$4.09 A GALLON
That's what I paid for mid-grade gas at a Shell station on Woodward in Royal Oak this morning. Wow, is that ever sobering. $4.09 a gallon. It reminded me of one of these charts we've all seen the last few years to make us feel lucky to have been paying 2, 2 and a half, even 3 dollars a gallon at the time.
Here's such a chart from 3 years ago.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Gasoline prices in the United States, which have recently hit record highs, are actually much lower than in many countries. Drivers in some European cities, like Amsterdam and Oslo, are paying nearly 3 times more than those in the U.S.The main factor in price disparities between countries is government policy, according to AirInc, a company that tracks the cost of living in various places around the world. Many European nations tax gasoline heavily, with taxes making up as much as 75 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline, said a spokesperson for AirInc.In a few Latin America and Middle-East nations, such as Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, oil is produced by a government-owned company and local gasoline prices are kept low as a benefit to the nation's citizens, he said. All prices updated March, 2005.
Nation Price in USD Regular/Gallon
City
Netherlands
Amsterdam $6.48
Norway
Oslo $6.27
Italy
Milan $5.96
Denmark
Copenhagen $5.93
Belgium
Brussels $5.91
Sweden
Stockholm $5.80
United Kingdom
London $5.79
Germany
Frankfurt $5.57
France
Paris $5.54
Portugal
Lisbon $5.35
Hungary
Budapest $4.94
Luxembourg $4.82
Croatia
Zagreb $4.81
Ireland
Dublin $4.78
Switzerland
Geneva $4.74
Spain
Madrid $4.55
So here we are, three years later and we're paying 4 dollars per gallon. I turned around to see the Regular grade price of $3.96. Can't imagine what premium would be. How are people making it? How much gouging and collusion is going on at the big oil companies? How is anybody surviving this in an already terrible Michigan economy? I have no answers. All I've got is a full tank of gas that cost $75.
posted by Jeff Deminski at
12:50 PM
19 Comments:
Meanwhile, down on the farm, oil companies are posting record-breaking, BILLION dollar PROFITS! Not revenue, but PROFIT meaning "amount of money they get to keep"!!! Explain to me how "supply and demand" can net such profit? Bastards. Fuck you "W"... don't let the door hit you on the way out, OIL MAN!
May 20, 2008 2:03 PM
My co-workers and I were joking yesterday that it's almost cheaper to call in sick to work holiday weeks in the summer when they jack up prices! I'm just glad that I now commute from Royal Oak to Southfield every day. One year ago I was driving from Pinckney to Southfield. I did the math and about one fourth of my monthly income alone goes to gas, but I consider myself lucky just to have a job in this state!
May 20, 2008 2:04 PM
I wonder how many oil company executives are on the boards of directors of the "Big Three".
I do know this: when my lease is up, I'm looking for gas mileage first and foremost. I'd love to buy American, of course, and help Michigan. But if that butt-ugly Toyota Prius still gets 2x the mileage of the next nearest USA made rival, the big 3 and their oil baron friends can suck it.
May 20, 2008 2:24 PM
All of this is simply showing us who's in charge.
When we are forced to buy electric cars, the cost of electricity will go through the roof. We will all be reading by candlelight because no one will be able to afford to light their house and charge their cars too.
A tax on candles will soon follow.
May 20, 2008 2:27 PM
Gasoline is 7.13pesos/liter in Mexico... (3.8liters to the gallon) (10.5peso to the dollar)
7.13x3.8/10.5 = $2.58/gallon
It's nice to live in Mexico... at least for the gas...and the beer, and the women..
May 20, 2008 3:11 PM
I don't think you can compare gas prices in the United States with other countries, unless you find what their tax rates are. Do they have income tax, property tax, and sales tax? How is the healthcare and education funded? Does any of it come from gas tax? Could that explain part of the reason we have paid less in the past?
May 20, 2008 3:31 PM
The talking heads and quasi-experts claim that it is simply the laws of supply and demand in conjunction with the high costs of research and development at work. And that is complete bullshit. During a recent quarterly reporting, Exxon reported profits of over $10 billion. That’s not gross income - it is net profit. And that’s not an annual figure, it’s quarterly. Three months. And these profits were calculated after the applicable costs of research and development had already been deducted from the income statement. In theory the oil and gas industry is regulated by the federal government, but the very presence of such obscene profits is prima facie evidence of an unregulated oligopoly. Experts will also tell you that there is no evidence of such collusion or of any other violations of the Robinson Patman or Sherman acts, which is undoubtedly true. All that means is that these highly educated, extraordinarily skilled snakes are careful not to leave any such evidence behind. And how difficult could that possibly be? They create artificial “shortages” in order to justify obscene prices in much the same way as the diamond industry, which hoards the majority of the world’s diamonds in vaults, releasing only small quantities so as to maintain stratospheric prices. The difference is that diamonds are luxury items, and no one really has to have one. But our ability to control the amount of gasoline that we consume is much more difficult to limit. Basically, we have to drive to work. The element of our government that is supposed to protect us from such corporate predatory abuse has been letting us down, and frankly I’m a little pissed off about it. I suppose in the long run it may be a good thing – if you want to hurry the development of hydrogen cars and other such alternative forms of transportation I suppose hiking the price of gas through the stratosphere is a good way to do it. Oh – and I didn’t even mention the role of the oil speculators! Ahhhhhh!!! My blood pressure… Someone go buy a book or a CD - my tank is on empty!!!
DPDave.com
May 20, 2008 4:28 PM
it's rare for me to let my tank get lower than half full. that way, instead of $70+ bucks a fill up, it's only about $35 - which is a little easier to swallow. i *know* i'm not saving any money but it's the idea that "...it only took $35 to fill up!" they've got us by the short hairs, people. what are you going to do? seriously? not buy gas? not go to work? what happened to the alaskan pipeline? what about our own oil resources? why must we be SO dependent on foreign oil? aaarrgh! i need a drink - who's with me? i'll drive :) xo, ardy
May 20, 2008 6:58 PM
the oil company's profit margin is under 10%. thats right around where it was back in the 90's when we were paying less than $2 a gallon. there are a lot of factors at work here and we should be blame bing government (past and present) for screwing us in to this position. you can point the finger at GW... but you can also point the finger at Clinton for embargoing so many of our natural resources. you can also point the finger at congress past and present for not allowing any refinery's.
May 20, 2008 9:57 PM
I know the gas prices suck & hearing about the record breaking profits feeds the fury to the oil companies.....but consider this....The oil companies have to explore for the oil, find it, drill for it, extract it, ship it to the refineries & mix all of the different blends to meet the various states' standards. For all of that, they make what, 5 to 10 cents per gallon of gas sold. I'm not trying to defend them because I do think that the supply & demand argument in this case is flawed. But for every gallon of gas sold, the state of Michigan gets 19 cents of "gas tax" (the fifth highest amount in the country) not to mention the 6% sales tax on top of it. And then we also get to pay the federal gas tax. So if the oil companies get 10 cents per gallon & have to do everything needed to produce the gas & the government gets 45 to 55 cents per gallon & does absolutely nothing to produce it & adds regulations that make it more expensive to produce, I ask you....who's REALLY gouging us???!!! And with all that money the state is raking in, just try & drive down Van Dyke between 18 & 15 mile....it's like going for a spin on the moon! The workers patch it almost every day, but it's never "fixed". The roads suck, the states' broke, the government can't afford to do with less...no politician seems to care if we have to do with less!!!! There is just a whole lot of B.S. that needs to be fixed! If we want cheaper energy, we have to be willing to do what it takes to get it. We have oil in the Gulf of Mexico, billions of barrels, but we won't get it because it would be "evil" to drill for it. Meanwhile China & Mexico are drilling for it, between you & me, who do you think is more likely to cause a major environmental disaster in the Gulf, us with all of our regulations & safety measures of one of those two nations that tend to, well, lets just say, take shortcuts when it comes to safety standards. Same thing with ANWAR, lots of oil, but we might disrupt the "pristine" beauty of Alaska. ANWAR is tens of millions of acres big, & it would require less than a 2000 acre footprint to retrieve our own resource but we won't do it. We haven't built a new refinery in the country for 30 years, so every spring when our 30 year old refineries need maintenance, some shut down & production drops & prices soar. Let's maybe build some new, state of the art refineries to not only bring capacity up but also increase safety & efficiency. Forget about nuclear power plants, The China Syndrome scared the shit out of us enough to kill that industry, eventhough it's still the cleanest way of mass power production we have. Look, I'm all for developing newer, cleaner sources of energy, but that will take time. While we do that, lets at least use what we have available to us. And a final thought... do you think that if we seriously started getting our own oil that crude prices would rise, or fall? The U.S. wallet is big, but if we spent our money on own oil, I bet the world crude price would come down.
May 21, 2008 2:48 AM
Speaking as someone who has a 100+ mile commute to and from work every day, and sometimes on the weekend, this does suck. I guess I wonder where it will top out at. I really feel bad for the people who are barely making it by, who are now trying to decide between food and gas. But it's the people that I hear bitch all the time, while holding a $5 Starbucks coffee and driving a Hummer to their cottage to go out on their boat, that really piss me off. I'm sure many of us middle-class people could forego a couple designer coffees, or dinners out, and come out even.
What blows my mind is that in the mid-70s there was a gas crisis. Don't you think the Big 3 and government would have used the last 30 years to try to come up with a better solution than mideast oil? I think they are really the people who deserve our direct anger. We saw this coming for decades, and did nothing. So now we're screwed, and everyone is scrambling to find a solution.
Shame on the car companies and government - they suck!
May 21, 2008 7:09 AM
One of the main things that bugs me when fuel cost is increased is the lame ass excuse the oil companies make. "season blend change" "storms"...etc. I would have more respect for the oil company CEO's if they were just honest about it..."We increased the price today because we could and you will still buy it."
A few weeks back I drove up north to my brothers house. The round trip cost me $109 in gas.
When I bought my semi over 5 years ago, I could buy 220 gallons of diesel for $330. 5 years later that same 220 gallons cost me over $950. A lot of small trucking companies are going under, same with a lot of independent truckers.
Wing
May 21, 2008 8:03 AM
Al Gore should be happy.
In his book he said gas should be at least $5 a gallon. And that was in the 1990's.
The developing countries are the reason for high gas. When oil is $130 a barrel when it use to be $20. The price goes up. The oil companies are not making any more money for profit per product, they are just seling more product. And to blame "W" is just retarded.
May 21, 2008 8:54 AM
Jeff,
First off, STOP BUYING MIDGRADE!!!!
You're throwing money away. Even cars that "require" premium can run just fine on regular unleaded.
You're getting stroked.
May 21, 2008 9:32 AM
"How is anybody surviving this in an already terrible Michigan economy? I have no answers. All I've got is a full tank of gas that cost $75."
And you also -- just like many other folks in MI -- don't have a job. :) My wife and I are both lucky to have decent-paying jobs, but I'd like to make a career switch (or at least a job switch), and I just simply can't figure out how to do it. Never mind the fact that it took me two years to find the job I have now and I'm fearing it'd take the same amount of time to find a new one -- I don't see how a family of four can even go a month or two without health coverage. Insurance premiums, there's something else that's skyrocketed lately. Maybe I should call Mike K...lol...
May 21, 2008 9:46 AM
Awesome, blame the auto companies - the major source of jobs in this region. Boycott their products, that way our state-wide recession can turn into a depression while the rest of the US gets their turn at the recession.
No one forced you and your neighbors to buy SUVs, Minivans, and oversized trucks. Nevermind that the Japanese have jumped into these markets as well (What's the mileage on the Tundra & Titan and their SUV siblings, I wonder?).
Some other factors to consider in the rising prices: speculators & the falling value of the dollar (this only goes so far, but a dollar buys a lot less in the international market than it did 3 years ago).
May 21, 2008 8:25 PM
I really think that the mideast hates the U.S. so much, that this is comparable to economic terrorism. I don't know many things as precious to Americans as their cars, which obviously run on gas. There was a story on the news last night that Iran has 20 tankers, filled with crude oil, just sitting in the ocean, going nowhere.
I think the gas prices, gas WARS, could bring down this country harder and faster than the 2 planes that hit the Trade Center.
Face it - we are screwed. Anyone who has a job is lucky, I count myself among those people. But I now live by the motto "if I don't need it, I don't buy it." Better start saving some money, because God only knows how high these gas prices will go.
May 22, 2008 6:34 PM
I hate when someone compares Europe's prices to ours. In Europe, a car is a luxury. There is good, cheap public transportation, payed largly by gas taxes. With our gas taxes why just pay to fatten the pockets of the government.
May 23, 2008 1:33 PM
There's a simple solution to this problem, and it starts with an N. This solution would work out for everyone, (other than those who are using the oil market as a hedge against the falling value of the USdollar), as this solution provides a cleaner and more efficient way of producing energy. If the C word makes you afraid, look into the full story of what happened in Wormwood. Conservation and housing upgrades that add value and deliver energy to your house are another way to end this dependence. Also, it's time for us to stop living the same lifestyle as the pedantic baby boomers.
May 24, 2008 6:39 AM
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home