What do you think of the high gasoline prices? Is it a political thing?

Question

Price per gallon varies as much as 16 cents per gallon on stations only a mile apart. Makes a person wonder what really is going on... What do you think?

Answer 1

It's not at all political. It's market forces.

There's a finite supply, more finite all the time, and the world has a limited capacity to retrieve and process it. Add to that skyrocketing demand worldwide, and there's $5/gallon gas. Most of the difference in local stations is either quality (like, Chevron is always more), or location (like the station that's harder to get to is cheaper).

The U.S. has no control over the price of oil. Most of the oil we use comes from Canada and Mexico, and the companies there drill it and sell it on the world market. If we ruin our wildlife preserves to drill more, in 15 years the oil company that does the ruining will have a little more to sell on the world market for whatever it's worth.

"The government" can't use tax dollars to lower the price of gas. All of us pay those taxes, and all of us have to use gasoline, even indirectly. If they pay for a buck of each of our gallons of gas, they'll have to tax it out of us.

Right now, the feds have about $.18 of influence over gas prices, which is what they tax each gallon. It isn't much, compared to the full price of gas (about 4%), but adds a lot of needed income for the government. Just a few weeks ago, when gas was hitting $100/bbl and $120/bbl, our president flew to Saudi Arabia to beg for more oil production, like a panhandler. They said no.

If you're looking for the government to help you with the financial crisis, enjoy the $600 check you randomly got from them recently. That's about all we can hope for. Otherwise, figure out ways to get around without using gasoline (public transit, biking, alternative fuels).

Answer 2

I'm young and not very well-informed, so please excuse me if this is stupid. :)

I think it is political. I don't understand why the government cannot take a certain amount of money out of their tax dollars to give Americans a financial relief. I mean, even putting a couple millions towards gas would save us a few cents, right? How much have they spent on what's going on in Iraq? Again, I'm not very knowledgeable with this stuff, but I think it's pointless to try to help another place when we're in an economic crisis.