Expensive gas is a good thing.

...too bad it's going back down. I don't mind shelling out the extra dough if it causes people to cut back on the amount they drive. We are a disgustingly lazy and wasteful society. I think they should raise the price to $5 / gal. Make it a tax and spend the money on research towards alternative energy.

 

Thats very earth conscious of you, but the economic impact would devistate the economy unless you raise it slowly over years.

 

Id like the price to crash for 3 months then it can do what it wants as i wont have to drive anymore

 

I hate to steal Pressed Rat's line but...

I think that's bullshit Bush administration propaganda.

 

Gas prices don't effect me much, I ride my bike most of the time. If it's raining VERY hard (as it has been lately) I'll just bum a ride from a friend or take a taxi.

I don't own a car, and have no plans to get one. (and I live six miles from town, my friends in town won't even walk/cycle two blocks to the store, they'd rather drive)

 

Oh and by the way in the UK fuel is about 90p a litre. which I think is more than £4 a gallon or somewhere around 8 dollars. I dunno but in that kind of area.

 

For consumer fuel then yes, I don't mind the high gas prices too much. Part of the reason for this is that I live so close to work. The cost of commuting was part of the reason why I chose to live in a downtown urban area next to my work instead of out in the country, which would be my preference. If I were to live where I truly wanted too, I'd be spending $300 a month on gasoline, which I simply cannot afford.

In terms of business though, high gas prices worry me. I work in the food service business. The rise in gas prices has lead to a major increase in our cost to buy food. More often than not this rise in price can't be passed onto the consumer, its met with far too much resistance there. Thus in order for companies to keep their cost in lines, they end up cutting jobs. Thats the harsh reality of higher gas prices.

 

lets go set fire to all of the gas stations and destroy them. then we go to the oil company and set c4. theyll never know what hit em.

 

I'd be lying if I said I really understood economics, but it seems like the costs / jobs thing would work itself out pretty quickly, at least in the service sector.
The European example is a perfect case in point. They typically pay more than twice than what we pay (they tax the shit out of it) and their economies are kicking our ass.

 

They tax the shit out of everything, they take home very little of their pay compared to us. I don't know which is better or not, but I'd rather be self sufficient and recieve my wages than give it to the government. Some social support systems are alright, but really, in a perfect world, it would be local, and we'd know our leaders on a personal basis. Community support is far superior to national support, but that hardly even exists in the US anymore, and less probably in Europe.

 

they did a story in the paper today around here that some gas businesses were losing money because no one wanted to buy it so they had to fill their stores with more candy and higher service

 

If the gas prices remain as high as they are for much longer (as long as Bush is in office collecting those oil stock checks, they will be), it will just spurn the creation of an all-hydro car that much faster.

I used to run a forklift that was basically a 16 cell battery that you poured water in. By charging the battery, you activated the hydrogen from the water, hence having 8 hours of basic water-based machinery using very little oil of any sort (except hydraulic oil, necessary to keep the mast oiled). I think the cars should go in that direction...it may make our individual electric prices higher, but if the electric companies are getting the bulk of the business, those costs should come down as well.

 

Of course there are other ways to handle things. Like Iowa uses corn to help make cleaner burning gas for their silver, so while regular is about 2.25, the one stays closer to about 2.05. things like that help the economy and are a bit more envioment friendly.

 

But you have to charge the battery with electricity, which is made from natural gas/oil/coal. It's still fossil fuel oriented.

 

Alternate fuels that produce significantly less emissions (ethanol, wvo) are nice too, I'm waiting for four dollar gas