Rising Gas Prices

[HRx]

Everything in this country is going up except for paychecks...

[whatamess]

Southern NJ today, $2.85. Thats at a "Wawa" convienece store station known for cheapest gas. The local Exxon and Shell were both at $2.95. CBS Philly said we will be above $3.00 by Thanksgiving.
The medias blaming China and India by them outbidding us due to the raising gasoline consumption in both countries rising affluence. IF thats true we did it by buying all thier junk and outsourcing our jobs. Its very infuriating. Last time I was in Seoul South Korea they were living larger than us by tech standards.
The newspaper company we deliver for gives us $90 a week for gas. Soon we will bypass that by far.
If it goes over $4.00, middle & working class folk will start cutting back things like food, clothes and other goods and dining out/ recreation just to fill a tank. Economy slumps. Profits fall. Layoffs..? Fat cats get bigger pockets. Do I watch to much Lou Dobbs?
WAM

[Chicago]

It's been around $3.50/gallon here in the city for a few months now. Not sure what it's going to hit in the next week with the Thanksgiving holiday. I take public transportation for $80/month but I've had to drive quite a bit on weekends the last few months so I've been spending about $200/month on gas just for that. So crazy.

[WantToBeDebtFre]

I just got gas yesterday for $3.29 a gallon here in Michigan. It took $50 to fill my gas tank in my minivan. That will last me less then a week. It's so irritating because we have to drive to get to work so there's nothing we can really do about it.

[MomIcantFindmy]

I bought a hybrid back before they got tremedously popular. We have another car my husband takes to work. Even with a hybrid our gas budget is $350/month. Sometimes even that is not enough. I am the average american who has cut back on food, clothing, entertainment etc in order to pay for gas.

[tradewiz50]

Gas is $2.91 here for 87. Over the bridge in New Jersey its $2.77 for 87 and they pump it for you. But, you have to pay $3.00 to cross the bridge.

[sandhall]

Here in South Carolina it is $2.98 for 87. Terrible for the pocketbooks but what is really sad is that the paychecks never get a increase when everything else does

[HRx]

The gas prices are unjustifiably high! It actually brings tears to my ears everytime I have to fill up my tank! Luckily, I'm currently in a position where I really don't have to fill up my tank more than once per week...but it still "hurts" my wallet to fill up my tank just once each week. Politics is the only reason why gas prices are so damn high, and what's more sad about all this is. We are being ripped off my Americans, and not foreign countries!! The cost of fuel has been escalating at a record breaking pace ever since Republicans took over...which I cannot prove is the reason why gas prices have been rising so fast for the past seven years; but it's definately uncanningly coincidental.

[robivi3]

Amazing how this thread and American Dream never die. Sort of a peak into the real concerns of Americans isn't it. Polls be damned. We have a problem also. Since my wife went to work for the State they do not allow our big van into her building. A 9/11 and world TC bombing issue. The outside parking is $12.00 per hour. Inside free. We got her a two year old Jetta. The skyrocketing gas prices saw to it that our Van which we bought six months old for 19000.00 have seen to it that the vehicle will fetch only 9-11 k on a trade (it cost $34,000.00 new) so no matter what we are upside down, it KBB's for 16000.00 clean trade, NADA about the same hahahahahahahahaha. Factoring in gas savings still doesn't justify the loss. I can coax 13.5 mpg from it by going 70 mph. Straight highway, near 16.5. I live two blocks from the Sawgrass Expwy and work two blocks from I-75 so that is at least good. My hours are 6am -2 pm and I work weekends so no traffic at all.

We sold our Red Truck with 105000 miles on it in excellent condition for 7900.00. I just had a problem with sending her downtown through bad areas in a GM vehicle with 100k miles though it never gave us any trouble.. The Jetta payments are very low and low interest for a recent BK'er, 8% through Eastern Financial FCU. Probably would have been best to give her the truck BUUUUUT the truck also did around 15-16 around town and would have run her a good seventy dollars a week in gas, the Jetta 27.00 which means that she drives a manuverable efficient car for less than 150.00 per month. I see the Truck every day and the new owner treats it like gold and it still so beautiful to me... just thinking out loud so to speak.

Concerns for now:

War (not so much why, but if you go to war, win)
Gas
Economy
Crime, A DEFINITE increase in Cop killings down here whcih means that the new criminals are becoming much harder hearted, if you will kill a cop you have no regard even for your own life.

Worry for tomorrow:
Son in War (Marines)
Crime
Economy
Gas
War

[HRx]

It's because the rising cost of fuel pretty much affects everyone in one way or another. I'm actually surprised that there isn't/hasn't been any real major news, or consumer rallies, or protests due to the quickly rising fuel costs.

[HRx]

The damn gas prices have increaed to $3.00 for regular unleaded in my area now!!

[whatamess]

South Jersey as of Today: cheapest gas Ive found is $2.90. Mobile and Exxon are at $2.95-97. We are supposed to have the cheapest gas in the nation or something, so WOW!!!

My husband heard on the BBC yesterday Europe is over $7.00 a gallon in some places now and Asia is at $6.00. At least they have the public transport option in many places. And walkable communities. Try to walk to the store here and you may be creamed. I have seen people attempting it lately though.

WAM

[HRx]

I read in the Washington Post that gas prices in NJ are the lowest in the U.S., but I do not remember if they gave an explanation to why.

[BKOnce]

CNN site gives at least one reason why NJ is cheapest as below :

Cheapest gas in the nation - full service

Why New Jersey, which requires all its service stations to be full service, is also the only state in the nation with gas prices under $3 a gallon.

By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
May 22 2007: 6:16 PM EDT


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- With gasoline prices setting new records every day, the only state in the country where the average price for gas is still under $3 a gallon is New Jersey.

Oddly, it's one of only two states that require all its service stations to pump the gas for you.


[B]New Jersey boasts the cheapest gasoline in the nation; it is also one of only two states that requires full service at every pump.

"It shows you how little cost has to do with the price of gas," said Doug MacIntyre, senior oil and gasoline analyst at the Energy Information Administration. "This is local supply and demand conditions."

While refinery outages continue to plague the Midwest - Chicago now has higher gasoline prices than notoriously pricey San Francisco - New Jersey is benefiting from its four in-state refineries, all of which appear to be running just fine.

Plus, deliveries for all futures gasoline contracts traded on NYMEX are sent to the New York Harbor gas facilities, which are actually in New Jersey. It's also the main port for gasoline imports from Europe, which account for 30 percent of the gas used in the Northeast.

Then there's the taxes. At just 14 cents a gallon, New Jersey has one of the smallest state gas taxes in the country. The national average is about 21 cents, according to gaspricewatch.com. The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon.

In Pennsylvania, which sits just next door to New Jersey and has several refineries of its own, the average price is $3.073 a gallon, according to the motorist organization AAA. That's about 13 cents higher than New Jersey's $2.947.

The difference is clearly due to the tax. In Pennsylvania, it's 17 cents higher.

So minus the tax, New Jersey gas station owners are getting 4.5 cents more per gallon.

Is that enough to pay the person who pumps it?

If a gas station owner in New Jersey is making 4.5 cents per gallon more than his counterpart in Pennsylvania, and a worker fills up 20 cars an hour, each with a 14 gallon tank, that's about $12.60 extra per hour.

When asked if service station owners in New Jersey eat the cost of keeping the full service employees, Eric DeGesero of the New Jersey Fuel Merchants Association said "labor is a high cost of doing business."

But he said fees charged by the credit card companies are a much higher cost for his members, who make very little if any profit off the sale of gasoline. Most service station profits come from items sold in the store, like coffee or snacks.

He also said New Jersey, which like Oregon requires full service gas stations as a way of creating jobs, limiting accidents and assisting the elderly, has no plans to repeal the full service requirement.

DeGesero said the last time a bill was floated to overturn the full service law, about a year ago, it was withdrawn in just six days due to public opposition.

[whatamess]

We went down three cents!!!
Back to $2.97 again.
BKOnce thanks for that explanation. I had no idea why NJ was cheaper. Thats the ONLY thing Im sure thats a 'bargain' here.
WAM