Fuel Prices

[why?]

From the other thread

Originally Posted by Kal-El

I agree with you on some points. It is ridiculous that the government pulls in more money on oil than those that do all the work. However, the other way to look at it is that gas taxes [supposedly] go to roads/bridges which works out nicely because it's the road users that are paying for such work more than those who for whatever reason don't drive and therefore don't pay this extra tax.

I certainly don't want gas above $3 a gallon for the sake of our economy. $4/ gallon devastates it. However, I still have to say that $2.50/gal is a very fair price for fuel. Of course it used to be cheaper but lets not ignore inflation. Honestly, you can't really expect gas to be $1.50/gal in 2010, do you? What was $1.50 in 1990, isn't $1.50 now. The first major problem with that is that everyone owns massive gas hogs and no fuel alternatives are ever explored. Am I an environmentalist? Nope. But I appreciate a sensible balance. Make anything cheap as dirt, and it gets severely wasted. I think $2.50 is a point when people are still conservative but it's not killing budgets or the economy. People are buying sensible cars although you still see a return to SUV's which suggest that yes, it's still inexpensive.

Anyway, I think we need a new thread. This is way off topic.

Gas taxes go to our roads? You mean the ones that are falling apart, and the bridges that are literally falling down now?

Yea, maybe at one point that was true, but then again, at one point someone believed money collected for social security would not be stolen by congress, and look how well that worked.

Inflation is almost non existant. A table for inflation since 1913. And an inflation calculator.

Even during the late '90's gas was still 99 cents a gallon. In fact, using the above calculator, just using inflation, gas would have to have been 99 cents a gallon in 1980 for it to have been inflation that makes it $2.50 a gallon now.

Gas should be inexpensive because we have plenty of it, and it isn't going to run out any time soon. It is expensive because of greedy governmental types who think they can tax the heck out of anything, and they know they have people like you around who will say it is ok, because it is what we "should" be paying for gas.

As I noted before, oil companies pay more in taxes then they earn each year in profits. So that makes our gas prices at least twice as much as they should be.

Kinda sickening, huh?