Yes you are right Scott. Nobody said "The price gas goes up because the price of oil is going up" because WE ALL FRIGGIN KNOW THAT.
Most of this thread would make zero sense if you didn´t assume that there was a connection between oil and gas prices. What people are discussing is if there is MORE to the rising prices than just that.
Ummmm? Yea I did. Reread it. Maybe I missed it twice? Which member mentioned that the price of oil is up?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Did you miss this:
[quote]
There's no reason for crude oil increase to affect the price at the pump immediately.
<hr></blockquote>
I said that about 10 posts into this thread. Oil is increasing in price, there's no disputing that. But the rate of the gas increase is much higher than the corresponding oil increase. Randycat was asking about just that in the first post. So, why the fvck is it getting so expensive? Price gouging, collusion, money grubbing... call it what you want, it's still messed up.
I'm convinced then. Greed greed oil we love it nuke Iraq and take the oil kill Putin he has oil that's the only reason kill oil kill blood oil the only reason things cost more is greed pure greed kill the poor where's Jello Biafira when we need him? Ahhhhhh!
The problem is that everyone is talking in nominal terms--the REAL price of gasoline hasn't risen much if any in the last twenty years.
When I graduated from college 14 years ago, I was making $6.10 an hour with a degree and gas was around $1.40. Now I know people who clean houses for $10 an hour and gas is 1.93 for premium. Okay, that is drop in real terms. It takes less time to buy a gallon of gasoline than it did almost 15 years ago. And I'm sure the numbers would hold up if I took the time to find the official figures. I know it would because I remember reading the exact point in an Economics book not too long ago. Furthermore, a significant portion of the price per gallon for gasoline is tax, intended to drive up the price and lower demand. So what's really got people riled? That the price is so high or that people are still willing to pay it?
ok, to start with, it used to be that gas prices were well within 5 cents of eachother at pretty much any station you went to. gas prices were gas prices.
right now in MN, the range goes from $1.43 to $1.78
in the exact same city, only a few miles apart you can find a range of $1.43 to $1.69
a difference of 26¢ per gallon.
if price were based on collusion, then every station would be charging $1.78, and you wouldn't have a range like that. at the same time, if it were based solely on supply and demand of oil, then it would be much closer to the same price from palce to place.
there's no way that you'd have a price difference of 26¢ within a few miles of eachother. add to that the fact that much of that cost is in state taxes, and the difference per gallon on the actual gas price is pretty huge.
IMO, the #1 reason for this difference is..... hold on...... wait for it......
US!
yep, that's right. it's the consumers fault for being a bunch of morons. want to know why one station can charge 26¢ more per gallon and still stay in business? people are too damn lazy to bother finding the cheapest gas around. when you think about it, it's no wonder. say two stations had a difference of 10¢, and were on opposite sides of the street. would it be worth it to you to stop at the light, take a left, then take another left to pull into the station with the cheaper gas, rather than just go to the one ahead of you? i'm sure many of you say yes. but then think about the dollar amount you're talking about. if you have a 12 gallon tank, all that work will save you an extra $1.20, and you just added 7 minutes to the time it takes you to get home.
for a lot of people that $1.20 isn't worth the effort, so they don't care.
gas stations realized a while back that people don't care as much as they used to, and they started raising prices. the cheap stations still get the bargain hunters, but the expensive stations have more than enough patronage to survive on.
on top of that realize that most gas stations make the majoirty of their money on the huge margins they have on the items they sell in the store, and you see that gas isn't the most important factor in a gas stations business.
it just has to be cheap enough to get people to stop. they don't have to be the lowest, and they don't need to survive on gas sales.
let's see what happens now that the government has said it will open up the oil and gas reserves if war happens....g
ps..i wish we had a range here...all stations i have seen are exactly the same except costco....not a penny difference at all stations from home to work (25 miles and about 15 gas stations).....g
alcimedes, I'm not sure about your theory, either. All stations around me in So Cal are consistently high (if not the same), and there certainly is no "cheap guy", not even Arco. I would tend to sway to the collusion theory so far, but on what level is the collusion being orchestrated is what I wonder.
Comments
Most of this thread would make zero sense if you didn´t assume that there was a connection between oil and gas prices. What people are discussing is if there is MORE to the rising prices than just that.
<strong>
Ummmm? Yea I did. Reread it. Maybe I missed it twice? Which member mentioned that the price of oil is up?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Did you miss this:
[quote]
There's no reason for crude oil increase to affect the price at the pump immediately.
<hr></blockquote>
I said that about 10 posts into this thread. Oil is increasing in price, there's no disputing that. But the rate of the gas increase is much higher than the corresponding oil increase. Randycat was asking about just that in the first post. So, why the fvck is it getting so expensive? Price gouging, collusion, money grubbing... call it what you want, it's still messed up.
<strong>
Which member mentioned that the price of oil is up?</strong><hr></blockquote>
It's just that the price of oil isn't up, but the price of gasoline is. That's the conundrum.
When I graduated from college 14 years ago, I was making $6.10 an hour with a degree and gas was around $1.40. Now I know people who clean houses for $10 an hour and gas is 1.93 for premium. Okay, that is drop in real terms. It takes less time to buy a gallon of gasoline than it did almost 15 years ago. And I'm sure the numbers would hold up if I took the time to find the official figures. I know it would because I remember reading the exact point in an Economics book not too long ago. Furthermore, a significant portion of the price per gallon for gasoline is tax, intended to drive up the price and lower demand. So what's really got people riled? That the price is so high or that people are still willing to pay it?
right now in MN, the range goes from $1.43 to $1.78
in the exact same city, only a few miles apart you can find a range of $1.43 to $1.69
a difference of 26¢ per gallon.
if price were based on collusion, then every station would be charging $1.78, and you wouldn't have a range like that. at the same time, if it were based solely on supply and demand of oil, then it would be much closer to the same price from palce to place.
there's no way that you'd have a price difference of 26¢ within a few miles of eachother. add to that the fact that much of that cost is in state taxes, and the difference per gallon on the actual gas price is pretty huge.
IMO, the #1 reason for this difference is..... hold on...... wait for it......
US!
yep, that's right. it's the consumers fault for being a bunch of morons. want to know why one station can charge 26¢ more per gallon and still stay in business? people are too damn lazy to bother finding the cheapest gas around. when you think about it, it's no wonder. say two stations had a difference of 10¢, and were on opposite sides of the street. would it be worth it to you to stop at the light, take a left, then take another left to pull into the station with the cheaper gas, rather than just go to the one ahead of you? i'm sure many of you say yes. but then think about the dollar amount you're talking about. if you have a 12 gallon tank, all that work will save you an extra $1.20, and you just added 7 minutes to the time it takes you to get home.
for a lot of people that $1.20 isn't worth the effort, so they don't care.
gas stations realized a while back that people don't care as much as they used to, and they started raising prices. the cheap stations still get the bargain hunters, but the expensive stations have more than enough patronage to survive on.
on top of that realize that most gas stations make the majoirty of their money on the huge margins they have on the items they sell in the store, and you see that gas isn't the most important factor in a gas stations business.
it just has to be cheap enough to get people to stop. they don't have to be the lowest, and they don't need to survive on gas sales.
[ 02-25-2003: Message edited by: alcimedes ]</p>
let's see what happens now that the government has said it will open up the oil and gas reserves if war happens....g
ps..i wish we had a range here...all stations i have seen are exactly the same except costco....not a penny difference at all stations from home to work (25 miles and about 15 gas stations).....g
<a href="http://www.twincitiesgasprices.com/"; target="_blank">http://www.twincitiesgasprices.com/</a>;
there should be something like that for other states as well. i know there used to be, but i couldn't find them off the top of my head.