Gas Prices!!!!!!!!!!! (Dakota: middle-class, buy, school districts)

[emcee squared]

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

Yeh, but would you get a shipyard to build the gas tank?

I'll just borrow that big red tank that rides along with the shuttle.

[Beenhere4ever]

Originally Posted by emcee squared

I'll just borrow that big red tank that rides along with the shuttle.

A practical solution!

[xandrex]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

But don't expect this administration to try to do anything to lower prices. Their position is that higher prices will serve to lower consumption and are a good thing.

The government doesn't set the price at the pump. Any changes in policy have been largely superfluous.

Why exactly is it the government's job to lower gas prices for people, but anything else they do is distorting the market is some horrible way?

There is a method to keeping your gas prices down: Have a fuel-efficient vehicle and drive fewer miles. I don't like paying the price more than anyone else. I'd love cheap gas...I just don't see it as a god-given right.

[Beenhere4ever]

I drive a LOT fewer miles! Ergo, I'm not first in line paying sky high prices. People who are driving lots of miles and getting very low MPG are the most affected by price hikes. Any reason to say this is "wrong"? If you say it is, how would you feel if everything sold to consumers was controlled by government actions? Would you say "big government"? Just to be clear, the price you pay at the grocery store is controlled by government intervention. I want the Tea Party to put that on their signs: "Stop pushing down the price of groceries!" Yeh, that'll happen.

[Govie]

Without question the most regressive and oppressive tax of any - by far.

The fact we aren't organizing marches in the streets regarding this crushing tax to the middle and lower classes is upsetting.

I mean, we have no choice; we are at the "market's" discretion.

The sooner we tap into our new-found goldmines (oil) in the Dakotas the sooner it will hopefully relieve some of the oppression.

Just sad that a few guys/companies at the top of the oil/gas market really are laughing at us and play us like a deck of cards.

[TimtheGuy]

Originally Posted by xandrex

The government doesn't set the price at the pump. Any changes in policy have been largely superfluous.

Why exactly is it the government's job to lower gas prices for people, but anything else they do is distorting the market is some horrible way?

There is a method to keeping your gas prices down: Have a fuel-efficient vehicle and drive fewer miles. I don't like paying the price more than anyone else. I'd love cheap gas...I just don't see it as a god-given right.

They can (and do) put the kybash on new refineries, pipelines and drilling. The impose substantial taxes. They disrupt the refining process by requiring summer & winter blend. The MARKET says the price of gas should be down based on crude prices & future crude supply.

[QuietBlue]

Originally Posted by Govie

The sooner we tap into our new-found goldmines (oil) in the Dakotas the sooner it will hopefully relieve some of the oppression.

The supply of oil has nothing to do with this. It's about the supply of gasoline. We're not wanting for oil at all right now; we're producing more of it than we ever have.

[Beenhere4ever]

Actually I don't think any of you understand the workings of the market. Unless you've studied the serious complexity of commodities trading, all the foregoing is hogwash. Read today's Wall Street Journal how oil market fundamentals are trending the OPPOSITE of the price of oil. Learn. Become educated. Even Alan Greenspan has admitted he no longer understands markets after the real estate crash.

[QuietBlue]

Originally Posted by xandrex

Why exactly is it the government's job to lower gas prices for people, but anything else they do is distorting the market is some horrible way?

This is an excellent point. Consumption of gasoline is pretty easy to control compared to most things -- it's a bit hard to stop needing food, or shelter, or health care. Yet if the government tries to control the costs of any of those, it's all OMG SOCIALISM!

[Beenhere4ever]

Those controls on food prices are nothing but a way to funnel billions into agribusiness. Very few farmers receive benefits. Last I read, 1 percent of the population supplies all our food. How can these vast subsidies really fall into those few hands. It is PURE PORK, in the same way that Pentagon contracting is. And you know a taste flows back into the pockets of politicians who dutifully lie to us about the need for the programs.

http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/demographics.html

Many people believe that the low income of farm families justifies price supports. The benefits of most farm programs, however, are distributed to farmers in proportion to the volume they produce or to the number of acres they own. In 1989, for example, 71 percent of the farmers in the United States each sold less than $40,000 worth of products. They received only 16 percent of government price-support payments. In contrast, 15 percent of all U.S. farmers each sold over $100,000 worth of products, and their average net cash income was $68,850. That 15 percent of the farm population received 62 percent of all government payments. One can conclude that farm program payments show little correlation with need.

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/...eSupports.html