Here We Go Again!

We're heading for summer and the price of gas is on the way up. Where I live it has gone up 5-10 cents per gallon EVERY DAY for the past week or so. Who to blame? The oil companies? Well, Exxon seems to make record profits every year no matter how high or low the price of gas is so I think they are less to blame than some others. Who are those others? The rich, greedy commodity traders. They are the ones who push up the prices of necessities so they can get a bigger return on their investment dollar while breaking the budgets of the common people who cannot afford to pay more for basic things like food and energy. Have we learned nothing over the past two years? Despite what some "experts" might say, I think that $4-plus/gallon gasoline had a big hand in causing the current economic crisis. The experts might say that it was the mortgage situation but I say that a lot fewer people would have defaulted on their mortgages if they didn't have to pay over $4/gallon for gas just to get to work. And I firmly believe that another steep rise in the price of gas will quell any attempt at an economic recovery anytime soon.

Greed, mixed with a little stupidity, played a big part in the current recession. I am talking mostly about the people who are investing in and manipulating the prices of basic things such as food and energy in order to pad their wallets. In fact I think that such trading should be banned. Necessities such as food and energy should not be traded for profit. The common people simply cannot afford higher prices on food and energy just so the rich people can get richer.

So Sayeth The Shack

Getting Gouged Deeply

The price of crude oil has dropped $40/barrel over the past several weeks.

The average price of gas in PA. is $3.45/gallon.

So why are gas stations in and around State College still charging $3.55/gallon????

The actual price should be closer to $3.00.

I for one, refuse to buy any gas until the price drops to a more reasonable level based on the price of crude. If I run out of gas before that, I will just leave my car right there in the middle of the road where it sputters to a stop as my form of protest.

So Sayeth The Shack

Don't Be Fooled

The price of crude oil and gasoline have tumbled from their recent record highs, but make no mistake, they will sooner or later be heading back up. And this time they will set even higher records...maybe 5 bucks per gallon..maybe even more.

The point is, whatever you were doing earlier this summer to save on gasoline, KEEP IT UP!!
Drive less, combine trips and errands, put off that vacation trip, switch to a more fuel-efficient vehicle, if possible. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security that the crisis is over. This has happened time after time in the past, and we never learn. Do you think we've learned this time? Only time will tell.

So Sayeth The Shack

Leave The Gas Tax Alone

Over the past few months, as fuel prices have skyrocketed, there as been talk, especially among presidential candidates, of lowering or (temporarily) abolishing fuel taxes. One of the more popular ideas has been a "summer break" from fuel taxes.

According to an article in yesterday's paper, however, this talk has been mostly silenced, and replaced by the idea of raising fuel taxes. This new idea is being "quietly" discussed in congress (sounds a little like pay increase that Pennsylvania lawmakers voted themselves in the not so distant past) especially among those who have constituents who would profit from additional road construction.

At this time I feel that both of the above are bad ideas. Lowering or temporarily eliminating the tax would be bad because the money is need for road repair. And oil companies would probably just raise the prices back to where they were before the tax reduction anyway. Raising the tax is an even worse idea given the current economic situation. The consumer, the very engine that is supposed to be driving this economy, is already being suffocated by massive increases in the cost of necessities such as food and fuel. The higher tax would further increase the cost of fuel, which would, in turn, cause even higher prices for everything else. This would just strengthen the economic choke hold on the consumer and would ultimately not benefit anyone. So the best thing to do right now is to not change fuel taxes at all.


So Sayeth The Shack

Finally Changing Our Driving Habits

Over the past couple of years as gasoline prices inched upward from one past two to three dollars per gallon, I have wondered what it was going to take for people to change their wasteful driving habits, long roads trips etc. My family and I had long ago cut back on unneccesary driving. We had made an art of combining errands and doing them on the way home from work so that once we were home, that was it. We didn't go back out unless we absolutely had to. We long ago traded the pickups for small fuel-efficient cars. Well we seem to have found the answer. Gas prices heading four dollars per gallon is what it would take to get at least some people to make some changes, as I see in the following article.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/26/gas.driving/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

"At a time when gas prices are at an all-time high, Americans have curtailed their driving at a historic rate. Americans are not driving as much as they did a year ago as gas prices skyrocket.

The Department of Transportation said figures from March show the steepest decrease in driving ever recorded. Compared with March a year earlier, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less -- that's 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT's Federal Highway Administration said Monday, calling it "the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history." Records have been kept since 1942.

According to AAA, for the first time since 2002, Americans said they were planning to drive less over the Memorial Day weekend than they did the year before...."

It's about time!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Sayeth The Shack

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The Fifty Buck Car Wash

Wow there's a new car wash in town where for fifty-some dollars A MONTH you can get your car hand washed, dried, polished, etc inside and out as often as you want. Holy crap! I don't know very many people who, given the current economic situation, are willing to dish out that kind of money for a clean car. We can barely even afford to drive our cars anymore, let alone pay that kind of money to keep them clean!

So Sayeth The Shack

Some Pennsylvanians Unable To Vote

It has come to our atttention that a large number of rural Pennsylvanians will be unable to vote in tomorrow's primary.

The reason?

They can't afford the gas to drive to their polling place!!!!


So Sayeth The Shack

Getting Gouged

So I heard today that gas is below 3 dollars in Williamsport and Lamar, yet it is still 3.15 here. If that's not gouging, I don't know what is! Someone's getting rich and, as usual, it ain't me!

I'm just glad I don't live in Moe-Shannon anymore and drive a big 4WD truck. Would have gone bankrupt by now even though I might have had the house paid off.

So Sayeth The Shack

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This One's A "Duh"!

So one of the headlines in today's newspaper said "Fewer Poor Students At Penn State". On another page was the headline "Room, Board Costs to Rise". Gee, ya think they're related? And I'll bet I can find a story in the same section about gas prices being over 3 dollars a gallon (along with the latest excuse from the oil companies).

It doesn't take too many brains...not even a college education really...to figure out with the skyrocketing cost of college, poor people can't afford to go there. They can barely afford to go to work given the price of gas.

These are 2 of the factors that will bring about The Crash as described in my post from last week.


So Sayeth The Shack

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