Who all is feeling the crunch?

[mcp633]

$2.91 in St. L. over the weekend. Good sign its going to come down some soon.

[Don]

Ahh yes, every cloud has a silver lining. Mortgage rates are still low. I financed my last full tank of gas for 5.8% for 30 years fixed rate.

Don

[Terry Beeson]

You didn't read the fine print, did you Don?

[gonefishin]

I was reading a statement made by a big oil exec. He allowed as to how gasoline is a good value because it currently takes 105 minutes for the average worker to buy enough gas to drive 100 miles. He said people just had it easy during the 1990s when it only took 52 minutes work to buy enough gas to drive 100 miles. He backed this statement up by saying in 1950 it took the average worker 105 minutes to earn enough money to drive 100 miles which is the same as it costs today.

I find some really large holes in his argument. The spending power of a dollar isn't as great today as it was in 1950; he didn't adjust for inflation. Most modern cars get more than double the gas mileage than cars of that vintage; so he didn't adjust for technology advances. Finally driving in that era was more of a luxury. Back then most people didn't depend on stores for their food. They were still home canning so if they couldn't go to the store more than once every month or two it didn't matter; in short they didn't depend on gasoline as we do today. I am not the only person that believes most Americans depend on gasoline. Here is a quote from an interview done by Money:

"Most everyone has to use gas, and taxing it would hit the poor the hardest." - Denny Ellerman, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.

What do you think?

[Don]

GF,

I hate to admit it but about ten years ago, we indexed gas prices in accordance with inflation rates from the 1970's to date. At that time, gas prices had not kept up with inflation and were extremely reasonable from that perspective. That oil exec has a leg to stand on. However, do you think it's just a mere justification of price manipulation? Wait until corporate reports start indicating profits are lower than expected because of rising energy costs. Then one group of money people will be against another group of money people and changes will me made. I seem to think stock market drops were followed by gas price reductions not too long ago.

Don

[Flysmallie]

Otherwise known as cow pharts...

Hey Mr Ducky! Ronnie! Hear that? We can eat chili dogs, run the A/C and TV, and MAKE MONEY!!! Heck... I could produce enough to LIGHT UP ST LOUIS!!!

When do we start?

[bubbaray]

$2.91 in St. L. over the weekend. Good sign its going to come down some soon.

Hell it was $2.93 in Cuba Mo last week and Friday it went up to $3.19. It will probably come down some after Monday. Put gas in the boat and the burb for this weekend I filled the burb first and stopped the pump on the boat when it hit $200. I'll be doing lots of trolling this weekend. This will be my only trip this year unless something breaks.

[SilverMallard]

Branson's tourist market is kind of unique in that folks from the midsection of the country sometimes decide to go to Branson when other options get too expensive. The Branson regulars will no doubt spend less IN Branson and more getting there and back than usual. But a bunch of folks MAY choose Branson who otherwise would have gone somewhere further/more expensive. It is usually in times like THIS...when travel costs REALLY start cutting into people's budgets...that Branson generally picks up the "we could go to Branson istead" crowd. When that happens, they usually see an increase in business overall due to the greater # of visitors.

[gonefishin]

GF,

I hate to admit it but about ten years ago, we indexed gas prices in accordance with inflation rates from the 1970's to date. At that time, gas prices had not kept up with inflation and were extremely reasonable from that perspective. That oil exec has a leg to stand on. However, do you think it's just a mere justification of price manipulation? Wait until corporate reports start indicating profits are lower than expected because of rising energy costs. Then one group of money people will be against another group of money people and changes will me made. I seem to think stock market drops were followed by gas price reductions not too long ago.

Don

Don:

I will admit that when it was under $1.00 gas was a good buy. And as an estimate I would think that adjusted for inflation it should probably be around $1.50 $1.75 There also has to be some adjustment for fuel efficiency. A lot of cars get mileage in the mid 25 to 30 mpg range today. In 1950 I don't know of any cars that averaged more than half of that. I had a 49 dodge that averaged around 10 and a 55 dodge that averaged about 10 and a 58 chevy that averaged about 10 a 65 and 68 dodge that averaged about 12, I had a 73 chevy pickup that averaged 8 MPG and a 72 ford that averaged 10 and in 76 another ford that averaged 12 and in 85 a dodge that averaged 14 then in 89 I bought a fuel inject ford 3/4 ton that averaged 18 and my current pickup averages 25. The point is if every time efficiency is improved gas prices going to raise to offset the improvement, what is the sense in driving cars that get better mileage. We should just stick with the hummers.

Also the refiners have improved technology that makes it cheaper for them to produce gasoline. Why shouldn't some of this savings be passed on to consumers.

Finally in the late 70s gasoline was way out of line in pricing. Using those prices to justify todays prices is a scam.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Fuel economy was the answer then and is the answer now.

To some degree, but the bottom line will be when there is more crude than demand, and that can come from many avenues.

I still contend that a concentrated effort in using less foreign crude will not only cut the cost, but do wonders for our overall security. Our security is in serious jeopardy over the locations of our petroleum sources.