$6 Gas; what's your guess?
 

This thread is mostly for Americans (which includes, of course, Canadians and Mexicans) - Europeans will think gas/petrol at $6/gallon is cheap. I don't know about Australians.

How would $6/gallon affect you? Would it be a minor irritant, would it change your habits? Would you buy a bicycle, or trade your monster truck for a Chevy Volt?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42683030?__source=otbrn|outbrainext20110422151708|&par=otbrn

I think that gas over $4/gallon would reduce demand, and decrease the chance of getting to $6. High unemployment, combined with demand reduction due to more fuel efficient and electric vehicles, I predict the US average gas price will top out at no more than $5.25 per gallon in 2011 (with higher prices in California and Alaska). As we get farther above $5/gallon, more people will lose their jobs, further decreasing demand.

What's your guess?

I'd say you're in the ballpark there. Natural gas is going to get some play as well when things cross the $4 barrier.

I'm already driving smaller, but it is a choice not a necessity at this point. My commute would be wicked dangerous by bike so it won't play out that way. Maybe I'll stay home and write that novel.

This is an isolated and extreme case, and not an example of the general trend, but
Orlando gas station charges $5.69 a gallon

http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/22/news...dex.htm?hpt=T2

This is just one company taking advantage of out-of-town customers.

I would be very angry if I went to that gas station.

It will be harder for people to make it around here. Most of the decent paying jobs are in Denver. If we are paying 50 a day for the commute, it will cut income back quite a bit. Unemployed people will limit their searching to the nearby area and stay unemployed longer.

I'd be pretty screwed, my job is about 30miles away. I might demand to be allowed to work from home (it is possible, just not ideal). I have no useful public transport nearby or I would have been using it a long time ago.

I'm currently paying $1.35 to $1.49 ... per litre!

Multiplying by 4.5 produces $6 to $6.70 per gallon.

I live about 8km (5 miles) from work, which takes about a litre of fuel, allowing for traffic and such. Hence my commute costs about 1.40 each way in fuel, plus about 50 cents per day for the annual parking permit. Allowing for general expenses, it is probably about $5 per day for commuting.

Doing the same trip by bus would cost between six and seven dollars (per day), and take longer and be less convenient.

However, I would eventually like to move to a place that (a) I own and (b) is a bit more in the hills/countryside. I am limited in my choices because I want to keep my commuting distance down.

Even at this $6/gallon, Australians still drive. We just complain more. We drive because we have to.

$6 gas won't affect me a whole lot, unless it causes other prices to rise--like groceries. Cab fares will undoubtedly go up, but I rarely take those anymore.

We have smaller gallons in the US - they only hold about 3.8 liters. $1.5 per liter = ~$5.70/US gallon. Still a lot.

Thanks.

I just remembered, though, that those prices are for the 91 octane fuel (which is what they put on the big sign board because it is the cheapest). My Subaru wants 95 octane, which is about 10 cents per litre more. Which is 38 cents per US gallon, which gets us back to about $6.

Our gas is hovering right about $3.67, give or take. As in the last spike the independent business person will take it in the shorts first. We saw many a small trucking company close their doors and lay people off as the gas prices approached $4, many places are way above that now.

In the end, I imagine that like in Zen's case, we will just complain more and keep driving.

That's what people do here too.

But it's rare to live as far away from work as people do in America or Australia. 30 miles is a long distance commute - most people would move closer to their work than endure that daily.

Someone better at maths than me can work out what this is in $/ gallon :)

I commute 90 miles a day. There are no options for public transportation or even car-pooling. Even getting decent mileage it hurts the bottom line. And my bottom.

But what to do? We're at the mercy of whoever is getting fat off this and I join the ranks of 'complain and keep driving.' :(

Or you could just move. 90 miles a day is insanity. I know- I used to do that myself years ago. And then I realized that by moving closer in to the city, sure, housing costs are higher, but with the many $hundreds of dollars per month saved on gas and car maintenance, it's a wash. And now I have a few more free hours in my day, instead of throwing that time away sitting in the car. My commute now is 2 miles. I go home for lunch every day, and on nice days, I walk to work. I will never ever go back to long-distance commuting. The hassle, expense, and hours of my life lost just aren't worth it IMO.

I've certainly considered moving, but that's an expense I can't really take on right now either.

Some changes are going on at my old job. I talked to my sis-in-law and her best friend yesterday, both fairly biggy-wiggy at the place, and mentioned I'd come back if certain changes occurred.

I was about 5 minutes from work back then. The pay raise was indeed worth it, when I left, even considering gas and wear and tear on the car. Now, it's not only way more expensive, it's soul-sucking.

It's been raining for weeks. Nothing but accidents on my commute, every day.

I am tired of the commute. Tired of the traffic. Tired of the city.

p.s. I exaggerated on my commute, it's more like 60 miles a day (was thinking minutes as miles, which would be true except for a large portion of the drive all traffic is going about about 20-30 miles per hour, then stopping, then starting...more wear and tear than a straight shot unencumbered by thousands of people and interminable construction.) Of course, I do drive other places too. ;)

Have you considered getting a donkey?

I'd like a donkey.

And I think I'd look good riding one.

You're an ass. n'yuk n'yuk.

HA! I can see me on a donkey (dunkey) on the interstate. They'd think I was as nutso as the woman they just found pushing an empty wheelchair down the interstate.

If I sat on the dunkey in robes and looked serene, they might think I'm the virgin mary.

Would I need a license plate? Insurance?

I should get vanity plates for an ass, I would think.

yeah, was that weird or what? Then the naked, disoriented woman they found wandering around in Xenia...she told them she'd left her two week old son in the car...somewhere...she couldn't remember where...ACK! Do you think she was roofied?

AND, she said it was some kind of red car...and it was totally blue.

I don't know what she was on, but that is unbelievable!

Does one typically get naked first, then disoriented, or is it the other way around?

IM--

I used to commute about 80 miles... each way. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...e=UTF8&t=h&z=9

Insanity is an understatement. When I moved to Seattle, I vowed that whichever I found first, a job or a place to live, I was going to put a pin in the map at that location, and draw a little circle around it and confine my search for the other endpoint to locations within that circle. My greatest radius (now, sadly, recently ended) was 17 miles, each way. And that felt LONG compared to the two previous commutes of under ten miles.

It's worth it to move one of those endpoints. Obviously it costs more to drive more. But it's not just more gas. It's greater wear on your car. It's more time spent at risk on the road. Most of all, it's more time spent fucking driving that you can't spend doing *anything* else, audiobooks notwithstanding. I would routinely spend two to three hours each way, each day. I'll never get those hours back. I have NEVER regretted changing that habit. My life improved when I stopped spending so much of it behind the wheel behind some idiot.

I am familiar with the conundrum you describe. I lived where I could afford the rent, and I worked where I got paid what I needed to live. This really was the case. But those parameters are changeable, albeit with difficulty. But for me it was totally worth it. I wish you the best of luck. Keep in mind the value of your limited hours; spend them wisely.

I have on occasion gotten disoriented, usually clothed. But when I get naked I'm almost always focused.

Thanks BigV.

I'm really having a hard time with this. As things get more and more wacky at my job I think..what am I doing this for? It doesn't make me happy, but I don't know what would. I've done it all, what do I expect to find?

I'm very tired of all of it, and I have to figure out what to do about it. Already, in the back of my head, I see my family thinking I'm a failure. Somedays I just want to give up: it's just that now that feeling seems to coincide with the fact that it's hard to afford to even go to work now, all things considered.

Gas was 3.96 this morning. :(

Do you rent or own your abode?
If you rent, when is your lease up?

My lease is up whenever I want it to be, theoretically, but there's a lot more to it than that.

Also, there is nothing I want to do less than to live in or near this armpit of a city. For a while I looked into loft apartments, imagined me as a city mouse (huh, weird, that's from a title of a story I wrote when I was a kid "the city mouse who wanted to be a house mouse") but really...I hate this dirty and poor and crime-ridden hell hole.

When I talk about this, I don't 'cry' per se...but tears just fall out of my face. I am really truly miserable.

i found this quite interesting. from the houston chronicle...

then:

That's why rent is so reasonable.

Kettering is ok. I mean, let's face it, it is Ohio, so just how good can it be? ;)

I feel your pain, though. The weather, the boredom, the boring weather...it suxxor here. If I had money I wouldn't buy a mansion here in Ohio, I'd buy a little cottage in Cape Cod.

the letter from the above story:

I wonder. We're just the medium people. We're not the big people or the small people. We should suck it up (siphon?) We are supposed to carry the weight. Well, my ass hurts.


I'll believe it to be addressed when I see it, because we. don't. matter.

IM i know what you're feeling. only kinda in reverse. i live in a nice neighborhood in a nice condo BUT i commute 45 to god knows how long to work where gunshots in the neighborhood behind the track don't even phase me anymore. i used to duck, now i turn and look to see who got shot! sad reality but true. maybe if we could get S123 back from sarah's estate we could put her to work protecting us and whoopin' da hood back inta shape yo!

My neighborhood is fine. I hate the town, of course, would rather live in the country. It's this CITY where you might as well ask to be shot or raped or mugged, or killed in a car accident, just trying to get to work to make a buck.

As I said, I'm still working on and waiting for some changes at my old job. Or, maybe things will get better here (since I am privy to a piece of information that NO ONE ELSE in the office knows about, except for the person who is applying elsewhere...enough said.)

It's just been a rough time. It will get better. I'm world weary, and I'm world weary in a mostly solo fashion, and I'm too old for this shit. :o

but that's what makes it exciting!

I kid, I kid.

:comfort: It'll be okay, Infi. When you get off work, go have yourself a nice drink or two. Or four.

;)

I might. Thanks, you guys for caring about Whiny Infy. Means a lot to me, more than you could know. :blush:

MUAH! and lossa hugz!

remember: no matter how bad it gets, it could be worse. i said that everyday for 33 months. hell still do today when i feel down.

:)

IM - keep repeating you yourself, "I do not live with my parents, I do not live with my parents."

I know other people's misfortune is no real mood improver, but pretend it is for a while.
And if yo9u keep repeating it you might go made and get nekkid and all that. Then you'll get your three hots and a cot inside a secure facility and won't have to worry any more. They'll even give you a nice comfy jacket.

Sorry things are grim again honey.
My thoughts are with you.
They're not like The Force or anything, but sometimes at night you can snuggle with them without guilt.

I have been trying to employ some cognitive therapy: I have a roof over my head, I have a healthy family unit (well, am part of one haven't produced one) and I am loved. I KNOW it could be worse. Just a rut I guess. It seemed it took 7 years for the other job rut to get to this point. Maybe I'm just trippin'

Thanks hon. :)

I'll snuggle with your thoughts anytime. ;)

Sorry to hear of your work rut infi. We can be work rut buddies?

Well we are up to $3.75 now. Still creeping up. I don't know about a national average of $6 but I bet we see something just under $5 by the time it's all done.

I was adding up my annual gas usage while driving home yesterday. Based on the previous 8 years, I use about 220 gallons of gasoline per year. So for me, a $3/gallon increase in the cost of gas is only about $12/week, but I feel sorry for the people whose circumstances result in higher gas use.

That's about right where I am too. I figure we use about 240 gallons a year.

Our big expense is heating the house, and that's natural gas. There isn't too much we can do to lower that expense. It would be nice to own an energy efficient house.

We keep our heat turned down fairly low. Last year I got an electric mattress pad with dual controls, which is very cheap to operate compared to heating the whole house. I also have an electric foot warmer under my desk for days like today when I'm working from home and it's cold (about 22° - I don't know about outside).

ISn't the electric mattress pad dangerous with the water bed? ;)

I wonder how much I use.

I will have to look at the bill. I support the gas for 5 vehicles in my family.

The water bed was too comfortable. I had to trade it for a bed of nails, which has much better conduction.

See we have something in common. I HAVE enough gas for five people.

So heating your house must be almost free.

It comes with a cost, my friend, it comes with a cost.

Perhaps you need one of these.

http://budk.com/ProductImages/250/A01-RU40012.jpg

Only $19.99!

Wow. Exxonmobil posted record profits again. Imagine that.

Those poor paupers.

Just got an email from my commuting buddy who says gas just shot up to 4.15.

When I get fucked in the ass I like to enjoy it.

BP had huge profits too. Even with the oil spill "clean-up" expenses.

Are the poor darlings still getting tax breaks?

Yep, 4.15 this morning. I guess I'll be walking home from work.

Mother flipping fuckers. I hope they choke on their single malt scotch and suffocate in their satin sheets. Somebody's getting rich. The rest of us are dying, here.

hang on IM, don't sit up straight yet!

from the NYT

:cuss:

I know how I'll get home tonight! I'm going to stand at the ramp with a sign that reads "Will Marry For Gas Money."

How about "be an internet concubine"? You'll be having sex virtually all the time.

Because then some numnuts will be looking for my website while he's driving, and kill me.

Really, you need to think these things through. I don't go into this lightly. :p:

Here is a good bit....

http://reason.com/archives/2011/04/2...asoline-prices

Oh, and Tax Breaks are NOT subsidies.

Anyone ever compare the cost of a cup of Starbucks to what they charge for it? How about milk? Bought a bag of coffee today, use to be a pound, now it is 7 oz. For the same price....

Revenues don't show how much it cost to run the company. Only one side of the balance sheet.

Profit includes both sides of the balance sheet.