Posted on 08/16/2005 4:02:18 AM PDT by Clive
Natural gas, which fuels most furnaces, is priced in proportion to the price of oil.
The Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security payments did not keep pace with the price of natural gas.
Alberta is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. And the people there are friendly, largely conservative and have little regard for their French-lite counterparts in Quebec.
I'm not surprised to read their oil industry is villified by the Canadian libdullrals. Between oil and their beef and ag industry, Alberta is the foundation of their economy.
I can't decide if they don't really understand this or if it just sticks in their craw. I suspect the latter.
Boortz has been talking about this issue for months.
Old price vs New price is not a record when you figure in inflation.
I like the angle on cars, I still think no car should cost over $15,000.
You can rationalize this **** all you want, but if the 06 elections were to be held today, republicans would get blown out. Something has to happen here and soon; letting the free market "take care of it" is only an option for those who like seeing democras in power. We need to put the country on a war footing for a year, stop importing oil immediately, and develop all American oil resources including those offshore of Florida and California as well as Grand Staircase, and steamroll anybody who tries to stand in the way. We'd all survive it and, a year later, gasoline would be a dollar a gallon and the Saudis would be riding camels and living in tents again.
"I like the angle on cars, I still think no car should cost over $15,000."
That's sort of Marxist. I'd like to drive what I damn well please. Thank you.
Man, I feel so much better about it now.
Basically, this is just a tax on the middle class. The wealthy don't flinch over gas prices. The poor seldom drive. But, guess who uses their cars everyday to make a living.
I can't believe no one in Washington is talking about this.
"So as much money goes to, oh, Quebec ad agencies and the gun registry every time you fill up as to those who actually brought you the oil."
OUCH - nice observation.
Its the price of natural gas that has me worried, I'm fortunate I could peddle to work or walk but since I live in the Greater Chicago Arctic zone I need heat for several month's a year.
/9-11 victory?
But the rising price of gas will trickle (pun intended) down through the economy as the price of everything will rise to offset the higher cost of getting things to market.
I'd guess a large part of the car cost increases is because cars are far more fancy on average than they were 25 years ago. Much fancier stereos, suspension, anti-lock brakes, air bags, engines (and pollution controls) and interiors. It was common back then for a car not to even have air conditioning. Not anymore...
You missed the point.
I was commenting on the cost. Why has the real cost of a car gone up 62% (as per article). For the pieces put together and put out on a lot I don't think it's worth more then $15,000.
It's unions and marketing eating up a big portion of the rest. All just my opinion.
Dream on. We import close to 60% of our oil now. Our economy (and the world's) would go down the tubes if we were to stop importing oil. World demand is increasing with China and India consuming more and more oil to fuel their burgeoning economies.
Saudi Arabia provides one-quarter of the world's oil sold on the daily oil market. The US has proven oil reserves of about 23 billion bbls compared to the Saudis 261 billion bbls. Iraq has 112 billion bbls.
It will take many years for the US to develop alternate sources of energy, i.e., nuclear, coal, etc. to replace the use of oil. There is no way we can "stop importing oil immediately," and new drilling in the US will produce a drop a in the bucket to meet our present and future oil needs.
With traction control, ABS, airbags, crumple zones, and radial tires, we could have Autobahn speeds here in the US if people only understood the concept of lane discipline........
"But there is an ideological tone to the media coverage -- a mixture of economic illiteracy and anti-corporate bias."
Great summary of most reporting on business-related issues.
Cars are also much better and more reliable than they used to be. Just look at the scheduled maintenance intervals, which have decreased dramatically. Or the mileage warranties on tires, which have increased two or three fold over this period, or even more, without increasing anything near proportionately in price in real dollars.
I'm presently driving a 1999 Cavalier, hardly what anyone would call a top end vehicle. It has had exactly zero mechanical problems since purchase. The cars I drove in the 80's weren't anywhere near that reliable.
The problem is much higher demand for oil.
China, India and others are growing rapidly. It is likely that demand will only continue to increase. In time it will dwarf our demand. Those two countries alone have nearly 10 times our population.
So you better get use to it. It's likely only to get worse. And in truth there is very little that can be done about it. Especially by politicians...
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