Saving Money on the Price of Gas

[floyd]

Originally Posted by redbarron55

Who would have thought that pumping trillions into the market and giving huge tax breaks to the wealthy to boost the market would have increased the deficit and resulted in inflation?
Then when the pandemic hit adding so much to keep people afloat along with so many big businesses taking federal money to keep their employees on the job and then laying them off anyway along with billions i outright fraud would have added to the deficit?
Then add the aggression of Russia and sanctions and you have a pretty much perfect storm.
Today a part of the gas price (well most of it anyway) is returning maximum profit to share holders and CEOs and executives. Part is pure greed, park market forces and a large part is the cost of freedom and democracy. If Russia is not contained then the imperial dreams of Russia extend to the free world and could easily drag the whole world into a major conflict.
Russia helped bring us WW II with the partition of Poland and has a history of trying to wipe out Ukraine with pogroms' and war. Nothing new here.
We ignore threats to democracy and the free world at our own peril, having made that mistake before.
Grit your teeth and pay what you have to to meet your needs. I have cut back and combine trips and have stayed home and worked to repair and upgrade the house. The price of materials has gone up as well, of course.
Am I happy about this, hell no! But sometimes we have to pay the price.
Is any particular party more to blame? Probably not in the long run.
One party claimed to be fiscally responsible while running up the deficit and the other irresponsible while generally reducing deficits (historically). (Please note - DEFICITS not total debt which are two different things, related of course, but different).
Probably no government can really do much to control fuel prices. If they release oil from the strategic stockpile the only thing that happens is the oil companies just absorb that and the prices are still set by supply and demand. If taxes are curtailed then the same thing happens, the companies just keep selling at the maximum profit price (not necessarily the highest, by the way) and there is no change to the consumer.
Is there a limit, Probably. We all make adjustments, but I still see the large diesel Class As barreling down the road with their big jeep trucks in tow just like before. Perhaps fewer smaller trailers, but those who have the real money are doing OK as usual.

Not only pure politics , but demonstrably wrong on so many points.
Since no counter point is allowed here, suffice it to say it is time to close the thread to be fair.

[parmm]

It is what it is. Get use to it!!! How well I remember the gas "shortage" of the mid 1970s. long gas lines, get to the pumps and suddenly no gas. Even days and even license numbers you could get gas, but if you had a odd license number - no gas for you. And on your day - it's rationed to only 10 gallons. All thanks to the Yom Kippur War on the other side of the world. And then 5 years latter, the Iranian Revolution started it all over again! Oh how well I remember the 19 cent a gallon of the 1950s and '60s. And diesel was 30 cents a gallon! Ah, the good old days

[Glenn Baglo]

Originally Posted by parmm

Ah, the good old days

Those were the days just after I had bought a Jeep Cherokee Chief that got 6-8 miles per gallon.

[ShelbyM]

Originally Posted by floyd

...but demonstrably wrong on so many points.

Aww, don't hold back. Maybe start with just one statement that is incorrect? .

[David Marowski]

Just got back from an event we've been doing since 1978, 1000 miles round trip. In the past, we drove the speed limit and got 12.5 MPG towing our 2005 17' Casita SD. Our current tow vehicle is a 2009 Chevy Trailblazer with the 4.2L 6 cyl. We used to drive the Ohio speed limit 70 MPH, I drove 65 MPH and we weren't getting passed a lot nor were we passing a lot. Our mileage figured out at 14.0 MPG.

[Eggcentric]

Yet idiots try to pin the blame on the President, the problem is global, not national and is being exacerbated by oil companies profiteering.
We now use ebikes whenever possible, use our hybrid for trips to town, and leave our $1.25/per mile coach parked.

[Keith2000]

What is the appropriate profit margin for an oil company?

Oil has always been a low margin/high volume business. Right now they have a lower margin than most tech companies. During the pandemic they lost tons when oil prices went negative. But volume is increasing and they will make it all back. That is the whole point of capitalism.

My advice: buy stock in oil companies. The dividends will help pay for the gas for your hobby.

[Eggcentric]

Originally Posted by Keith2000

What is the appropriate profit margin for an oil company?

Oil has always been a low margin/high volume business.

My advice: buy stock in oil companies. The dividends will help pay for the gas for your hobby.

Oil companies pull your oil out of the ground and pay you little or nothing for it.
My advice is to buy stock in forward looking companies such solar, robotics and EV companies. Oil is already going the way of coal, with coal plants closing every year.