Wednesday, June 10, 2009
News No One Could Have Predicted
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 6:27 AM
Gee, I wonder if the American idiots who started buying gas-guzzlers again when gas prices fell last October have heard the news.
Crude settled above $70 a barrel on Tuesday for the first time this year. Benchmark crude for July delivery rose $1.92 to close at $70.01 a barrel in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, hitting a new annual high of $70.18 during the afternoon.
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1
I just presumed that gas prices would rise again, it seems like they always do, especially after Memorial Day. I try to save my car for distances beyond two miles, I prefer walking.
2
Sadly, there's nothing within two miles of my house to walk to. =) I'm glad I cut my days down to 4, though - trying to get to work with gas over $1 a liter is painful and losing the extra drive helps.
3
And this is exactly why gas should be no less than $8.00 a gallon. Face it; Americans are stupid,short sighted idiots.
4
It seems pretty obvious by consumer behavior that folks in general believe low gas prices will still be the norm in the future. Old habits die hard but die they do.
6
This is related to the whole Iranian elections thing, just watch. Once they smell conflict brewin' the oil companies start to reduce production and spike up the prices.
7
Was that you I saw in the passenger seat of a gigantic black gas guzzling tank about a month or so ago in front of City People's Garden Store? I'm pretty sure it was you. I assumed Terry was driving.
9
You're a fine person to talk, Daniel. I can only imagine how much jet fuel you've burned through so far this year.
12
Oh, the sacrifices we have to make. Next you'll be moaning about how expensive the fuel for your yacht is too.
13
I know one of those people who bought an SUV right after gas prices started coming down. She said it was really cheap. Hopefully she's started to realize why she got such a good deal.
14
@fifty-two eighty
I don't have a car or a boat or a plane. Please kill your (inanely self-righteous) self so I can use the savings in your lifetime oil consumption to own one of the three for a short while and get out of my apartment...
I don't have a car or a boat or a plane. Please kill your (inanely self-righteous) self so I can use the savings in your lifetime oil consumption to own one of the three for a short while and get out of my apartment...
15
In related happy news, Sarah Palin is glad oil prices have gone up, erasing her state's deficit, but still frets that a bigger increase in oil price could leave her state with too much money to spend...
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/0610…
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/0610…
17
Gas prices shot up and supply began to expand (though the crash was not due to that but the rather obvious fact that it was a speculative bubble). Gas prices crash and supply contracts leading to gas prices increasing. We will probably go though a couple more swings, each of increasingly less magnitude, think a bungee jumper, before settling around 40-50, maybe 60 dollar a barrel oil. To much higher and you'll have a lot more exploration and development of untapped sources which will bring down prices. Too much lower and OPEC will throw a fit and it won't be profitable to produce enough supply upping prices.
18
Buying a gas guzzling SUV at the peak of last year's gas prices, when they were practically giving them away, still made economic sense for a lot of people, depending on how much they drive.
But yeah, every day that goes by with gas under $5 a gallon is a crime against humanity. If we had a clue it would be taxed to there.
But yeah, every day that goes by with gas under $5 a gallon is a crime against humanity. If we had a clue it would be taxed to there.
19
I'm convinced there's a huge combo out there of (1) the blissfully clueless, and (2) the well-to-do who don't give a fuck what the price of gasoline is.
Sad thing is - there's really nothing to do about either group. Look, for instance, at people who insist on driving Hummers. They know they are looked upon with disdain. It isn't the usual, "look what I can afford and you can't"-type of arrogance. It's more...."I need to exhibit over-the-top butch-ness and fuck what it means to anything or anyone else."
How do you begin to deal with that kind of half-wittedness?
Sad thing is - there's really nothing to do about either group. Look, for instance, at people who insist on driving Hummers. They know they are looked upon with disdain. It isn't the usual, "look what I can afford and you can't"-type of arrogance. It's more...."I need to exhibit over-the-top butch-ness and fuck what it means to anything or anyone else."
How do you begin to deal with that kind of half-wittedness?
20
You can get a $4500 credit if you trade in your car, truck, or SUV that gets less than 18 mpg for one that gets at least 4 mpg better.
Assuming the compromise of the House and Senate versions works out the way it seems to be going in the direction of.
Assuming the compromise of the House and Senate versions works out the way it seems to be going in the direction of.
22
It seems pretty obvious by consumer behavior that folks in general prefer to drive larger cars.
When cost of fuel is not an issue, almost no one buys the rubber band powered skateboards that the Ecofascists would like to compel us to drive.
Expensive fuel means that only the wealthy have free choice in what they drive.
That's why as God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.
The hungry (poor) have no choices.
When cost of fuel is not an issue, almost no one buys the rubber band powered skateboards that the Ecofascists would like to compel us to drive.
Expensive fuel means that only the wealthy have free choice in what they drive.
That's why as God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.
The hungry (poor) have no choices.
23
People are irrational. One of the ways in which they are irrational is that they overvalue their current experiences in predicting the future. The sell off of SUVs was an example of people over reacting to short term high gas prices. The surge in SUV sales in the last few months is an example of over reacting to a short term return to low gas prices. Neither reaction was really rational. But then, neither are people.
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