Come On $6 per gallon gas!

X2

It makes the Prius driver stereotype "fit".

 

what other people do affect the world around us. those that keep filling up their gas guzzlers are feeding the addiction we need to get off of. and lining the pockets of true terrorist supporters (opec members) is something i cant believe people dont care about or dont get the connection

 

ound:

 

I guess in Texas you don't worry about heating your home. There will be a lot of pain in New England with home heating oil approaching $5 a gallon. Rooting for higher oil prices is like rooting to have the economy tank

 

I work for the education field, and in my building alone there are 4 or 5 prius owners, and one civic hybrid.

 

I'm a college professor, and our university president drives a Prius.

 

It is a fine line. What if I don't want people forcing their crap on me? What if I don't want to be beholden to other countries for my energy? What if I want clean air and clean water? What if I want national security and lower health care premiums? So who's rights are more important? The Big truck driver who wants to be "happy" or the folks who would like the stuff I listed above? Where's *my* happy?

So I'm hearing, "expensive gas will be terrible!" And I'm hearing, "go ahead and let them drive gas guzzlers if they can afford it." Do people really think that one has nothing to do with the other? Doesn't matter what we wish and hope for. It is the folks in their guzzlers that are doing something to CREATE expensive gas for everybody. So can we hate them a little bit? And I'm just talking about the folks who get the big cars for various inadequacy, or "cool" reasons here. Not the folks who actually use them.

 

I may not be the original poster, but I would be happy to see $6 gas.
Our economy relies on cheap gas only because we let it. We refuse to invest in more efficient forms of motors or transportation and our short sightedness has led us to this situation.
If our society refuses to conserve or innovate unless we are being economically hurt first, bring on the pain.

 

Yay! for Zythryn . . . . you nailed it directly. It will take at least $6 per gallon to wake a lot of the wasters from their slumber. After spending 4 months in Scotland and Ireland, I saw nothing but sensible cars.

 

Amen.

 

The difference is that the money speant those ancillary items you mentioned doesn't leave the country while nearly all of the money spent on gas does.

I think the OP point was that if gas went up to $6, it might finally break even the worst offenders habits and we might get true demand destruction which is the only way the prices are going to come down in the short run.

Anyone who thinks that Oil is *ever* going to be lower than $100 / barrel again is living in another world. Current demand is 2 million barrels more than supply. For every 1% increase in demand over supply results in a 20% increase in real oil costs(after taking out the speculation).

 

I have a '95 Explorer that I haven't driven since the beginning of April. Had the wonderful baby detailed then and haven't driven it since. I love that car and it has served me well. But I can no longer afford gas at only 19 mpg. Not when my Prius is giving 50-57 mpg.
Maybe when winter hits the Northeast, I will put a new battery in it and handle bad weather with 4 wheel drive.

 

I've had my 1997 Jeep since Oct 1996. I bought it because I lived in the boonies of New Hampshire and needed the 4-wheel drive, plus I wanted to be able to haul things for my house, etc. I lived close to work so the price of gas was not an issue.

Now I live in Texas and have a longer commute, so the price of gas is a huge issue. While I love my Jeep and will probably keep it for hauling things for the house (since the trade-in value is very low), I'm looking forward to getting my Prius! I chose the Prius over the Camry Hybrid because of its greater capacity, Jeep or not.

 

actually the opposite becomes true in many cases.

take for example where company A in the USA sends raw materials mined
here to korea for processing, then china for manufacturing the actual goods.

it costs a lot of money to boat that stuff around until it finally ends up back
here for sale.

since the cost of oil has gone up so much lately, many companies are doing
the studies and realizing it is more economical to do the work here again thus
creating more jobs then one realizes.

as usual, things are more complicated then it seems! yes the trend is still to seek
out near slave labor for the most common tasks.. but steel for example is going full tilt
here in the states!

here is a link: Fuel-cost bright side: Some factory jobs return | www.azstarnet.com ®

 

I agree with all of your points. If the transition happened slowly enough, we'd probably survive this. However, if it happens to fast, the shock can result in complete economic shutdown and a depression where the environments that foster invention and production of energy alternatives also come to a halt.

Case in point. I just canceled a 6KW PV solar system that was going on my roof July 8th. It would have eliminated my PG&E bill. However, I can no longer afford it as my finances have been too severely effected by the economic downturn. So I've canceled it and will lose my deposit. I was really looking forward to reducing my carbon footprint and looking at the daily KWh production. Not only that, even if I could now afford it, my house is now worth way less than I owe on it and I'm not a subprime borrower and I didn't buy even at the peak of the market. I bought in May 2002 and watch our house go from about $550K to $1.2 million in 3 years. It's now worth $400K, about $150K less than we spent on it. and about $60K less than we owe on it.

 

You are a professional fisherman or tour operator?
You "NEED" a gas hog to tow the boat you "NEED"?

I don't deny you have a choice and it is legal to drive an over-sized toy truck. I just hate hearing people who commute in 2 tonne cars wingeing about the cost of fuel. For me the cost of fuel for my car is down by $20 per fill up and a fill lasts almost a week longer, that is 3 weeks instead of 2. It is costing about $350 a month in payments though.

My biggest complaint is we pay $37,400AU for a base model Prius which costs about $25,000AU to $27,000AU in the USA. We should pay the same price as the USA. Makes me feel a little ripped off Toyota Australia.

I should add I bought my Prius used, but I paid as much for my 3 year old Prius as you pay for a new one and it was $12,000 below new price here.

 

this is the problem with you americans.

you look down on your fellow citizens and hope bad things on each other.
your country works on gas. mine does not. this is why the euro is 150% the worth of the dollar, because of ignorant americans who are malacious to your country men.

as a EU citizen i understand that 4.50 for gasoline is atronomically cheap here in germany, it is not in america as things work differently. i feel for america, as it has helped turn my country into the scientific and industrial jugernaut it is today. (and helped erase the destruction hitler did)
i wish you wouldnt destroy each other as you do.

this is why europe prospers, while USA continues to fail. no amount of hybrids cars will change your path of economic failure.

 

amazing how folks from other countries just think we are in the crapper due
to the media during a presidential campaign. things are just fine here for the
huge majority of americans who wish to work hard and reap the results of it.

dont believe everything you read in the papers and see on TV right now!
the sleeping giant will come awake when we are flat on our backs. for some
reason it is our nature... ;-)

 

Oh christ. Just what we need, more preaching from Euro weenies. Euros never miss a chance to ignorantly lecture the US from a false position of moral authority. You're judging the entire US based on a very focused group of people, most of whom think the thread starter is a wrong?