How do you cope with the rising cost on gasoline?

[The Progressive]

Fair enough. I can't say what the true price of gas is, since it has never been allowed to go there and never will.

What do you mean man? How exactly would the government allow gas to reach its true price, whatever that is?

[TerraPrime]

What do you mean man? How exactly would the government allow gas to reach its true price, whatever that is?

It makes no sense to me, either.

If we take out government regulation, we're back to the free-marketeers' wet dream of setting the price by market forces, which means that there will be multiple "true" prices depending on the locality. If you're the only gas station within 20 miles, then you can set the price to X where X is less than the cost of travel to go to the next gas station to buy gas at price Y. In comparison, in a larger city where you have several gas stations within 3 to 4 miles radius, the "true" price will be different.

In our current time, we know for a fact that European countries have much higher price point for gasoline. Is it not legitimate to say that their price point is the "true" price and the U.S. pricing structure is artificially suppressed by way of government incentive?

Whatever "true price" means in this case, it still does not address the larger subtext of opposing the government's use of tax structure to promote behaviors that are considered to be beneficial to society. This getting up in arms about gasoline tax is rather weird, when our lives are permeated with differential tax rates imposed by the government in order to induce specific sets of behaviors, from home ownership to savings accounts to investment to bank loans to farm subsidies. So... :dunno:

[Sariel]

Removing tax, gasoline is still more expensive in Norway than the US I believe. Or at least it was before the crisis, can't say for sure now, but it's more expensive now than in 2007 though no new tax has been added I think.

[ants]

The thing is, it is appropriate for government to tax petrol. Cars that require more petrol are usually bigger or faster, and cause more wear and tear and emit more pollution. Bad drivers who use up more petrol also cause more wear and tear. So there are externalities that the government should be adding a cost to the petrol to cover.

[Glow]

...you don't cope with it; you adapt, endure, or swear about it but coping I guess is not the word anymore. I've seen friends all around the world cutting down dinners out, cinema time, PayTV, gym, hair cuts and the sort; hear about postponing needful upgrades and holidays, all things I guess you heard about too.

Downgrading lifestyle is always a traumatic event, from whatever status you have to step down. If driving was a part of your lifestyle and you live in a place without a thorough public transportation system the current situation is a mess rapidly evolving into a catastrophe.

[Skyrazer]

What? No sympathy for us bush dwelling ozzies in this topic? I'd say we've been one of the worse hit.

- We're paying about $1.40 - $1.50 per litre (about $5.30+ a gallon)

- We take up a whole continent in land-masse

- Our cities are about as shit as NA cities when it comes to planning (or unplanning as some would say)

- We're also heavily car dependant

As for dealing with the higher costs? I just suck it up! I could catch the bus to work, but PT is so shit here it takes twice as long to bus it than drive.

[Nafro]

I could catch the bus to work, but PT is so shit here it takes twice as long to bus it than drive.

Same here. If I took the bus to work it would be 2.5 hours and 4 transfers.

[IheartTesla]

Public transport is nonexistent in my little town, so I'm pretty much stuck with owning and operating a car.

You know, I did look into getting a car like the Leaf, but apparently you need to reserve it in advance and Nissan is not accepting applications at the moment. It is a bit frustrating that they dont seem to want to break into the market in a big way.

On the other hand, I think there are some concerns about battery life and cost, so it may just be they are guaging the market response and this is more like their beta launch while they figure out the best cost model for them to lease/sell their batteries.

[Skyrazer]

Don't you sorta have to be in a city with the infrastructure for an all-electric car such as the Nissan Leaf? I remember reading somewhere that they're trialling the infrastructure in select US cities like DC with charge stations setup around the city for electric cars to charge up at.

[mcbigski]

I might be in favor of trying to require that anyone who plays in the futures market for oil has to actually take delivery. Ultimately it would probably just mean that speculation takes place in jurisdictions without said restriction, but if speculators are what is actually driving oil prices right now, it would help in the short term.

[Stalker]

I might be in favor of trying to require that anyone who plays in the futures market for oil has to actually take delivery. Ultimately it would probably just mean that speculation takes place in jurisdictions without said restriction, but if speculators are what is actually driving oil prices right now, it would help in the short term.

And hurt in the slightly longer run, when those speculators aren't there to sell off oil, making the price rise higher, and more rapidly.

While 10 million barrels may seem much, it's less of a driver than other minor factors and makes for no difference in the long term overall picture.

[Seli]

I'll just have to re-quote a quote by eminent chemist George Whitesides: "The highest value for oil is going to be the feedstock for chemicals, it's pretty much indefensible to just burn it up in SUV's."

Or in other words, to keep access to affordable medicine, plastics, paints, books, food it might be smart to steer away from gas-guzzlers as fast as possible.

[Glow]

Cyrano I remember well how bad it was PT over there, here in Italy is somehow better to take trains to move from one city to the other, it takes less time and save a good deal of money -Milan to Rome in four hours is a hell of a great deal and it costs about 100€ while going buy car would top that by at least 50% (I guess it would double it now with gas going up 1,7 € and tolls going up to 38,50 €).

I worry more about the impact gas price has on food and other supplies, and about how people who depends on a salary are seeing their incomes eaten up by gas, bills and food (this winter I payed something like a small fortune for heating and electricity and my apartment is not that big, and I get a bonus because of my health situation so if things keep on going like this I will have to get a second job).

[{ Emilia }]

Granted that the gas price in Europe is higher, but many American households have long commute to work daily. Not everyone can afford to buy a gas-efficient car as Obama suggested.

1. Europeans have long commutes, too.

2. We have a working public transport system.

3. Gas-efficient cars are NOT more expensive than the stupidly huge SUV's many Americans are driving.

[arsonstar]

why's it gotta turn into a who's got it worse bitching match?

to deal with gas prices. i steal gas from my neighbors LOL

but really folks, I am shopping for a more fuel efficient car, they suck!

for me anyway. i am 6'6" about 300 lbs and i will wear a prius like a friggin thong!

but i am driving a Chevy silverado 1500 getting about 13 miles per gal so it wont be hard

to do better than that!

[Happy Ent]

Did anybody in this thread find out the commuting times across countries?

5 minutes of google told me 24 minutes for the Americans http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=377608

and here’s the European commute times: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3085647.stm .

Now, there numbers may have been found by throwing darts at a board by the RAC, and we certainly can’t compare between studies. So please, anybody, find better data (or point me to a post on this thread that did – apologies for being lazy, keyword search didn’t find anything).

[TerraPrime]

Did anybody in this thread find out the commuting times across countries?

5 minutes of google told me 24 minutes for the Americans http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=377608

and here’s the European commute times: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3085647.stm .

Now, there numbers may have been found by throwing darts at a board by the RAC, and we certainly can’t compare between studies. So please, anybody, find better data (or point me to a post on this thread that did – apologies for being lazy, keyword search didn’t find anything).

I am not going to look, because I suspect that the studies we want don't exist. To be meaningful, you will need to control for both size of the city (square km) as well as density. Then you will need to do a three-tier comparison, between large and high density, large and medium density, and large and low density. I'm not even sure what discipline will tackle this study. Economics?

[Seli]

I did run into this overview on CNN Money showing the relative spending on gas per state in the US, but it is difficult to find something similar for the rest of the world.