kennyo

I've wondered to myself why no one has linked the poor economy with high fuel prices? Most of your lower to middle class people have limited expendable income. Over the last year and a half I have watched mine disappear to the rising cost of fuel. I know people in Washinghton probably don't fill up their own tank so let me give you an example.I drive 1200 miles a month. My car gets 20mpg. I currently pay $1.80 a gallon for gas. At that price I spend $108 a mo. on gas on this one vehicle. At $1 a gallon I spend $60. thats $48 more a month that I don't have to stimulate the economy with. Multiply that by two cars and you can see where I'm going. Add to this home heating prices and you have effectively wiped out most peoples expendible cash.this is very hard to swallow knowing that oil companies are reaping obscene quarterly profits. Where are these so called investigations into price gouging and corruption? The time to put an end to this is now! It is up to our elected officials to represent the common mans interest and not the oil lobbies. I have had it with the blatant disregard the oil industry has shown towards what is fair and right. I won't forget come election time who was in office when these prices soared , count on it.
PS. This goes double for boaters. We get reamed coming and going. Get fired up and let your represenatives hear about it!

bajabob38

But if you are taking more money out of your pocket and putting it into someone else pocket don't they in turn have more money to spend? Trickle down effect..

mjpcowboy

Dont worry if the Democrats get in office you wont have any extra money in your pay check after taxes to pay for any gas!!!

CAP071

Yea that's it trickle down into my wallet NOT



Rich getting richer, working man stays working

Vinny P

With the boating season coming closer, this subject really hits a sore spot with me. The message you see below was sent to me a few days ago. I didn't start this, but feel this subject warrants some discussion.


Subject: 2004 GASOLINE PRICES
I understand we are going to see gasoline prices close to $3.00 a gallonby this summer.
Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent,united action. Someone offered this good idea: This makes much more sense than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It
was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. But whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.
Please read it and join with us . By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $1.97 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to thinking that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50- $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace...NOT SELLERS. With the price of
gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit them in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And we can do that without hurting ourselves.
How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But we can have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war. Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions
of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do!
Now, don't whimp out on me at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people I am sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10
= 300) .. and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!! Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (If you
don't understand how we can reach 300 million while all you have to do is send this to 10 people... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician.)
How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days! I'll bet you didn't think that you and I had that much potential, did you? Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message
on.

Again,
DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are
one), EXXON and MOBIL.
THEN PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND
KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO REALLY WORK!

Donzi Corleone

I think their is a hidden agenda with these gas prices.

GLH

Bush won't let gas go that high in an election year, they are getting ready to finally drill in ANWR to lessen the impact of OPEC. They also normalized relationship with Libya with the Oil Companies making deals 30 seconds behind after relations were re-opened, you think we made a deal with Lybia because we want to import sand? Hardly and rightfully. The Man knows what he's doing whatever those battery powered riders say.

Poor economy???
I work in the General Contracting business and all the sub contractors we have are as busy as they have ever been and it is getting reflected in the pricing we are getting. We have offices in the North East and Charlotte NC, and all are the busiest the have ever been and we are heading for a record year.

I seriously think that people are mistaking very efficient management and very careful expansion methods (after the 90's expansion disasters) by private businesses for poor or barely average economy. Unlike the government the private sector learns from it's mistakes and adjusts very efficiently to them.

"Poor Economy" go to the Cig factory where they are churning out $450k boats like pez dispensers, OL is sold out for the next 2 years... Out of 60 boats at the Poker Run I was at a few weeks back 10 of them were Nortech's that the cheapest sells for 1/2 a Mill, plus in the canal going to the hot-bod contest in Lauderdale 125 ft yachts are lined up for miles where it use to be 50 or 60 footers that would catch the eye, not to mentions housing practically everywhere on the US. Poor economy hardly.

HyperBaja

As I said, Cam 2 is only 3.00 a gallon here. If regular 89 goes to 3, I will just advance the timing a bit more...

jafo

GL-
While all that may be true for people with the money to pay for new houses, Cigarette boats, and 125' yachts, the economy in blue collar America sucks. I live just outside of Rockford, IL, and the unemployment is well above 10% and climbing. Three more plants (owned and operated by Fortune 500 companies) are closing in the next quarter with over 1000 jobs lost. This place isn't bleeding, it's hemorrhaging. So are a lot of other industrial cities across the midwest.
The wife and I went to the Rockford Boat and Vacation Show last a couple of weekends ago (a little small compared to the Miami show ), and there wasn't a soul there. It was a very sad sight. The boats represented were pontoons, fishing boats, jet skis, and bowriders representative of the incomes in this area, and the people just don't have the money. They stayed home.
The economy is always boosted, sometimes very falsely, in an election year. The gas prices are going to hurt the little guy, not the big. Small trucking companies, small jet charter firms, etc. are operating so lean already that high fuel prices will put them out of business.

chuck21401

I suppose it depends where you live and what you do. I think the DC area isn't doing bad at all. Everyone I know (early 30s) has just bought a house, new cars and other big ticket items. I personally don't know anyone that is unemployed. DC is somewhat insulated given all of the government dollars that flow in good times and bad (agencies, associations, non-profits, etc. etc.) I'm in "lobbying" and that business continues no matter what. Wife and I built a house last year. Talk about a booming business. Speaking with the subcontractors that worked on our house they are busy 24/7 with no end in sight. I hear on the news how bad the economy is yet when I go to the mall on the weekend I can't find a spot to park my car! I think that gas prices will go up this summer but they will come back down as more non-OPEC oil comes on the market.