Gas Prices a retrospect
Printed From: Tippmann Paintball
Category: News And Views
Forum Name: Thoughts and Opinions
Forum Description: Got something you need to say?
URL: http://www.tippmannsports.com/forum/wwf77a/forum_posts.asp?TID=167329
Printed Date: 09 June 2026 at 2:49am
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Topic: Gas Prices a retrospect
Posted By: oldsoldier
Subject: Gas Prices a retrospect
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 8:14am
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Just a little thing I found interesting. In 1956 gasoline cost $.25 a gallon, and the average American wage was $1.00 an hour. So it took 1/4 hour to earn a gallon of gas. Today gas averages $3.00 a gallon, and the average American wage is $12.00 an hour. SO on an average scale we are exactly where we were in 1956 on gas pricing, so the problem is?
I still remmember paying $.25 a gallon when I first started driving, by then gas taxes started going up, our public trans system was failing, and everyone had to have thier own 8-12 mph car. And when the unforseen rise to $1.00 a gallon, and a general shrug of shoulders and we drove on. ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: High Voltage
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 9:45am
With improved technology in the fields of refining, transportation, and dispensation, people probably feel it shouldn't take up as much of our income. Also, profits, need I say more? Yes, inflation sucks. ------------- 
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oldsoldier wrote:Posted By: ANARCHY_SCOUT
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 9:46am
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Damn I'd kill to get .25 cents a gallon.
------------- Gamertag: Kataklysm999 
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Posted By: stratoaxe
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 9:56am
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Meh, I just pay it and drive. Nothing else I can do about it. ------------- 
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Posted By: Skillet42565
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 9:58am
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Posted By: RoboCop
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 10:02am
| The profits that the gas companies make are rediculous. That is the only reason I disagree with the raising gas prices. We still make a big deal of that we are running out of oil. They have been saying that for years and it's not true. America is sitting on an oil field, but we are using up others resources that way we have a back up. And people that say the prices are going up because of the war, it's untrue. |
Posted By: Cedric
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 10:20am
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Are you just going to keep making gas threads or what?
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Posted By: God
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 11:01am
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Is the average wage really $12 an hour? More likes being better than average. |
Posted By: brihard
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 11:54am
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It's not a hortage of oil, it's a shortage of refining capacity. New refineries take a long time to approve, and growth has been slow. Plus gas tax is a very significant part of it.
------------- "Abortion is not "choice" in America. It is forced and the democrats are behind it, with the goal of eugenics at its foundation." -FreeEnterprise, 21 April 2011. Yup, he actually said that. |
Posted By: Da Hui
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 12:03pm
| .25 cents a gallon would be godly. |
Posted By: Dye Playa
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 12:30pm
what he's saying is it's all in proportion. the same reason why your great grandpa could get into a movie for a nickel, BUT he didn't get paid as much to begin with, so it all evened out. of course you could kill for 25 cents a gallon, because you probably make $9+ an hour. ------------- 
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Posted By: usafpilot07
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 1:25pm
Would you also like to lower your income by 97% also? ------------- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo |
Posted By: Tae Kwon Do
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 1:26pm
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I think gas was about $1.20 when I started driving. That is an increase of 95 cents from OldSoldier's proposed 25 cent 1950 price. ...And that was three years ago. Why did it increase $1.85 in three years? ------------- 
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Posted By: Apu
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 1:31pm
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Gas was about $1.40 when I started driving.
------------- I need a new Sig... |
Posted By: usafpilot07
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 1:39pm
If we all had CCWs then this highway robbery would stop. ------------- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo |
Posted By: Panda Man
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 6:10pm
Foreign Demand. Also remember, Cars "back in those days" were getting around 7-10mpg. So you also have to remember, they don't have the 35+mpg that we have these Days, though insurance and other costs have gone way up... Nothing has really changed. I think alot of the low gas prices in the 80's - 90's was the Fall of the Soviet Union. other "foreign" oil companies didn't have the oil guzzling Military like the soviet union. ------------- 
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Posted By: High Voltage
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 6:19pm
Amen. -------------
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Posted By: oldsoldier
Date Posted: 27 May 2007 at 6:40pm
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lets see, I sell lemonaid for $.25 a glass, it costs $.14 per glass for powder, water ice, and my profit per glass is $.09. Now if I sell 100 glasses and make $9.00, and then I sell the next day 1000 glasses and make $90.00, and the next week I sell 10,000 glasses and I make $900.00 when does it become price gouging and excess profit? The amount of profit on a set price is proportional to the amount sold, not the price of the product. Oh and once the Government decideds to put an $.18 tax on the lemonaid and my price goes up to $.43, does my profit go up also? -------------
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Posted By: Clark Kent
Date Posted: 28 May 2007 at 10:37am
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Some thoughts: 1. I am not familiar with the particular numbers that OS describes, but numerous studies have been done illustrating how gasoline prices are only now at or near all-time highs when adjusted for inflation. Gasoline prices (in the US) have been lagging inflation for decades. 2. Being ahead or behind inflation is a decent indicator for an "expected" movement range for prices, but many prices stray far from inflation for market reasons: Prices for TVs and DVDs, for instance, have not kept up with inflation, while prices for bottled water have outpaced inflation over the last few decades. Inflation is the "average" price increase - inflation follows prices, not the other way around. 3. Reports of the "record" profits of oil companies are misleading. Yes, oil companies have made massive dollars/quarter the last couple of years, but (a) these numbers are not inflation-adjusted, and (b) they fail to consider profit margins. 4. In 2006, for instance, BP's net profit margin was 8.6%, and Exxon's was 10.46%. Those are above average profit margins, no doubt, but (a) much higher than they have been in the past for oil companies (oil companies are what investors call "cyclical stocks" - they go up and down), and (b) these profit margins are much lower than some other sectors, like pharmaceuticals, high tech, banks, and telecom. Apple's profit margin is 14%; Ebay's is 20%. Calling the profits of oil companies "ridiculous" is uninformed - the oil business is not extraordinarily profitable, relatively speaking.
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Posted By: Bunkered
Date Posted: 28 May 2007 at 11:59am
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I just want to know why gas is $3.60 where I live and under $3.00 other places. Fricking Michigan taxes.... ------------- 
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Posted By: STOcocker
Date Posted: 28 May 2007 at 12:48pm
Ouch that is bad. The lowest I have seen is $2.67 in North Carolina. It is $3.07 here at the moment. |
Posted By: ANARCHY_SCOUT
Date Posted: 28 May 2007 at 1:16pm
------------- Gamertag: Kataklysm999
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Posted By: oldsoldier
Date Posted: 28 May 2007 at 1:49pm
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And I would again love the $1.00 meal at McDonalds (1972-73 era). A Cheeseburger, Fries and a Coke for $1.00, yet no-one is complaining on the prices McDonalds set, or thier excess profits. Welcome to economics, pay goes up to produce the products, prices go up for the products, a never ending cycle. Unless we go pure socialist, price controls, long lines for limited supply, oh the power.............. -------------
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Posted By: usafpilot07
Date Posted: 28 May 2007 at 2:50pm
Where in NC have you seen $2.67 recently in NC? With one of the highest gas taxes in the U.S. we usually have higher prices than any of the surrounding states. Hell, SC is continuously 30-40 cents cheaper per gallon. ------------- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo |
Posted By: oldsoldier
Date Posted: 28 May 2007 at 9:49pm
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And I forgot, in selling my lemonaid for $.48 when my sales begin to drop, and the government has based a program on the tax income on the sale of my lemonaid, and the revenue from thier current taxes drop, what is the solution, of course, raise the taxes on the lemonaid and blame the producer of price gouging by not lowering his profit margin..... -------------
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Posted By: Tolgak
Date Posted: 28 May 2007 at 10:14pm
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Last I heard it was like $6 per gallon in Europe. Consider that before you start complaining.
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Posted By: Clark Kent
Date Posted: 28 May 2007 at 10:32pm
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Don't know specifics, but I believe the gas taxes are pretty close in most states. Reasons for price differences are mostly the same for gasoline as for everything else: storage and transportation logistics, local costs, local specific product requirements, unions... These things vary around the country, and affect different products in different ways. |
Posted By: oldsoldier
Date Posted: 28 May 2007 at 10:34pm
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Also the "formula" requirements of differant states and cities. -------------
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Posted By: Clark Kent
Date Posted: 28 May 2007 at 10:35pm
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Yep - that was my point about the local product requirements. Here in Wisconsin, for instance, we use a different mix than Illinois, which makes Wisconsin supply a pain, which makes gasoline supply more expensive here than in Illinois. |
Posted By: What to do?
Date Posted: 29 May 2007 at 11:45am
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Here at Alabama we have 2.98$right now. the most we have seen is 3.07$ ------------- 
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Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 29 May 2007 at 12:57pm
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I called into one of the local radio stations the other day after one caller said we should just take iraqi oil since we're over there. When I called and told the host that it didn't matter much about how much oil we had, if we couldn't refine it, he told me that we should have the resources anyway, then disconnected me. NYS is proposing to get rid of a bunch of state gas taxes, which might lead to a 13 cent decrease at the pump....it gives you an idea just how much you're paying in taxes. But, like othere have said, what can you do but pay it? |
Posted By: Da Hui
Date Posted: 29 May 2007 at 1:00pm
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Steal it? ------------- 
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Posted By: FROG MAN
Date Posted: 29 May 2007 at 3:35pm
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just remember, it costs more in Canada, that should make a couple of you feel better
$1.3(cdn)/Litre =( 4.54L/1gallon ) x ($1(us)/$1.074(cdn))= $5.5(us) a gallon
:-P ------------- <1 meg sig = bad> |