Are today's gas prices really making anyone go broke?

Personal Research | unpublished | Don Simmons

[Don Simmons]

OK - so now the average price of a gallon of gas is up to $1.75. If you pay attention to our beloved "media", you'd think we were all on the brink of poverty because of higher prices at the pump.

However, if you break it down, the fact is that the cost is probably very, VERY absorbable by average Joe American.

Before anyone even thinks about it - yes...I know there are people who are crunched a lot more than others. There are always exceptions - and the comparison I'm about to make can be refuted and disproven with individual examples also.

Don't bother - please take this at face value. It is a comparison -- it's not a rule of law.

OK, let's say you average driving 1,500 miles monthly. That's more than most people and less than some.

Now, let's say your car averages 20 miles per gallon. Again, more than some and less than others.

1,500 miles divided by 20 mpg equals 75 gallons.

So, on average, you use 75 gallons a month. Fair?

OK...

If the price of a gallon were back down to around $1.50, (Yeah, yeah - it should be lower. blah blah blah...it ain't, so deal with it!), I doubt we'd be hearing all this pissing, moaning and whining.

ANYWAY....that's 25 cents less per gallon multiplied by that 75 gallons.

75 X .25 = 18.75

You save $18.75 a month.

For most people -- BIG FRIGGIN' DEAL!!!!!

If that $18.75 breaks your bank, the price of gas is the least of your worries, I say.

It might not be a bad idea for you to.......(are you ready for this?).......CUT BACK!!!!!

LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS!!!!! You probably spend twice that $18.75 - or more - every month swilling cheap beer.

Lord have mercy on my hard, callous soul for telling it like it is.

Am I alone in my thinking here, or can I get an "Amen"?

[TheRightGuy]

Except that most people don't go through multiple gallons of milk a week. It's a bad analogy.

It's a REALLY bad analogy. You can have the milk producer can graze in your backyard and all you got to do is squeeze in the right spot, chill and drink.

For oil, you gotta go halfway 'round the world, dig a hole 10,000 feet deep, pump out the crude, ship it to some godforsaken place where they'll still let you run a refinery, boil it until part of it turns to gasoline, truck it to a station where you pour it into a tank in the ground, and then pay somebody to stand around and guard it til you show up to pump some into your car and pay for it. Gasoline oughta be costin' us $50 a gallon!

[wewillnotfail]

I'll get upset at the price of gas when it gets more expensive than pepsi.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I just put fifty in my tank in the last 3 days. I had a Honda Accord with great mileage, but I wasn't thinking about gas prices and just bought a new car that's a gas guzzler. At this rate gas will cost me about $200 a month instead of about $15.

[Double Tap]

First off, you are a liar. California average price January 26, 2004 was $1.726 for a gallon of reformulated regular gas. As of March 29, 2004 it is going for $2.079 for the same gallon. That is a 35.3 cent increase. Not 60 cents.

As a side note, California average for the same gallon of gas has gone down in the last couple of days.

Care to make any more moronic statements that can be so easily refuted chicken little?

[Double Tap]

I didn't say the oil companies were were out to get us did I.

Yes, you did. In post #66.

[Double Tap]

Correction. That was your post #50.

[chuckwalla]

I think you have some serious problems cowboy.
I did not say the last two months now did I
I said two months.
From the end of December.
Gas went from 1.49 to 2.09 at some stations
From 1.55 to 2.19 at others.
Let me see that looks like 60 cents doesn't it.
Or maybe you are using the new math geared to politics.
You keep making up what you think I say.

Gas in the last few days has gone up. I should know I'm paying it.

Get out of your room a little cowboy.

All you can do is insult.
But I guess that is all you low IQ people know.
You don't know how to listen.
Do you?

[DugwayDuke]

I flew into Neward so I must have driven close to your home. I know what you mean about areas changing. My home is situated in what used to be a cotton field not so many years ago. In fact, this area is becoming too crowded too.

[chuckwalla]

You know I just knew if I went back and read #66 that it wouldn't be what you said.
I did not say the oil cos were out to get us.
Another projection of yours.
they're adding up aren't they.
They are doing what any company would do and that is make as much as they can.
That is hardly chicken little thinking in the real world.
But in your angry twisted world it could be anything you want.
Lighten up Francis.
And if not kept in check will charge as much as they can.

A few years ago this same type of increase happened but not as much and a boycott was organized of a particular co at a time and you know the price went down.
Wow imagine that.

Like I said if I was in charge or gas pricing and listened to you I charge over four dollars and you would be happy while I laugh all ther way to the bank.

Pressure on the oil cos and producers is just part of the economic equation. It is not chicken little.
Another projection of yours.
Wow your projections are rising like gas prices.
Will they ever stop?

[Double Tap]

Are you trying to tell me that gas has not gone up 60 cents a gallon in the last two months?

A quote from you in your post #111.

So now we know that you are a LIAR, IDIOT and you have short term memory loss along with long term memory revision.

You are a Democrat,right?

[DugwayDuke]

"And the Republican politicians here are pretty much useless, extremely corrupt, and totally disorganized. But, it wasn't always this way-maybe things will change. But I'm not going to hold my breath!"

We've been particularly disappointed in our new Republican governor here in Alabama. Had a real record in Congress as a conservative. Got elected and proposed a $1.2B tax increase to cover a budget shortfall of $600M. But our people haven't bought into the "these taxes are for your own good mantra." Our Constitution requires all tax increased to be made a public vote. It went down 2/1 despite the pleas of our more "enlightened" citizens. One of the principal arguments was that our taxes were too low, we could 'afford' a tax increase...

[Double Tap]

If they wanted to they could keep the price way below one fifty a gallon and still make a lot of money. It bugs me when they raise prices through greed and so many people like you say it is a bargain.

A quote from your #50 post. Sure sounds like you think they are out to get you, and all your money.

Run chicken little, run.

[Squantos]

Incremental crap........

[chuckwalla]

You need to get that anger management going.
I made a simple mistake and you think you need to jump all over it.
Because you have no arguement.
You completely ignore the ludicrous insulting statements you make because that is what angry people do.
It's democrats that label. Isn't that what you are doing, labeling.
Liar, idiot.
More projections.
You must be ready to explode by now.

[chuckwalla]

No it doesn't sound like that.
They could keep it down.
They are just doing what companies do; make money.
We are just doing what consumers do; keep prices down.
But in your anger saturated mind everything you don't understand is frightening and so you feel a need to insult what you don't understand.
Another projection from the keyboard cowboy.

[Double Tap]

California's average price for a gallon of regular unleaded was $1.62 in December of 2003. Lets see, 2.09 minus 1.62 equals 47 cents.

I'll bet that hurts doesn't it? Being made to look like such fool with your own words.

I'm done with you.

[chuckwalla]

You know after buying gas at the prices I quoted I think I should know not you sitting in your chair.
Yeah some stations were higher many were lower.
Where do you live?
It is not in ca because you have no idea what you are talking about.

Most stations are charging 2.19 and some higher.
The lowest was 2.09 after the increases.
those were stations charging about 1.49. Others were in the 1.50's. Once again I should know I was paying it
If you can't add maybe you should have finished high school where normal people learned that anger can not be relied on.

[chuckwalla]

Show me where I said the lowest price was 1.62.
Show me where I said the highest price was 2.09.
You can't because you are projection again.
If I didn't say those things then you can't use them against me can you.
Projection is limiting your reasoning and pointing your bile at yourself.

[chuckwalla]

Yeah I know you're done.
When the real people come out georgie porgie runs away.

[lindagirl]

California has an $.18/gallon excise tax (it may be more now)
Plus sales tax of 7.75% to 8.25% depending on what county you live in.
Not all states have tapped into that huge resource.
When the price of gas goes up so does sales tax revenue, but we never hear that from the politicians.