to complain that we can't destroy it as cheaply as we did last year? I have written my Congressman and Senators many times demanding at least $5 per gallon taxes, the tax revenue generated would be used to fund alternative energy research and development.

Of course, we can bemoan Bush, and the Oil Cartels, but in the end, it's our own greed that has placed us in this situation.

[bluestateguy]

16. What elitist garbage

Hopefully your Senators and congressmen threw those letters straight into the garbage, er, recycling bin.

It's working people that are hurt by these energy prices, no one else.

[Savannah Progressive]

17. Oh, OK.

Since it's the Working People who will destroy the earth, it's OK? Sure, for Joe Six Pack we have no problem melting the Polar Ice Caps? Glaciers? Well for our kids, we can always show them a picture from a History Book right?

How much more evidence do you need that the earth is literally plummeting towards the abyss?

Here are a few suggestions for Joe Six Pack. Have Archie Bunker pick up his neighbor in his Ford Pick Up (Four wheel drive of course, for Hunting Season) and both ride to work in the SAME CAR. Here is another idea. Those big things, holding you up in Traffic, they are Busses. Often they go from where you are, to where you want to be. I bet they're as empty in your city as they are in mine.

This "Only the worker is harmed" is the short sighted crap that got us into this mess. Gee, everyone needs a truck that get's 12 MPG to commute to work, they have a right to destroy the earth, and we have a responsibility to provide them that ability cheaply.

I honestly wonder why we are fighting to preserve ANWR, most of it will be under water in a few years with this mentality.

[nonconformist]

26. There ARE no buses in my city

Gas prices are high because the corporations are gouging and making record profits. And who is really to blame here for a lot of these environmental problems - the same corporations! They, along with auto manufacturers, are the ones that need to make serious changes to have any real impact. It appears that finally, the auto industry is starting to wake up somewhat. But the oil companies are laughing all the way to the bank, at the detriment of, YES, the working man. The middle class is already getting hammered on every end - do you really think that causing them MORE pain is what will bring about true change? I can't prescribe to any "burn it down to save it" theories, which is exactly what this is - and I also can't prescribe to hurting the majority for the misdeeds of a few.

I think it's good that if nothing else, these high prices have resulted in more awareness. But people do need to eat and work, and this is making it very difficult for them.

[The2ndWheel]

30. Which shows how fucked up it really is

"But people do need to eat and work, and this is making it very difficult for them."

Gouging, or running low on supply, why do we want to keep going on like this? If it's this goddamn easy to manipulate the price of oil, why does anyone want to live this way?

Whatever, it doesn't matter what the fuck I say. People are going to want, or need, cheap energy to just simply survive. What a sad little existence we all live. It's fucking pathetic. We allow these companies to own us. Let's go stand on the president's ranch. Let's go dance in the streets with clever signs, that'll make them listen. As long as we get that hit at the end of the day.

We live lives of medication and cheap energy. That's all it bascially is. As long as we have enough medicine and heat, we can live forever. Nobody really gives a damn what happens anywhere. If Saudi Arabia didn't have order, those pipelines would probably be blown away everyday. That would cause the price to skyrocket.

You want things to change? Get the fuck off the oil. But that ain't gonna happen. That's obvious.

[bigtree]

40. put your program in place before you expect the working poor

to bear the burden of conversion.

In the meantime I suggest you revise your view of what characterizes 'working poor' and disadvantaged Americans and their needs which are now completely tied to fossil fuels.

Don't forget conversion costs too. Where's my govt. hybrid to replace my gas powered car?

[The2ndWheel]

28. What the hell is wrong with us?

Big oil created a society that requires their product to run, and we buy it hook, line, and sinker. Goddamn they own our collective asses. Whether it's being addicted to a declining resource, or oil companies manipulating prices because they have their man in the white house, we are not free. Fucking democracy my ass. If we didn't have access to cheap energy, we'd still be living with overt slavery. All this shit that we've "accomplished"; civil rights, women's rights, "less" war, growing economy, the "end" to slavery(even though there is plenty of it around the planet), all our little toys, health benefits, pensions, unions, higher wages, technological advances, it's all artificial. It all depends on cheap goddamn energy. What a bad joke civilization is.

[XemaSab]

36. Cynical much?

;)

[Zynx]

39. Gasoline is one of the most regressive things out there.

It hits lower income people far more than higher income people and it is a necessity. Putting a $5 tax on it would simply compound the pain. Gasoline demand is not elastic. If it was the 150% increase in the price we have seen since 2002 would have caused at least some large drop in demand when in fact we have seen none at all.

[radfringe]

18. a gallon of milk cost more than a gallon of gas

but that doesn't make me feel any better - nor does it help my wallet

[RC]

22. Other countries TAX gasoline at a higher rate.

That is the real reason it is priced higher in other countries. It is taxed.

[APPLE314]

23. TOO LOW - WE'RE LOSING JOBS BECAUSE OF IT.

The final price of an item depends on the cost of making it and the cost of transporting it to market. If you raise the cost to get it to market, those who have the lowest transportation cost will have a competitive edge. In our case that would make products made in America competitive in America. This could bring our jobs back.

It would create havoc around the world but the repatriation of jobs is a natural consequence of higher oil prices.

[Spider Jerusalem]

29. Too low in comparison with the rest of the developed world.

Too low, apparently, to engender any serious consideration of alternatives. Too low to break Americans of their insistence on driving as much as they feel like because, by god, it's their right, and so what if the air quality in most major American cities is shit at least three months out of the year? So what if your kids have asthma and your 'allergies' just seem to keep getting worse? So what if you drive into a sickly brownish-yellow haze hanging over the horizon along with a few hundred thousand OTHER similarly selfish and shortsighted fools on your morning commute? Gasoline still needs to be cheaper, because Americans have a god-given right to cheap fuel. :eyes:

[izzie]

31. One good thing about it is I drive very little.

Even at that, what I spend, has really really gone up. We may love our cars but time to start getting on to buses and trains and car pooling it. It is really not so bad. I grew up in that world during WW2 even if my father and mother both had cars and we had a truck also, and later was married to a man who would not let me use the car unless he said I could, so I guess I just got used to living with out a car. Life does keep going with out cars. I used to like the mile walk to the mail for late afternoon mail. Days when mail came in twice and it was a job that really was not a job. I do think Bush has sort of gone over the edge. He is sounding nuts when he talks. Oil Co. are going to make the profits and with the profits they want. All we can do is not use the stuff. I guess Bush and Co. have at last beat me into pulp.

[Mr_Spock]

33. It's not the absolute price that gets me - it's the CHANGE

that kills my budgeting process. Some RWer on Boston.com tried to explain away the high gas prices by using value of money comparisons (inflation) & foreign price comparisons (Europe). I sent him an email saying that his lame comparisons were irrelevant since all that matters to the average family is how are they going to adjust their budget for the $30/month or so increase for gasoline that they hadn't budgeted for...

[leftofthedial]

35. needs to be about $10 a gallon

with most of the money going to mediate the environmental and social damage done by fossil fuels


but to get there, we need the Saudis and oil companies out of power in our government.

[bigtree]

37. if it gets higher we'll go into a recession

higher still, depression

even if you don't accept the severity of the effect you must still realize that the higher prices affect the poor and disadvantaged first. Also any conversion will likely benefit those who can afford it and leave the rest of struggling Americans with the higher bills.

I love these 'eat cake' defenses

[WI_DEM]

38. Most people in this country would say "too high" and they vote

and they will vote against the Republicans because of it. So that's all I care about.