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Post by Lee O'Neill on Jun 9, 2007 23:04:24 GMT -5
Come here to discuss things happening in our society today.
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Post by May O'Neill on Jun 9, 2007 23:06:25 GMT -5
I believe the US government is really the cause of the climb in gas prices. Don't ask me why. It's like backing up a religion; hard.
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Post by Nessa Elendil on Jun 9, 2007 23:13:20 GMT -5
Since we live in a capitalism, it's really only the consumers' faults. The gas companies will charge what costumers are willing to pay.
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Post by Black Raven on Jun 10, 2007 0:17:10 GMT -5
There's also holiday inflation, that makes it even higher than normal. Right now it's 3.40 here, give or take a few cents, and it was 3.50 over Memorial Day weekend. They make it higher, because they know that people most probably aren't going to change their travel plans just because of a little increase in gas prices, and it's usually the people who have more money that go on vacations that are farther away from home. People don't seem to care about us that can't afford gas prices as they are.
There should be a law stating that gas pump prices can not go over a certain amount. At this rate, we (my family) are having to give up a lot of essential stuff just so we're able to pay for gas. And we don't even have the worst of it, there are several families in my area that are barely being able to afford food, all just because they need gas in order to get to their jobs or into town, or some other such things.
(shouldn't this be in the Civilian section? Since it doesn't have anything to do with Stargate?)
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Post by Nessa Elendil on Jun 10, 2007 0:20:50 GMT -5
What we should be doing is conserving gas by riding bikes or walking. That would solve a lot problems, including gas rates.
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Post by Black Raven on Jun 10, 2007 0:27:47 GMT -5
Not necissarily. If less people start driving, that would just give the gas companies incentive to boost prices even higher, in order to make up for their losses. There is also the problem of people who live too far outside of town or who live in areas where it is too dangerous to walk or ride a bike for what ever reason. If they would come out with more ethenol or electric cars that didn't cost a fortune to buy, then that would most definitely solve the problem, but they have them priced so high, that no one but the rich can buy them.
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Post by Nessa Elendil on Jun 10, 2007 0:36:32 GMT -5
I know what you're saying about the electric cars, but if less people did start driving, the gas companies would have to lower prices to get people to start driving again. If they raised their prices, even less people would continue driving, resulting in greater overall losses for the gas companies.
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Post by Black Raven on Jun 10, 2007 1:07:21 GMT -5
Ah, yes, *shakes head* true about the prices. Of course, the heads of the gas companies might just be stupid enough to try raising prices if more people stopped driving before they lower them. One can always hope. But it's almost a garuntee that once they lowered the prices and got people driving again, that eventually they would try raising them again. Maybe not as high, but they would still try and raise them.
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Post by Nessa Elendil on Jun 10, 2007 1:08:28 GMT -5
Yes, but by that time there probably won't be much gasoline left anyways.
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Post by Black Raven on Jun 10, 2007 1:20:26 GMT -5
Most likely. But there's supply and demand to think about. The less gas there is, the less they will be able to accomidate everyone who wants to drive. Because there would be limited gas supplies, the companies would be well within their rights to hike the prices.
It's kind of like if there were suddenly not enough... apples. Millions of people eat apples, so there would be a high demand for them, but if there is only... 100 apples left in the USA, then the farmers and/or stores could hike the prices, yet people would still pay a lot for them because so many people are competing for them.
In the case of gas, while not THAT many people would want or need gas, there would still be a good enough amount for that example to apply.
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Post by Nessa Elendil on Jun 10, 2007 1:30:04 GMT -5
Yes, and that's actually why the prices are so high now, but if the demand is lowered, the most likely result will be the prices lowering to, and then rising again, but that's capitalism.
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Post by Black Raven on Jun 10, 2007 1:38:49 GMT -5
*nods* Sounds most likely.
It almost sounds like it would be cheaper to buy a horse.
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Post by Nessa Elendil on Jun 10, 2007 1:40:30 GMT -5
Haha, though not to redo the garage to be sutible for a horse.
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Post by Black Raven on Jun 10, 2007 1:46:25 GMT -5
lol, partially true. It just depends on whether you do it yourself or hire someone to. It would only take a couple hundred to redo a corner of our garage.... *plotting look*
lol, that aside, what other issues are there to discuss?
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Post by Nessa Elendil on Jun 10, 2007 1:47:30 GMT -5
The Darfur Crisis?
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