Poll: How Much Is Too Much for Gasoline?

[NVMojo]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Many motorists these days are complaining about the cost of gasoline, but what people consider a fair price varies greatly, depending on where they live.

Americans angrily grit their teeth as they pump $3-per-gallon gas. They think $2 is about right. In Britain, $3 sounds fanciful - people there pay about $6.40 a gallon and think $5 would be fair.

AP-Ipsos polling in the United States and eight of its allies turned up wide disparities in people's thoughts on the cost of filling up.

Spaniards would like to see gasoline for just over $3 a gallon. People in France, Italy, Germany and South Korea put the fair market price $4 or a little more. Australians and Canadians would like to see it just under $3 a gallon.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2005/oct/17/101708192.html

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. If the US were as small as Britian, $3.00 would be a bargain.

But, it's not. I say $1.50, or invest in a phenomenal public transportation system.

[liberal N proud]

13. I agree!

They keep comparing to cost in Europe, but Europeans don't have the distances to travel as Americans.
We all work much farther from home, Shopping is not in the village and families are spread across the continent.

[NickB79]

19. That is our own fault we have to travel so far

You can't blame the size of our country when we were the ones who decided to spread out in an unsustainable fashion. We could have had a community model like much of Europe's, but many Americans decided they wanted to move to the suburbs and commute 50 miles a day to work while driving gas-guzzling cars. No one forced all those people to move from the cities, or to buy SUV's when there were more fuel-efficient models available.

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. Who is "WE" Kimo Sabi?

I watched my own city trash sensible city planning decisions and yield to property righters who wanted to build anything they damn well pleased, wherever they damn well pleased. Anybody who stood up to them faced lawsuits which ended up with gag orders.

You want to blame someone for the sprawl? Blame the property right proponents.

[NickB79]

27. Sorry, I should have edited the title better

I didn't imply anyone here in particular, as most DU'ers I know are more socially and environmentally aware than the average citizen. I meant that we as a society have made some very messed-up choices in the past that are coming back to bite us, despite the efforts of many people who saw the dangers coming.

I know how you feel. I live in an apartment instead of a house, I drive a compact car, I've tried my damnest to stop suburban sprawl. My dad just sold 15 acres of our farm to developers who are going to build 3 houses on it, despite my attempts to talk him out of it. It pisses me off to no end to see the family farm that my relatives have lived on since the turn of the century nibbled on until it's gone.

[Maeve]

26. Proverb I heard--Over there, they think 200 miles is a long distance

While over here, we think 200 years is a long time!

[benburch]

2. The real question;

How much blood per gallon is acceptable?

[NVMojo]

4. Thanks, benburch, that's the truth of it all ...

[VegasWolf]

6. Perfect Reply!!!

:toast:

[Catfight]

3. $1.35 is about right but alternative fuel is a great idea with new

modifications for better gas mileage. We know it can be done, but oil companies refuse to conserve because of greed. We could have a clean air initiative along with conservation and live like responsible human beings that care about this planet.

[texastoast]

5. I say it is relative to minimum wage

When I was a kid (in what is often referred to as the "good old days"), gas was about $.25 per gallon. Minimum wage was $1.25, so gas would be fairly priced today at about $1.03.

[Deep13]

7. How much until people stop buying it?

There is no "too much" in a free market economy. (Of course that is not exactly what we have, what with corporate subsidies, civil immunity, tax breaks etc.)

[LosinIt]

12. What Planet do you live on?

Perhaps you live somewhere that offers public transit. For those of us that don't, purchasing gasoline is not an option or a luxury. I never get over how some people can't see that in order to carry on our lives, get to work, to a store of any kind, many people must drive. While my car gets about 38mpg, these high gas prices are killing me.

[RebelOne]

14. I have no bus service in my area.

In order to take a bus to work, I would have to drive 5 miles to the nearest bus stop. And that doesn't make sense, since my office is only a 13-mile trip from my house.

[Deep13]

16. When I lived in a Cleveland burb,...

...I was in the exact same position. Twenty minute drive to the train station, ten minute wait there, then a 30 minute ride downtown, then a fifteen minute walk to the office. If I drove, and I did, it was twenty minutes from start to finish. The mass transit sucked because no one really wanted to use it. Consequently, the politicians did not support it. Besides, while the traffic was bad, it was not Boston bad. That demand might change is it really got to be too expensive to drive.

[Deep13]

15. I fully understand.

At some point transportation will become so expensive that people will leave the 'burbs and move closer to the city. At some point, people will not be able to buy it regardless of the need. Before we get to that point, people will begin to use it only for work and forego other motorized trips.

[superconnected]

23. It's a supply and demand thing

it only becomes as expensive as people are willing to pay.

a nice site.
http://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/systems/energy_capture/capture.html


The only people the oil shortage benefits is the oil companies. If it were really in short supply it would be a whole lot more then $3 per gallon.


There were rumors in the 70's that the world would run out of Gold...

[No Exit]

8. Fair??? Why should we be asked to be "fair" when the oil companies

have been raping us for years?

Nationalize the oil industry. And seize the assets of the company owners and put those assets in the Treasury for US. It's only fair--they steal from us, so they should pay restitution.

[Fovea]

10. another voice of sanity.

Let me say it louder...

NATIONALIZE THE FREAKIN OIL COMPANIES!!!!!

[McKenzie]

9. diesel is currently around £0.96 per litre in the UK

I think you guys have a slightly different gallon to ours; our measure works out at around $8 per UK gallon. Anyway, do the arithmetic and you'll get the current UK price compared to the US price.

[kostya]

20. Yes, you have the Imperial Gallon, bit larger than U.S. gallon

The $6.40/US gallon in the root post is about right (I came up with $6.39 rounded). - K

[McKenzie]

25. thnx 4 the info' - helpful n/t

[Gregorian]

11. If global warming isn't too much, then nothing is.

It's not about cost. It's about change. We need to stop burning things.

[pokercat999]

17. Burn repugs, not gas.....love it.

[Deep13]

18. Bingo. What is the price of preserving our only Earth?

That is, if it is not too late already.

[kostya]

21. OT: ? for non-U.S. readers - Do European and Asian, etc.

gas stations do the same nonsense we do here where the post the gas prices 1/10th of a cent less so as to make the price look "cheaper"? IE. $2.70/gal is actually posted $2.69 9/10ths? - K

[McKenzie]

24. that's pretty much the situation over here

the stuff sells by the litre and there are marginal differences from one filling station to the next; say 0.5 pence. Some of the supermarkets now sell fuel and they can sell it at around 2-3 pence per litre cheaper. Why that is I don't know so it might, or it might not, be indicative of overcharging by non-supermarket suppliers.

On a slightly tangential note Esso (haaawk, spit) run a fucking stupid ad campaign with a picture of a tiger's face on billboards etc called "Pricewatch". Esso claim to monitor rivals' prices daily to keep their prices lower but that's a bunch of horseshit.

<edit>grammar

[Angry Girl]

28. I once read that $150 a barrel would be the upper end of tolerance

Which would equate to around $9 a gallon....

[jwirr]

29. I suppose it depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

If you are trying to get to work it is too high. If you are trying to show people that we need to limit our dependence on fossil fuels that must be imported then it is too low. Many of us have already reached the point where we are not making enough wages to pay for $3.00 gas. Yet as someone who is interested in influencing change to alternative energy I recognize that the costlier the fuel the more likely this nation will begin to look to other sources.