How good are the odds our gas prices will level off once Haliburton's biggest supporters leave the white house?

purplewings

Tom, most people in Europe have been angry for years about the costs of living there, even though they have good public transportation to depend on. I have many friends in the UK that complain about financing the wealth of the royal family and the cost of Thatcher's vicious politics.

Gasoline has not been their priority because they have excellent public transportation. Where I live there is none. If my sons need to go into the city for business they have to be taken 12 miles to the nearest bus stop and of course picked up again later. People here need cars just to get to their jobs. The public transportation available in the city is unreliable and unsafe too.

I don't think we can start comparing ourselves to other countries in regards to one item like gasoline cost, or we would also have to find what better things they have that we don't - such as health care - housing, etc. Plus, don't forget our very high taxes.......isn't that the reason our ancestors left Europe in the first place?

The oil companies may not hold the entire blame for raising gasoline prices but they do have some blame or they wouldn't be announcing the huge profits they have been. The government also has plenty of blame but everyone can justify their need for money - EXCEPT THE CITIZENS - who are expected to be quiet and pay. How fair is that?

tomder55

Their profits in dollars may sound huge. But let's not forget ;they are not mom and pop stores. They are huge corporations . In fact their profits as a percentage are about on average with other industries. Yeah they make lots of money. The world consumes 30 billion barrels of oil annually and the demand is constantly growing . The chart that NeedKarma provided shows that they are taking revenue around 10 cents of the cost of a gallon of gasoline, which is let's say $4 /gal ...or less that 3% of the retail cost Those "excess profits" are below 3 percent of retail costs.

Every few years our politicians demagogue the issue and have repeated public investigations into charges of oil price gouging . Still they have NEVER been able to make that charge stick . Regulators have never found merit in the charge.
The FTC recentlyreported that ..
"All of the increase can be attributed to increased crude oil costs, because gasoline inventories are as ample as they have been for several years, gasoline consumption is declining to a near-record extent, and refining margins -- the difference between the cost of crude oil and the wholesale price of gasoline -- have fallen."
Federal Trade Commission - Oil and Gas Industry Initiatives

Who's making the big Bucks then ? Russia ,Saudia Arabia,Venezuela ,Iran ,Canada ...etc. Why isn't the US in this list ? Because we stifle domestic production .

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The European population centers evolved the way they did BECAUSE of issues like high prices. They made that call a long time ago and put heavy taxes on consumption .
On issues like health care and housing I am willing to debate that too but I think it would be off topic on this thred . Suffice it to say that in my view they are higher taxed and get less or substandard services for their money .

Sure I believe they are sick of their system . They just ousted 'Red 'Ken Livingston and voted in the Tories in England . The trend in Europe is toward more conservatism (Sarkosy in France ,Merkel in Germany ,Berlesconi in Italy) while we drift further toward nanny-statism and government solutions to every aspect of our lives. The Europeans have been there and done that .

The Eastern European countries ;now free of the Russian yolk could've adapted the same structure as the Western States ;but if you look at them you will find that they have been the most inovative regarding free market principles and tax policies... and their economies are growing as a result.
The Simple (Tax) Life

Galveston1

This is related to the subject, but not in direct answer to the question. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" is a quote we have all heard. Everyone is looking for a way to lower their fuel expenses, and there are some promising things available. I am joining the thousands who are building HHO generators for their vehicles. If I do it myself, it is not expensive, and some are finding the increase in mileage significant. In WW2 I understand that Englishmen converted their autos to run on wood smoke. Not very efficient, but when there is no fuel, anything is acceptable.