$5/gallon

[bobquasit]

A few months ago I read a prediction that the price of gas in the US would reach $5 per gallon by October. Looks like it got there a month early; $5/gallon gas has been reported in a number of states in the last day or so.

Tuesday was a shocker. Teri drove up to pick me up in Boston. As she passed the Cumberland Farms store down the street, which is usually fairly cheap for gas, she noticed that the price per gallon was $2.72. When we drove back that evening, it was $3.03. The next day it was $3.13. A 41-cent hike OVERNIGHT.

In Dedham on the way down, we passed a gas station that was ALWAYS the cheapest place for gas, by far. Not this time: it was $2.95, and I was shocked.

We ended up finding a place selling gas that night for $2.62. You can bet that I filled up the tank, although we couldn't afford it. The next day they were over $3.

I really wonder what this is going to do to the economy. I don't see how the poor and middle-class will survive much more of this.

But I'm sure George W. Fucking Bush isn't having any problems sleeping at night. After all, we the people are paying for his gas. And his war. And his month-long vacations.

How much longer can this go on?

Sebastian has a new song about throwing Bush in the trash. I have no idea where that came from - really. I try not to talk politics to Sebastian, although of course he knows that I think that Bush is a bad person.

Comments

Count your blessings

[(Anonymous)]

You think gas is expensive there? Here in Finland we just hit today 1,50 euro per liter. Since one euro is $1,25 and liter is 0,264 gallons, which means a gallon of gas costs about $7,10. Two thirds of that is taxes and our prime minister said there is no acute need to reduce them. You still have some catching up to do.

Re: Count your blessings

[bobquasit.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm quite aware that the price of gas in the US has always been kept artificially low compared to the rest of the world. But I think that's more than counterbalanced by the unnaturally high prices we pay for health care and health insurance. Not to mention daycare; I believe that you get good quality daycare for young children in Finland? And I'm pretty sure the same applies to Europe.

Here in the US you'd be lucky to find daycare for under $500 (approximately 400 euros) per month, anywhere within 100 miles of a major city.

There's also the fact that we're basically forced to work longer hours, get comparatively little time to spend with our families (although I will confess that Japan probably has it worse than the US in that regard), and the general tension of living without a social safety net. Do you have a lot of homeless people on the streets in Finland, begging for food? I suspect not.

You also have elections that you can have some confidence aren't rigged by the powers that be. You have leaders who, presumably, are in some way answerable to the people. In other words, you have a viable democracy.

We do not.

I'd gladly pay $10 per gallon for gas, if I could get those other things. And I'd probably be able to afford it.

Come to think of it, Finland is only three times the size of Ohio, so I suspect that you also don't need to do as much driving as we do. For example, I work approximately 100 km from where I live, because I cannot afford a house in the same STATE as my workplace. And yet our combined household income is above the US median, and far too high to qualify for any sort of federal or state aid.

The average family in this country has nearly $10,000.00 in credit card debt, thanks primarily to predatory lending practices and a government which legislates entirely at the whim of Big Business. We have only about $1,400.00 in credit card debt, which places us far above the average again. When remortgaging companies call us, they're always amazed that our debt is so low. Because that's one of their primary tools, you see; people are so desperately mired in high-interest debt (rates in the high 20's are not uncommon) that they'll try ANYTHING to get free. And as a result, they're easy victims for other credit card companies and remortgaging scam artists.

It's not a pretty picture.

Land of no Bush

[(Anonymous)]

Ok. You convinced me. Maybe you should move here then.
All daycare here is by law free, although some towns have trouble arranging it for everybody. Health care is also if not free then low priced. Same goes for university education. Of course all this is funded with very high tax rates.
We have three major parties and handful of small ones, but it doesn't really matter. Even if party in command changes, nothing happens for they are all clones of each other. In here democrats are in power and they have given tax cuts to the rich and cut social security.
What comes to homeless people we have them too (In the southern area where they won't freeze to death during winter). They got caught between apartments when depression came and lost both their old and new home. There is debt, but its concentrated on about 50000 people, who are trapped for life. There's no personal bankruptsy in here. Of course there is a new generation of in-debt people, youngest 2 years old who is 100000 euro up and rising.
About the travelling costs in Finland. You were wrong on that one. Here travelling costs and distances are very high and therefore product prices are high too. Our 5 million people are thinly spread all around and only the south coast has dense population. Also our country has 50000 lakes all over so roads are long zik zaks. That means every town has to arrange many services for a small group of people or they have to make long trips to bigger towns. In some places ordinary school trips can be 200 km. My normal university visit is 120 km one way. Long distances mean highest prices of Europe.
If you can tolerate high prices and clone politicians then by all means move here. We have no Bush.