I know: It's definitely not price gouging (insult away, BTW)

Says you! When you add up "market" increases in everything -- electricity, food, gas, water, cable/Internet, insurance -- and couple that with pay increases that don't keep up with the rising cost of living (so much for that "booming" economy), you're looking at a damn big impact on your pocketbook.
Gas prices aren't the only reason to complain, and if you think I limit my complaints to that, think again. But it's still a problem and one I am powerless to fix.

 

No, I'm arguing that they made 43.33 percent MORE pure profit this quarter this year than last.

Yes, the price per barrel is as high as ever....

But that is worked into the profit equation.

And, still, it says $1.72 per share.

 

It can be, but it doesn't have to be.

Twenty years ago, I was making $71 a day (spread over 365 days) and spent 3.2% of my income on gasoline.

Today I'm making $187 a day and am spending about 4.2% of my income on gasoline. And it would be an even smaller percentage if I decided to drive a more fuel-efficient car.

As long as your wages are going up and you have the ability to drive a fuel-efficient car, the oil situation shouldn't be anything more than just a pain in the butt.

 

$829 a year on gas back in 1986.

You walk to work?

 

Again, I say gas prices are just one part of the equation. But if we can't fix gas prices, there's little hope for fixing the other money-robbing parts of society.

 

BT, while that may be the case, you are only viewing the direct impact imposed by the rise in gas prices. You left out the increased price of milk and other groceries. You have left off the increase in the price of airline flights.

So, sure, your dollar per day increased 100% while your direct fuel consumption went up 1%. What about the other expenses.

Additionally, you are looking at this over a 20-year timespan. Not everyone has been working over that period of time. If you look at the last five years, you will see that individuals that entered the workforce have not had that 100:1 ratio you have over the extended period.

 

It's like an economic boa constrictor.

 

Gasoline dropped below $1 a gallon in South Florida in 1986. Probably averaged a little over $1 over the course of the year.

Heck, it was only $1.59 a gallon 15 years later. That's what it was on 9/11. For some reason I'll always remember that.

You're right. Like most things, it's relative.

But that doesn't necessarily mean things are out of whack now. Just out of whack COMPARED to 5 years ago when gas was historically (adjusted for inflation) very very cheap.

Look at interest rates. People are chewing their nails now at mortgage rates that are nearing 7%.

7% is CHEAP AS HELL when compared with the period 1974-2006.

It just doesn't seem cheap when compared with the period 2003-2006.

 

And it ain't cheap when you are under an adjustable-rate mortgage in a massively contracting housing market.

There are gonna be suicides in SoFla within a year or two... in somewhat noticeable numbers, I think.

 

Gas averaged $0.93 per gallon in 1986 nationally; $829 would buy approximately 891 gallons of gas. In a car getting 20 miles per gallon that much gas would get you nearly 17,000 miles.

 

It was 93 cents a gallon 20 yeasrs ago.

Fucking dust me off, someone. Anyone.

 

The economy is all relative, based on 20-year time spans? Oh thank God. That means I can shortchange my mortgage payment and tell them it's because of percentage changes over the last 20 years.

I know things change over time, but what things were like 5 years ago makes little impact on me now. Five years ago I was just getting married for the second time, had just starting paying on a new car, I had no son and no mortgage, and I still worked in newspapers.

And right now, gas prices are too f-ing high. Debate all that other crap if you want, but the prices are still too high.

And where the hell is my $10 I asked for several pages ago?