9:54, I hope that when you graduate from college and live a bit of life, you will develop some wisdom and compassion.

Anonymous wrote:Jeff, please move this this to politics if I posted in the wrong place.

My sister lives in St. Louis.

This morning, for two hours, a gas station in St. Louis allowed customers to purchase 10 gallons of gas at pre Obama prices. The price charged was $1.84 per gallon. My sister waited in line that wrapped around the block to get her gas. She filled up her tank 3/4 of the way full, for $18.40.

http://fox2now.com/2012/10/19/150-drivers-get-gas-for-1-84-a-gallon/

The station was surrounded by citizens and truckers, all honking their horns in support as they drove by.

Imagine how low the cost of living would be and how prosperous we would be if our nation was back to $2.00/gallon gas.

I have read some stupid posts in my time on DCUM. But I think this may be the stupidest post I have ever read. Please don't vote - you are a fucking idiot.

Agreeing completely with 22:31.

20:46, you actually had $2000.00 to take out of the bank. You are clearly living in a very different reality than many people out there. I would doubt that the OP's sister would have had such a strong reaction if she had $2000+ sitting in the bank.

22:31's situation is probably similar to what the OP's sister is in; if so, I can understand why she was so happy and grateful to have such cheap gas. It's not about "buying more cheap plastic stuff" as one poster so insultingly implied. It's about even being able to get to work so that you can put food on the table, even if it's just plain rice and a can of corn.

Well I wouldn't be driving more if gas was cheaper but I'd get to feed my kids fresh fruit vs contant canned ones. I would love to spend $40/wk for food and $40 for gas VS my current $60 gas and $20 for food. Beans,beef, and rice gets old after a LONG TIME. Driving only to my 2 jobs w/ essential kid pick-up/drop-offs gets old sucks because thats how far my money stretches.

BTW they had the cheap gas last wed inside the beltway.

Anonymous wrote:17:42 is dead on right.

I also vividly remember going to the Credit Union to get $2000 in cash during the last week of September 2008. DH is an economist for the government, and he went out to the street to call me so his bosses wouldn't hear; he told me that as far as he could tell, odds were at least 50-50 that the banks might not open on Monday, and the FDIC wouldn't be enough to save us all. DH told me to figure out how much cash we'd need on hand to cover food and gas for at least two months and withdraw it ASAP.

I hope we're never in a place that dark again.

first of all, thank you for backing me up . And HOLY CRAP - I didn't even know things had gotten that effing dark. I probably would have just gotten in my car and headed for the hills had I heard that assessment from a spouse who was a gov't economist. That is even scarier than I thought.

Seriously, people seem to have forgotten how damn bad things really were at that point in time. It was some ridiculously scary shit. I realize some people's situations have not improved much since then, but our whole economic system is no longer on the verge of complete collapse. Actually, not just ours - the global economic system. We are incredibly lucky that the world didn't implode. So, yeah, under THOSE conditions, gas fell to $1something per gallon.

17:42 is dead on right. I'll never forget stopping in at a Kohl's the day after Christmas in 2008. They were selling toddler-size tops for $1, pants for $1.50. Yeah, of course I stocked up, but at the same time I was really freaked out -- I remember thinking, "I would gladly pay 3 or 4 times these prices if I could just know for sure that the stores will still all be open this time next year." Some were, some weren't.

I also vividly remember going to the Credit Union to get $2000 in cash during the last week of September 2008. DH is an economist for the government, and he went out to the street to call me so his bosses wouldn't hear; he told me that as far as he could tell, odds were at least 50-50 that the banks might not open on Monday, and the FDIC wouldn't be enough to save us all. DH told me to figure out how much cash we'd need on hand to cover food and gas for at least two months and withdraw it ASAP.

I hope we're never in a place that dark again. And it has nothing to do with politics -- Obama wasn't even elected until six weeks after the crash.

Wouldn't it be great if gas was super duper cheap and we could all drive a lot more and then we could buy more cheap plastic stuff (because it would be EVEN CHEAPER if gas was cheap) and we wouldn't have worry about public transit and green energy because gas would be SO CHEAP????

P.S. Gas in England is at least $9 a gallon. ... kind of makes our $4 a gallon look like a steal, no?

Do you even remember 4 short years ago? It really did feel like the world was about to crumble. I remember very vividly joking to our then 2 year old that the coins we had pulled from our pockets may be the only money we might have to retire with. Lehman and AIG and the stock market diving nearly 1,000 points in a day? Credit markets frozen? Seriously, 4 years ago we were all almost wishing for an asteroid. Gas was that cheap for a very short time for a reason.

I believe the point is that the OP was not talking about 50 years ago, but only four short years ago. Your example takes this situation to the nth degree, then mocks the results. When something is distorted to the extreme, of course it will seem ridiculous.

My great Aunt Sissy never tires of telling us about her job as a secretary on K street in DC, and she would eat in some cafeteria or another (Kresge's?) and order her lunch: a tuna sandwich, a bottle of soda and finish it off with a tall bag of popcorn. $1.29¢. In 1955. Whatever! Does that mean we should go back to the Eisenhower administration to look for economic policy? People are morons.

Anonymous wrote:AND St Louis beat the Nats. Another kick in the pants.

Whimper. TOO SOON, DAMNIT.

We have a refinery capacity problem The cost of oil isn't the issue. Until we build additional refining capacity, the price of gas isn't going back down. You can drill all you like and it won't matter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gas was well over $3/gallon before Obama took office.

This chart says differently:

http://www.vatc.org/research/GasSales/GasSales.html

I lived in Atlanta just before Obama was elected. Atlanta actually ran out of gas, and gas prices were in the $4 range for a few weeks. Just after Obama was elected they were in the $1.30-$1.80 range but that only lasted a few weeks as well. Other than these time periods, gas has consistently been in the $3 range for QUITE a long time.

I think the real story here is the auto industry preventing the development of more fuel-efficent cars because "consumers want high-powered vehicles!" Our fuel efficiency is LAUGHABLE compared to other developed countries'. Obama helped push through legislation that got manufacturers to agree to better efficiency standards (no small feat).

Oil isn't going to become cheap again just because you want it to -- it's a finite resource and the countries with a lot of oil are largely not our friends. If we really want to help poor people, then we need to invest in alternative energy sources (solar, hydroelectric, wind, etc) that will boost our energy sector and keep money out of the pockets of politically unstable countries.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is a supply and demand economy. When the government is controlling the supply, which impacts the demand, which impacts the price, aren't they in effect controlling the price of gas?

Yes.

But it's global demand. http://www.cnbc.com/id/46821859/Pump_Primer_What_Makes_Gasoline_Prices_Rise


Specifically: "Allowing increased drilling in the U.S. would contribute only small amounts of oil to world supply, not nearly enough to affect prices. The Associated Press conducted a statistical analysis of 36 years of monthly inflation-adjusted gasoline prices and U.S. domestic oil production and found no statistical correlation between oil that comes out of U.S. wells and the price at the pump. Over the last three years, domestic oil production has risen and gasoline prices rose sharply. In the 1980s and 1990s, U.S. production fell dramatically, and prices did too. Releasing oil from emergency supplies held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve could lead to a temporary dip in prices, but the market might instead take it as a signal that there is even less oil supply in the world than thought, and bid prices higher. Any price relief from a release of reserves would be temporary.

Politicians can, however, help reduce the total amount drivers pay at the pump. They could lower gasoline taxes and they can help get more fuel efficient cars into showrooms by mandating fuel economy improvements or subsidizing the cost of alternative-fueled vehicles."