Was hearing some more things on the news this morning. They were saying that some experts are saying gas will be up to $5 / gallon here by next summer.

I could see if happening. They already pay what, 8 or 9 dollars a gallon in Europe. If that happened it would be some difficult situations. Like my truck for example, theres no way I could afford to drive it and I wouldnt be able to sell it for anything.

Kind of a worrysome thought.

[Edited on August 18, 2005 at 6:31 PM. Reason : ...]

8/18/2005 6:30:54 PM

employment places would have to increase wages/salary... that's ridiculous...

8/18/2005 6:34:45 PM

maybe you should sell your truck while you still can. or stop believing everything you hear on the news.

8/18/2005 6:37:42 PM

inflation or stagflation.

8/18/2005 6:45:02 PM

Im not saying that I necessarily believe it will happen. Just curious to see if anyone else has considered what if it does.

I wouldnt be completely suprised if gas prices went up at least another $1 / gallon over the next year.

8/18/2005 6:49:33 PM

they only pay 5.45-6,45 at most in europe.

8/19/2005 7:54:08 AM

i was talking to a friend of mine who has a ford f150 crew cab fully loaded as her daily driver and she said she pays $700/month on gas already. her car payment + gas + insurance is over $1500/month i can't imagine what would happen if gas prices went up to $5/gallon. but hell i paied $2.79/gal yesterday

8/19/2005 8:13:30 AM

jared if that is true than even saying 3 dollars a gallon would mean she is driving 2333 miles a month or more. $700 bucks a month seems like a bit of a high estimate to me when most drive approx 12000 a year.

8/19/2005 8:30:18 AM

hmmm...maybe you are right but at the time, i was a bit drunk, and thinking that i spend about $250/month on gas in my M3 i didn't think it was too unrealistic. either she was lying or she drives a shit ton of miles or she gets really really crappy gas mileage.

8/19/2005 9:18:16 AM

i am driving over 3k per month right now and my tahoe gets shit mileage. i budget 500 per month on fuel right now and am going over. my average has been 14.8 for the last 8k miles.

8/19/2005 9:23:42 AM

yeah, that can't be right...
$700 will buy 250 gallons of gas at $2.79
at 5MPG that's 1250 miles
at 10MPG, that's 2500 miles
at 15MPG that's 2750 miles

i would think she's somewhere between 10 and 15, if not more.
plus she's probably bought more gallons than that given that prices were lower earlier, giving her more gas for her money early on.

8/19/2005 9:40:21 AM

It doesn't matter. People will buy gas ALWAYS, even before clothing and food as they HAVE to get to their jobs and next to all leisure actvities require some traveling away from one's home.

People will cut back on excess clothing, excess housing utilities, and even luxury food outtings before they cut out gas.

If gas hit $10/gallon TOMORROW, people would STILL buy gas. That is why this situation is, and will continue to be, out of control.

8/19/2005 10:33:40 AM

Quote :

"stop believing everything you hear on the news."

No way thats gonna happen. Gas is so expensive over in Europe b/c of taxes. So unless they hike up the taxes over here, our gas will never be as expensive as theirs.

8/19/2005 10:57:16 AM

I think our government wouldn't let that happen. If it does happen, then we'll bring someone in who has a plan

8/19/2005 11:24:02 AM

Quote :

"People will buy gas ALWAYS, even before clothing and food as they HAVE to get to their jobs and next to all leisure actvities require some traveling away from one's home. "

yeah, because its not like people have to eat or anything. getting to your job is much more important then eating in the grand scheme of things.

8/19/2005 11:31:15 AM

^ Absolutely it is. You can eat rice and water and live. You gotta have 87 octane to get money.

People would resort to eating LESS EXPENSIVE foods instead of not buying gas.

8/19/2005 2:11:44 PM

thank goodness we've let developers and city planners convince us it isn't that big a deal to live 10-15 miles from our place of employment, minimum

who needs a metro/urban hub city when we can commute commute commute!

8/19/2005 2:15:50 PM

you said "People will buy gas ALWAYS, even before clothing and food "

and i dont agree that you have to have gas to make money. there are plenty of alternatives to driving your car to work. if you chose to live in a place the requires you to drive to work, then thats you own damn fault. some people made an effort to not have to deal with that.

8/19/2005 2:18:08 PM

buses are for poor people

8/19/2005 2:24:45 PM

mass transit here i come

8/19/2005 2:37:14 PM

gas prices will fall
i'm calling it

even canadian refineries can be profitable at $30/barrel

8/19/2005 2:38:03 PM

senate hearings on the prices, they shall fall for a while

8/19/2005 4:22:49 PM

Quote :

"and i dont agree that you have to have gas to make money. there are plenty of alternatives to driving your car to work. if you chose to live in a place the requires you to drive to work, then thats you own damn fault. some people made an effort to not have to deal with that. "

let's think realistic

8/20/2005 12:38:49 AM

there are way too many industries and trades effected by the high gas prices for it to raise much further. Police have already had to limit their patrols, several delivery services have had to cut back as well, and it's not long before airlines, mass transit, and other gas-guzzling industries are feeling the effects.


i predict within 2 or 3 years we'll be back down to 1.50

in 10-15 years gas will be even cheaper

look at the process of history, in the late 70s during the crisis, gas was unbelievably high. it came back down again to when in 97, when i got my license, it was .79 per gallon.

it may not be that low, but it'll go back down.

8/20/2005 1:33:49 AM

Quote :

"thank goodness we've let developers and city planners convince us it isn't that big a deal to live 10-15 miles from our place of employment, minimum who needs a metro/urban hub city when we can commute commute commute!"

Yep.

I live about 1.5 miles from my workplace. I would walk if I didn't have to go to Centennial on short notice so damn often, and sometimes bring computers over/back with me. And yet, I still feel like I'm spending way too much on gas. I'd hate to be someone who lives 25 miles away from their job right now.

8/20/2005 8:37:04 AM

they are already thinking about tapping into the reserves, which would drive the price down. im sure if gas prices rise too sharply to say $4 by end of the year, thats what government will do.

8/20/2005 8:56:44 AM

Generally I budget about $300 / month in gas, driving about 1400 miles/ month. I cant imagine having to budget a whole lot more than that each month with all the other regular bills.

I cant imagine how someone could spend $700 for example. Someone must make a hell of alot more money than I do to afford that and I make a pretty decent living.

8/20/2005 9:22:53 AM

Quote :

""People will buy gas ALWAYS, even before clothing and food as they HAVE to get to their jobs and next to all leisure actvities require some traveling away from one's home."

Boosted by the lack of public transportation in USA .... (Rural USA .... = Raleigh)

8/20/2005 9:27:48 AM

Quote :

"they are already thinking about tapping into the reserves, which would drive the price down. im sure if gas prices rise too sharply to say $4 by end of the year, thats what government will do. "

They don't even have to do that. This whole gas price hike is due to speculation. Fucking Saudi Gov't puts out a terror warning, and everyone and their mother is buying barrels of oil. Its fucking ridiculous. All the government has to do is even THREATEN to release the reserves, and the price of oil will go down. However, I doubt they'll do even that because of the war. Those reserves are there in case of catastrophic events, such as chinese invasion

8/20/2005 10:04:27 AM