BS: Gasoline prices

Subject: Gasoline prices
From: Pontiac Joe
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 10:46 AM

Gas seems to be going down I just paid $ 1.18 per gal. my buddy in Calif. paid $ 1.89 per gal. I know in Connecticut the the prices are high.

P- Joe

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Kim C
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 11:46 AM

Sunday night my local gas station sported a price of $1.05.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 12:05 PM

you know...somewhere there is a person who says "ok, lets lower (or raise) the price to dealers by 'X' amount",,,I want some one to FIND that guy..(or committee) and grill them. "Why did you do that? What did you base it on? Why the sudden drop? Do we really have THAT much more gas suddenly?"

No one EVER seems to be able to locate Joe Blow at Mobil who knows what the criteria are. ....and thus, we ALL suspect that there are hidden windfalls & rake-off profits in these fluctuations

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Pseudolus
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 12:41 PM

I think the funny thing is that the day oil prices go up, the gas prices go up, even though the gas still in the tanks to be sold was bought at the old lower price. But when the price of oil goes down, it takes a while for those prices to reach the pumps....whuusat all about?

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: kendall
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 12:46 PM

Did you ever watch store employees change the prices on goods already in stock?

When I was in Boston two weeks ago, the price of regular was $1.75. When I got home, the price was $1.36. If there is a shortage, why the huge difference in prices? Doug, would you care to explain?

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: GUEST,UB Dan
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 12:52 PM

I'd tell you who the guy is that is setting all the prices...but he's watching us. He listens to everything we are saying through his giant microphone that is attached to the Hubble telescope...shhhhhhhhh...the truth is out there.

p.s. yes I have seen prices change on goods already in stock, every week Best Buy and other stores have sales where some items get marked down while items from the previous week's sales get marked back up. This is the advantage of using bar codes and labeling prices on shelves instead of on the individual item.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: UB Ed
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 01:00 PM

I believe oil and gas are traded as commodities and, as such, are marked to the market in accounting. Its a market- rather than cost-based accounting system and thus prices change in accordance to how the traders percieve the future.

And Dan, I am the guy with the microphone...

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: nutty
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 02:02 PM

It's amazing to realise that you are talking in GALLONS.
Here in the UK we talk in LITRES and that makes a nonsense of the whole pricing business as many people don't have a clue what a gallon of fuel costs and the oil companies and the government regularly "con" the consumer.
Prices never come down more than one or two pence and then go up again very quickly.
Current prices for a litre of diesel are around 77pence a litre (£3.50 a gallon)and unleaded petrol is slightly cheaper but as the main method of haulage is by road the cost of living is severely affected by these exhorbitant prices.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: kendall
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 02:12 PM

Would someone who knows more about it than I please explain this. Periodically, the price of everthing goes up. Eventually, wages go up. Then, prices go up and so on. So, what the hell is the reason for this leap frog game anyway? We just end up handling more money while our buying power continues to go down. Who is benefiting by this? I know who is not! Senior citizens on fixed incomes, you know, the non-producers. It reminds me of Tom Paxtons song...Governor Lamb spoke to old folks in Colorado little darlin', did you hear what the Governor had to say? If you're growing too old in Colorado little darlin', you should die and get out of the way..

Sign in a nudist colony, ALL PERSONS PLAYING LEAP FROG MUST MAKE COMPLETE JUMPS.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: CarolC
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 06:27 PM

I think it's kind of like a pyramid scheme, kendall. Our economy is dependant upon growth. It's how the market is set up. Without growth, our system would probably collapse in on itself.

If we want to get out of the inflation spiral you have described, we might have to come up with another system.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: MarkS
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 06:34 PM

I heard once the pump price of gas is based on the replacement cost rather than the cost paid at the time the last batch was delivered. You can then pay more or less at the pump depending on what the cost is for the service station to replace the fuel you took.
Make sense to anybody else?
Nutty - just wondering how many pence tax the government takes on each liter of fuel product.
MarkS

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 06:43 PM

I can explain it, Kendall...anyone who has an interest in $$$..or £££, (read all of us), wants to position their company, project or personal finances in the best possible circumstances in the current economy, so they negotiate for a raise, tinker with the price of Twinkies, increase the cost of a hospital bed, DEcrease the amount of chocolate in a Hershey bar or, lord preserve us, charge a bit more for a music CD.

Then, everyone who DIDN'T raise prices on Monday notices that their basic expenses have gone up, and decides on Tuesday to 'compensate'...and by Friday, pennies aren't worth picking up off the ground!

Now, some people are not able to increase anything, so their basic position deteriorates, while others have found a formula that allows them to influence which prices rise, and then to position themselves in the money flow...(i.e., lawyers and drug manufacturers)....this has tended to create a widening gulf with some people having LOTS of $$$, (but never enough, huh?).....this then creates a class which is fairly disdainful of prices, and simply spend what they need to, and manipulate their income to meet needs. ..............THIS inspires providers of certain services and products to adopt a "what the traffic will bear" attitude instead of a "cost plus reasonable profit" attitude which used to be more common.

Now, you couple these tendencies with modern technology, in which LOTS of new 'stuff' is produced (and the media techniques to advertise it)...(digital gadgets, drugs tailored to grow hair, airplanes which get you to Paris in 4 hours), and the bunch with the $$$ thinks they HAVE to have all the new stuff, so.......

Add to all THIS, the tendency of juries to award billion $$ settlements to folks for moderately bad hangnails..(oh, the pain & suffering!)...and you get an economic version of the Oklahoma land rush!....and if you are on crutches or have a slow horse, look out!

yes, a lot of that is over-simplication, and I missed several threads of causality, but think about 100 years ago..., no fancy hospitals & drugs, no cars, no telephones, no TVs or radio....what could you spend money ON?...Houses, land and services...if you were rich, you could have servants and a big house and hire someone to sing for you. There were quack medicine schemes and such, but the average guy could eat 'ok' because you could usually hunt of fish or grow stuff....which brings up the final item in MY short list...TOO MANY PEOPLE,,,and thus too few fish, lobsters, cows, etc.....so prices rise for what IS available!!

next question please....*grin*.....

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: CarolC
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 06:53 PM

I think it would be a mistake to underestimate the role that the stock market plays in this whole inflation scenario. Shareholders want the value of their stock to go up. They vote for whatever corporate policy will help increase the value of their stock. I think it can be argued that a lot of the kinds of corporate decisions you have described, Bill D., are a result of this dynamic.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: CarolC
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 06:57 PM

In fact, I think any kind of investment situation contributes to inflation. When people buy real estate, they expect that the value of their property will increase over time. Or at least they hope so. When you get a return on your investment, you have participated in the system that helps to drive inflation.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 07:08 PM

yup, Carol..as I said, I sure didn't hit ALL the forces...if anyone COULD explain it all, life would be easier, hmmm? A lot of analysis has been done on the concept of a "Growth economy" as opposed to a "Steady-state economy".....it would require some very fundamental changes to switch.....but maybe it's time to think about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: kendall
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 07:13 PM

OK, that all makes sense. Now I bought my house 2 years ago, and, according to a real estate person ( a friend who is no longer in it) the value of my house went up by at least $30,000. Sounds great eh? NO! my taxes will also go up, and, if I sell it, I will have to live somewhere, so, I will be faced with some other home that just went up 30 k. Maybe we will all end up in the Neil Young Center.

The love of money is the root of all evil.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Gypsy
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 10:54 PM

Gee, Kendell, i like the idea of stopping mid leap...the mental image.....petrol is still at 2.30 in the northwest nowhere wilds of CA. Of course, we're told that it has to be "trucked in", just as though it sprouts beneath the tanks elsewhere!

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: nutty
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 04:47 AM

MarkS ... I think it's something like 60p tax on every litre that the government take ..... it really makes no sense
This tax on fuel is additional to the vehicle road tax which we have to pay just to take a vehicle on the roads.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: kendall
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 07:30 AM

Well, SOMEONE has to pay for that FREE medical care, right Doug?

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 08:14 AM

Nutty, just splitting hairs a little. Our gallon is larger than the us gallon. According to my reference, ours is 4.546 litres and theirs is 3.785 litres.

A us gallon at 77p per litre would be £2.91.

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: nutty
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 10:56 AM

Thanx Jon .... I never thought about that ... we are still paying about three times as much though (Is my arithmatic right)

Kendall .. our freehealth service is failing to deliver an adequate standard of health care as there is a desperate shortage of both staff and beds.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 01:30 PM

I take exception to senior people being labeled 'non-producers', kendall. We, by and large, may not produce products but we certainly make it possible for others to do so. We as a nation would probably not survive if it were not for senior volunteers in our hospitals, schools, non-profits, adult education tutoring centers, museums, libraries, planning commissions, small business advisory councils, governmental bodies, and on and on.

:) (And yes, I am being facetious in taking umbrage)

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: DougR
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 01:38 PM

Kendall, will you quit picking on me? It's the 4th and I don't work on the 4th of July! **BG**

Bill D: makes sense to me.

Ebbie: you been reading in your newsaper what's been going on in the retirement community of Sun City West in Arizona? Old folks out there have been acting pretty frisky.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: kendall
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 04:51 PM

OK, let's call a truce until tomorrow! Ebbie, I'm glad you could see through my black humor!

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 06:18 PM

Gas prices? I just shrug and pay it, whatever it is that day. It's one of those inevitable things, and there are so damn many more pressing things that I have to be concerned about these days...

Carole - the biggest engine behind inflation is the banks. They create vast amounts of "new" (I call it fictional) money, with the stroke of a computer key, every time they make a loan to a large corporation. They create hundreds of times more money, in effect, than does the government (the mint). It's not real money, but it's out there, nonetheless, on paper (and I'm not talking about greenbacks) and in cyberspace.

If you continue to artificially increase the money supply...in a world with limited (and shrinking) actual resources...then the money becomes worth less and less in real terms, and buys less of those shrinking resources.

(If there were a way to artificially create gold or oil out of thin air, for instance, they would soon be almost worthless. We cannot artificially create real resources out of thin air...but we CAN AND DO create money that way all the time! And without printing a single bill or minting a single coin!)

It IS a vast pyramid scheme.

Who does that benefit? The banks (who collect interest on their loans) and the major corporations who move large amounts of digital money around the world to where they can find cheap labour. Who does it hurt? Ordinary people everywhere, and seniors most of all.

Our imaginary money is in fact, completely worthless...but we have all agreed (so far) to pretend it's worth something. Not as much as it was last year, of course...but something. It's a game.

Want to guess where a Ponzi scheme finally ends?

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 06:39 PM

Little Hawk, am I wrong in thinking that almost every monetary system is based on whatever people agree to pretend has worth? Gold and silver cannot be eaten, cannot house you, are not intrinsically inspirational.

Now, if value were based on water or bananas or cotton or pure air...

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 07:55 PM

That's a neat point, Ebbie! Still I think gold and silver are clearly worth WAY more than paper (or digital) money. They are metals which are quite malleable, so you can easily make things out of them. They are beautiful to look at, when formed and smoothed properly. Gold doesn't ever tarnish! That alone puts it in a special category. I would say they ARE "intrinsically inspirational"...as are all the phenomena of nature. It's generally the scarcity of a thing that raises it in value, I find. Almost no matter what it is...

However, water, air, bananas and cotton are clearly more useful and more vital to our lives in a practical sense than are gold or silver. But when there are vast amounts of clean air or water available, no one gives it a second thought, do they? It's only when it's running out that people start taking notice.

I believe the complete elimination of money would be a step in the right direction...coupled with a genuine effort to provide for community needs of all humanity on this planet on a pretty egalitarian basis. That would require a world society, as opposed to competing nations and power groups.

Ever watch Star Trek Next Generation?

I am NOT talking about Communism.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: GUEST,Nick P.
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 11:21 AM

I think, Jon Freeman, that our talk of UK fuel prices, still goes way over the heads of our American cousins. Perhaps by taking into account todays exchange rate & displaying the actual cost of a US gallon in UK prices may give more food for thought.......immagine the uproar....... "AS FORM MIDNIGHT ALL US CITIZENS WILL PAY $8.50 PER GALLON"..... Hmmmmm!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Julie B
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 11:56 AM

Love your second note above, Bill D. When you come down to it "Too many people" is the only thing that makes life increasingly expensive. Pity that population control is political taboo...6 billion and counting...guess we'll stop breeding when we run out of land to stand on :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 02:33 PM

nope, Julie...we'll quit breeding when contraceptive implants are REQUIRED, and you have to get a permit to have them removed. The earth has millions of years of evolution making SURE we breed...we have the means to control it, but not the will.

As to gasoline prices, in the UK, it is common to have a small car and drive only moderate distances, so the total outlay can still be coped with. The U.S., being a huge country, has a mindset and culture where many of us drive LONG distances regularly. In Texas or Wyoming, it can be 75 miles for a rancher to get the supplies he needs, and this system was developed before anyone understood what oil reserves existed or how fast they'd be used.

If the trend continues, even the US will have to figure out a better way...perhaps railroads will make a comeback, and we can rent (hire) small cars at each end. Perhaps this internet thing will make being separated from Aunt Susie, 1400 miles away seem not so tedious if we can type, send pictures, and have video hook-ups between visits.

Moving goods between Seattle and Miami will still require some thought, and there are folks in N. Dakota who expect fresh produce all year 'round...*smile*...(What? you say we don't NEED fresh Salmon in Miami?)

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: DougR
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 07:41 PM

True, Bill D., but Guest Nick does have a point. We in the U. S. are so use to buying gasoline at reasonable prices, recent experiences at the pump throw us into fits of anguish. I filled up this morning and paid $1.66 a gallon, and my first thought was arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 08:03 PM

exactly, Doug...I bought a large van...get 15MPG with the wind behind me. It hurts to fill it, as my income has NOT gone up with gas prices. We now drive my wife's little Saturn for simple errands and try to save the van for craft shows and times when we both have to be out..(I went a week without driving it recently)

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: kendall
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 10:01 PM

I also filled up today, $1.34.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: JamesJim
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 10:32 PM

BillD, you just may have hit on the reason for gas prices coming down. It's no doubt a simplification of the process, but your switching to the Saturn effects demand in a positive way, thus supply goes up and prices come down. I find myself thinking about using the/our auto that gets the best mileage, as well as taking shorter routes, or just not going at all. Thankfully, we're not the only ones doing that. Having to depend on OPEC for energy definitely leaves me worried that the other shoe will soon be falling. Forget the political spin, I'm for becoming more independent. I'm just as concerned about the environment as the next person, but I have no problem with drilling in Alaska. "Cringe" Now I'll just wait for the drilling to start on my head from several of our friends here at Mudcat.

JJ

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: chip a
Date: 06 Jul 01 - 12:04 PM

$1.19 in N.Ga. today. I can't believe I think that's cheap! When I started driving, regular was $.22.9

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: UB Ed
Date: 06 Jul 01 - 12:23 PM

Today's Wall Street Journal reports US gas prices are coming down due to high gas production levels combined with lower commercial/industrial activity. Although private citizens have not significantly changed their habits, businesses are experienceing a downturn and do not subsequently need to ship as many items.

Prices in major metro areas will continue to be higher due to the use of reformulated gas to comply with ozone non-attainment requirements. Regardless, another 5 to 10 cent frop is anticipated.

Ed

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 06 Jul 01 - 03:45 PM

UB Ed:

That's precisely what's happening. The current high price of gasoline has nothing to do with the supply of oil (George W. - are you listening?). Oil companies have very limited refining and gasoline storage capabilities. Why? Because they make more money investing in other aspects of their business such as producing and transporting crude oil. So, when supplies get low, like they did earlier this year, they can't up production even if they wanted to. Instead, they up retail prices which lowers demand. This gets the demand into balance with the supply. Right now, they've overdone it a bit so supplies are at record high levels. Rather than decrease production, prices are now falling to increase demand. Unless you live in California. We filled it up at $1.81 per gallon this week and thought it was a bargain!

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Bert
Date: 06 Jul 01 - 04:01 PM

Actually it has been observed that we stop breedimg when our standards of living and of education improve.

Re: gas prices, I always make a point of buying the cheapest gas available. If more people do that then prices will fall. Only once in the last twenty years have I had a problem with the quality of gas and that was when I was travelling and had to buy higher priced gas.

Bert.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: DougR
Date: 06 Jul 01 - 05:09 PM

Dadgummit, Kendall! You paid $1.34 a gallon, and I paid $1.66! It probably has someting to do with the Prez being in Maine today. But heck, I'm the Republican. If anybody's going to get a price break, it should be me!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Jul 01 - 05:33 PM

Not at all! In a true democracy all Redemocrapublicants must be treated on an equal basis, without prejudice...even if they can't agree with one another on social policy or anything else, except that Saddam Hussein is not a very nice fellow, and that "money makes the vorld go around, the vorld go around, the vorld go around..." (all dance and sing!)

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Gypsy
Date: 07 Jul 01 - 10:14 AM

It is a concept to buy the cheapest and drive the price down, but we have only one supplier to all the stations here. Hence, all prices are 129.99999999999. Ugh!

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: DougR
Date: 07 Jul 01 - 02:07 PM

Gypsy: did you get the decimal in the spot you intended? If so, there is not doubt about it. Under similar circumstances I would definitely be walking instead of driving.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Gypsy
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 12:12 AM

Okay, okay, i was busy, what else can i come up with? Howzabout 1.29 and 9/10s? gypsyveryredinthefaceandslinkingunderhercar......

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: DougR
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 02:11 AM

Ok, Gypsy, so I was being a bit nitpicky. You were only off a hundred dollars a gallon plus! Big deal!

Doug R

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: echo
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 07:33 AM

The price of petrol over most of Europe is in excess of 5$ per gallon. Don't you think you should stop moaning about the very cheap prices you 'enjoy', as a nation that consumes more than 25% of the world's resources and makes up less that 5% of it's population. Perhaps you should get real and start trying to play your part in helping to reduce climate change. It all sounds very selfish to me!

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: MAV
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 12:51 PM

The price of petrol over most of Europe is in excess of 5$ per gallon

Mostly due to tax gouging policies of the European socialist governments. The gas itself probably costs $1.00 without the taxes.

Don't you think you should stop moaning about the very cheap prices you 'enjoy'

No, actually you should START "moaning". You guys like to strike don't you?.....BOYCOTT GAS STATIONS...PICKETT PARLIAMENT!!!!!

In a free market system, product prices are their own built in conservation measure. The higher the price...less consumption. The greater the supply.....lower prices.

Of course you guys don't have a free market system do you?

as a nation that consumes more than 25% of the world's resources and makes up less that 5% of it's population

Of course we do feed the world, I guess we could cut back on agricultural production.

Perhaps you should get real and start trying to play your part in helping to reduce climate change

A. We are not producing most of the world's air pollution.

B. You seem to believe that man can control or cause climate change. How's that volcano doing?

It all sounds very selfish to me!

Your style of government is what's selfish. Most of your confiscated income goes to pay "non-essential government employees" (aka bureaucrats) NOT to provide social services.

If you like socialism now...just wait until a United States of Europe happens....then there will be a massive new layer of bureaucracy and taxation on top of what you have now. The people of Italy can pay for welfare cases in Denmark.

Our founding fathers and most European immigrants came to America because they didn't like being told exactly what to do. We like to call it F-R-E-E-D-O-M. Economic or otherwise.

mav out

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: kendall
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 02:18 PM

And one of the first things the pilgrims did upon arrival was hang three Quakers. Welcome bac MAV, I missed you.

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: DougR
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 05:21 PM

Hear! Hear!, Mav!

Kendall: ok, I'll bite. Why did they hang three Quakers? They run out of natives or something? :>)

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 07:23 PM

While I understand your patriotism, I have to say...

I have never encountered any other nation of people who talked so endlessly about F-R-E-E-D-O-M, and yet handled it so irresponsibly...

Not that I don't appreciate the ideals set down by Franklin, Jefferson, and their peers in the 1770's. I do. They were extraordinarily aware for their time, and had a great vision. When put into practice, it didn't include women, blacks, Native Americans, orientals, and various others in its proposition that "all men are created equal", but that was not very surprising, given the time...people thought differently then about a lot of things.

But to imagine that you are now living in the "greatest society on Earth"...a phrase repeated endlessly in your American schools (which I attended for 10 years), and in the dark corners of your impressionable minds.

This is sheer unrealistic mythology and jingoism of the same sort previously echoed by all powerful and wealthy empires, including Great Britain, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Imperial Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the 3rd Reich, the Soviet Union, Imperial China, Rome, Greece, Persia, Egypt, and a host of others, some better (debatably) and some worse than the present corporate America.

It's so familiar, self-serving, and transparent. There is no "greatest" society. All societies have their strengths and weaknesses, and all have things of value and beauty which could be shared...if we would all stop playing the "Patriot Game".

American corporate civilization is one more passing blip on the radar screen of human destiny, so enjoy its excesses while you can...and while Nature permits it. Something considerably more sane and reasonable will replace it one of these days. Probably something none of us have even heard of yet.

Thus end all empires...after they have squandered their resources, their morality, and their sanity.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Gasoline prices
From: echo
Date: 10 Jul 01 - 04:30 PM

Thanks for the reply MAV unfortunately it sounds like a complete load of rubbish to me! It's not the point at all of where the tax revenue goes the puts fuel prices high in europe. It's the fact that high prices control excess use and encourage the development fuel efficient vehicles and machinery. High taxes don't equate with socialist governments! A civilised society should be willing to pay higher taxes, I'm not sure what the level of taxes are in the US but that's not really the point in relation to fuel costs. I was under the impression that the US had lowered taxes during the Regan era and borrowed massive quantities of cash mortgaging the future of generations to come. Hardly a REAL tax reduction policy. Another inaccuracy of your small minded reply is that the US feeds the world! That just is simply not the case. Most european countries have an excess food production. Perhaps you should try looking outwards towards the world rather than hiding in 'fortress america'.