How concerned are you that in 4 years, a gallon of gas could cost you $10 a gallon?

Question

Yes or no? Why or Why not? Details=10.

Answer 1

not really. Eventually things will have to flip. We complain about our gas costs, but other countries pay way more!

Answer 2

Very concerned here because I have an SUV that I still owe another year on and at the current price of $4 a gallon it's costing me near $100 to fill it up.  No one wants to buy my vehicle, they instead are looking for higher performance themselves.  Thus I am finding it very hard to sell.  If I trade I lose a lot of money. The future concerns me in that I don't see us building better engines here.  They will be made abroad and that will be an additional cost. So why would I want to buy gas at $10 per gallon when I can't afford a car to put it in.

Answer 3

Very, but hopefully cheaper biofuels (that don't deplete the worlds food resources) will have been developed by then

Answer 4

You mean you will pay what I do in Europe?

You will get by because fuel is considered a staple item for most of us.  The four year figure is open to conjecture, mainly because the current high prices are partly due to speculation, and also possibly due to a short term demand for oil by China in a run up to the Olympics.

People adapt and change their fuel pattern usage.  The only thing that makes it hard for anyone in the US is short term plannin: you get egregious tax concessions on every hulking SUV thing, often making them a relatively cheap status symbol.  This also necessitates higher insurance and running costs (especially servicing) that stress an average budget.

Europe and Australia saw the transition to much smaller vehicles (especially Europe) decades ago, and large car sales in Australia have seen a 30% decline in three years.  The US must follow suit if it is to be taken seriously.  There is no point complaining that you can't fill the tank of your 11mpg Ford Excursion or whatever, when you could easily fill up a Camry and drive further.  

Part of the reason that other countries are unsympathetic to American motorists is because you pay so much less (at the refinery before taxes) for oil and refined fuels.  In effect we subsidise the American SUV society.

It is time that the US got over it's big car culture because according to National Geographic:

- China will, at current rates, have a larger economy than the US in 10 years.

-It has become the world's largest user of mobile phones and the internet in the last year

- Will have more cars than the US by 2025- and this is for an economy that only started encouraging private car ownership in 1994.

I think that the US may well end up being marginalised in terms of it's economic status, and it will be forced to change rather than change willingly.

Answer 5

Yeah. It could happen. I think I know what is going on:

It's a standoff between those who want to tap into our fast

fields of oil, ie; Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, etc. and those who want to preserve the environment.

I want both- but really we can't have our cake and eat it too.

When it comes right down to it, we and every living thing on this planet are 'parasites'.

That can't be changed. And when in some distant future we may run out of resources. And no one knows yet where we could go to live.

So I say, lets use our oil not Saudi Arabia's and spend the next 100 years (because that's how long they say our oil will last) figuring out what to do about the situation. We are moving so fast with things now, I think we will come up with something.

Answer 6

Other countries pay more cause of their outrageous gas tax.  It should go down, if not, more fuel efficient cars will be available.  Im worried about right now costing me $4 a gallon.