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Twirling
Barred Spiral
Registered: 02/03/03
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So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High?
#2968609 - 08/05/04 03:24 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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So far the only explanations I've heard are people talking about how the War In Iraq is creating a shortage which is raising prices, but that's from people who have little awareness of such things. The best explanation I've heard is either that OPEC is raising prices because of the cost of insurance for oil rigs & such, or that it's being used more as a politcal distraction to detract people's minds off from what's happening in the war. It's a little too much of a conspiracy theory for me, but at this point nothing surprises me.
Does anyone have a good explanation?
And isn't it funny how little people talk about it now that it's leveled off? We react to news in such an emotional fashion with such little attention spans.
-------------------- The very nature of experience is ineffable; it transcends cognitive thought and intellectualized analysis. To be without experience is to be without an emotional knowledge of what the experience translates into. The desire for the understanding of what life is made of is the motivation that drives us all. Without it, in fear of the experiences what life can hold is among the greatest contradictions; to live in fear of death while not being alive.
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Anonymous
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: Twirling]
#2968638 - 08/05/04 03:30 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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Does anyone have a good explanation?
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: Twirling]
#2968657 - 08/05/04 03:34 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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I have heard from various analysts that the biggest reason is that Putin has arrested the head of Yukos, the giant Russian oil co. and there is real fear that it may shut down or limit production. The OPEC nations have increased production lately but this will take a little time to affect the market.
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vampirism
Stranger
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: Twirling]
#2968665 - 08/05/04 03:36 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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it seems to me from what I've seen that rises in gas prices cannot be consistently attributed to current events, and the difference now and say, 20 years ago, cannot be attributed to inflation + events alone.
My guess is just that some really rich people are getting really greedy, but thats just a guess
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DoctorJ
Registered: 06/30/03
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: Twirling]
#2968671 - 08/05/04 03:38 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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because people with money in oil are voting for Bush in blind self-interest.
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Twirling
Barred Spiral
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: vampirism]
#2968731 - 08/05/04 03:50 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Morrowind said: My guess is just that some really rich people are getting really greedy, but thats just a guess
Well that's one thing that remains a constant.
-------------------- The very nature of experience is ineffable; it transcends cognitive thought and intellectualized analysis. To be without experience is to be without an emotional knowledge of what the experience translates into. The desire for the understanding of what life is made of is the motivation that drives us all. Without it, in fear of the experiences what life can hold is among the greatest contradictions; to live in fear of death while not being alive.
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vampirism
Stranger
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: Twirling]
#2968737 - 08/05/04 03:50 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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well, in particular, the really really rich people controlling gas prices
damn those oligopolies /shakes fist
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: vampirism]
#2968979 - 08/05/04 04:37 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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Front page of the business section of the NY Times had an anlysis of the volatility and rise in prices on the oil futures market. The gist of the article is that a lot of players are dissatisfied with the static equity and bond markets and are looking to improve their returns speculating in energy. They specificly mentioned hedge funds (the rich people) and pension funds (the other people). This makes for a very volatile market (average daily change, up or down, is close to 2%). It is a very risky business and if the price increases people will cut back consumption and some speculators will be left holding a very empty bag.
As a side note, "Saudi Arabia said that it would start pumping crude oil from new fields three months ahead of schedule and that it would delay the closing of some wells." Gasoline inventories have also grown by 2.4 million barrels to 210.1 million barrels, both of which which pushed prices lower today. The Michael Moores of the world will no doubt scream that the Saudis are doing this to influence the election, but YOU won't be fooled, will you?
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Strumpling
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: Twirling]
#2969279 - 08/05/04 06:13 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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I heard it is because China and many other countries are now starting to use WAY more oil as they industrialize.
More oil for China = less oil for everybody else.
Less oil for everybody else = more money for oil.
More money for oil = fuck this is getting annoying.
Its time to start spending some of our nation's military money on developing cleaner, safer, and more easily-available energy sources.
-------------------- Insert an "I think" mentally in front of eveything I say that seems sketchy, because I certainly don't KNOW much. Also; feel free to yell at me. In addition: SHPONGLE
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zappaisgod
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: Strumpling]
#2969360 - 08/05/04 06:31 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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Take all the money from farm subsidies and put it toward research. Military spending is a legitimate use of federal funds, business subsidies are not, and I'm not sure this research is but I don't think business will do it in time and it needs to be done.
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kaiowas
lest we baguette
Registered: 07/14/03
Posts: 5,501
Loc: oz
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: zappaisgod]
#2969384 - 08/05/04 06:37 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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haha money has no value, you just think it does.
the politics are jsut there to confuse you and to keep you from knowing the truth.
-------------------- Annnnnnd I had a light saber and my friend was there and I said "you look like an indian" and he said "you look like satan" and he found a stick and a rock and he named the rock ooga booga and he named the stick Stick and we both thought that was pretty funny. We got eaten alive by mosquitos but didn't notice til the next day. I stepped on some glass while wading in the swamp and cut my foot open, didn't bother me til the next day either....yeah it was a good time, ended the night by buying some liquor for minors and drinking nips and going to he diner and eating chicken fingers, and then I went home and went to bed.
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zappaisgod
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: kaiowas]
#2969438 - 08/05/04 06:56 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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If enough people think it does, it does
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Prisoner#1
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: ]
#2969488 - 08/05/04 07:10 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
mushmaster said: Does anyone have a good explanation?
it's almost 50% in taxes now... 2003 and 2004 brought more new gas taxes
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felix
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: Twirling]
#2970835 - 08/06/04 01:54 AM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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i don't know the answer or anything, i've just noticed that with each passing day, oil per barrel (from russia i think) is closing at an increasing price. i think it's up to about 46$ a barrel? i don't know why...
-------------------- Real botanists laugh at HPS systems, we do however use high pressure sodium in the parking lot. - artthug
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Mushmonkey
shiftlesslayabout
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: felix]
#2971160 - 08/06/04 07:44 AM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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We don't get most of our oil from the middle east. argentia/chili (asdf forget which) has a lot of the oil we use.
So, 9/10/01 I filled my car up with gas. It was, if I remember, about .85/gal. The very next afternoon it was 1.29/gal.
Ain't that some speculative pricing right there.
Then the south american oil workers went on strike. Another 20-30 cents a gallon. Then the whole Iraq thing happened. Again, another 20-30 cents a gallon.
The price of gas is pretty much.. unaffected by these things. It's all about the public's perception. If there's the flimsiest excuse to raise prices, and if it's believed that Americans will still buy their gas.. guess what that price is going up.
I will admit, a bit of the price is due to the lack of american refineries. "Not in my back yard" means we all pay a bit more, since there's less oil being refined and it has to be shipped farther away to get to us..
but largely the price is all bullshit.
Honestly thing about it. What excuse is there for gas going up or down at a gas station overnight.
They've already payed for that gas. They did when it was delivered. If they raise the price, that's all profits for them.. extra profits. And there's no guarentee that by the time they need to refill their gas pumps next, that the price will still be that high. Higher? Well maybe that, but I'd bet if you'd match things up it's probably usually lower on delivery, higher after, and back down for delivery.
All well and good in a free market, except I wouldn't call the oil/gas industry really a free and open market, and I don't think that it's quite right to let something like gasoline prices be dictated thusly. For the vast majority of Americans, living is IMPOSSIBLE without gasoline -- to get to work, to get to the store, to do anything. We're dependant. Junkies. You CAN live without a car, but only if you live somewhere that you can walk everywhere you need to be. For most of the country, that is not true. Hell the nearest Walmart to me is about 2 miles away, I work 25 miles away, and while 2 miles isn't totally unreasonable, 25 is totally impossible without a car. And there's really.. no jobs closer.
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trendal
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Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: Twirling]
#2971233 - 08/06/04 08:17 AM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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--------------------
Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: Mushmonkey]
#2972330 - 08/06/04 02:49 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Mushmonkey said: So, 9/10/01 I filled my car up with gas. It was, if I remember, about .85/gal. The very next afternoon it was 1.29/gal.
actually, according to the D.O.E., your memory sucks. In 9/2001 gas was around $1.50 per gallon. Except for late 1988, early 1999.... gas has been above $1.00 since at least the early 1990's. (U.S. Regular Conventional Retail Gasoline Prices) And if you adjust for inflation, gas is below $0.70 in 1979 dollars. so let's all stop whining.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
Edited by luvdemshrooms (08/06/04 02:55 PM)
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Mushmonkey
shiftlesslayabout
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#2972769 - 08/06/04 04:45 PM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
actually, according to the D.O.E., your memory sucks.
In 9/2001 gas was around $1.50 per gallon. Except for late 1988, early 1999.... gas has been above $1.00 since at least the early 1990's. (U.S. Regular Conventional Retail Gasoline Prices)
Sorry, no, it was definately under 1 buck a gallon. Absolutely 100%.
1.50 a gallon BEFORE 9/11? Maybe in California or Nevada.
Sure as HELL not in Alabama.
It was under $1 a gallon.. and that's American. The very DAY before the 9/11 attack.
The south has basically bottom-rate prices for gasoline. Right now I think regular's 1.75 (not in 'bama, in the northeast somewhere).. chances are it's at least 10 cents below that down south. Probably 1.50 a gallon right now in certain areas in georgia/tennessee.
Just because you're paying over $2/gal doesn't mean everyone is. Most of that is taxes, the rest is inflated price for living around so many other damned smelly people (that's demand).
Seriously.. I know what I'm talkin about here. I put 12 bucks into a 1990 Lumina Euro, 16.4 gal tank, and it was full. Work out the math on that (the tank wasn't quite totally empty, a bit below 1/4 a tank). that works out to 80-90 cents a gallon.
Don't believe me, fine.. whatever. I'm not making this shit up. Overnight the price of gasoline jumped by about 50%, in every gas station around. It continued to rise for several months, then stabilized, and started slowly coming down a few cents a week, went back up when the Argentines went on strike, stabilized, started moving back down, shot back up when we went into Iraq (again overnight), and now we're just about back to the present day.
btw that link blows. I don't have excel. why they can't just make a .html document, we'll never know.
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: Mushmonkey]
#2974860 - 08/07/04 07:32 AM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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THE PRICE OF GAS In 1980 $1.35 per gallon 1980 price adjusted for inflation $2.78 per gallon In 2004 $2.08 per gallon web page And in South Carolina gas was above a dollar in 1990. And another link showing gas at around a buck a gallon in the 80's. See the chart. Figures from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality show that drivers shelled out the equivalent of $2.73 per gallon in 2004 dollars in 1981 after adjusting the $1.31 price for inflation. Had enough? Too put it bluntly, you remember wrong.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
Edited by luvdemshrooms (08/07/04 07:45 AM)
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DoctorJ
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Re: So Does Anyone Actually Know Why Gas Prices Are So High? [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#2975148 - 08/07/04 11:27 AM (19 years, 7 months ago) |
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I remember when gas was $.79/gallon in 1999
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