We are getting SCREWED on gasoline!

EarthWindandFire wrote:I have to disagree here, my job involves working with many Europeans and when "we" complain about taxes they just laugh. Most of these people come here to escape the absolute oppressive tax system used by their respective Governments to raise capital. Another client of mine from Brazil tells me about the cost of imported products into his country, usually four times the actual cost of the item goes to tax. So, enjoy 4 dollar per gallon gas, thats not as bad as it may seem. Buying a used car is smart, and will save more money in the long run. Do the math, whether a car gets 100 miles per gallon, is irrelevent if you paid too much for it. The cost of ownership lies mostly in principal and interest of the purchase price, not the savings from fuel usage.

Comparing other nations' stupidity and oppression is no way to justify our own.

I see no mention in my post concerning my personal opinion. Obviously, if I am getting that reaction out of my clients then I must be the one initiating the argument against the high taxes here in the United States. I am just stating the fact that most quasi-socialist countries around the world (not the Far East) tax their citizens at a much higher rate than we are taxed.

However, I am a conservative, maybe even a Paleoconservative and I fight against big Government constantly, from the lowest level (wife on various town boards) to challenging the Republican Mayor over school funding etc and being interviewed for the local papers. So, my conservative credentials are sound and I was just offering a counter-argument, a different perspective to Smitty's post.

the gas and oil companys are just getting back all of there $$$$ they lost in the last election ....


http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/index.php

RAYJAY wrote:the gas and oil companys are just getting back all of there $$$$ they lost in the last election ....


http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/index.php

This to shall pass!

EarthWindandFire wrote:I see no mention in my post concerning my personal opinion. Obviously, if I am getting that reaction out of my clients then I must be the one initiating the argument against the high taxes here in the United States. I am just stating the fact that most quasi-socialist countries around the world (not the Far East) tax their citizens at a much higher rate than we are taxed.

However, I am a conservative, maybe even a Paleoconservative and I fight against big Government constantly, from the lowest level (wife on various town boards) to challenging the Republican Mayor over school funding etc and being interviewed for the local papers. So, my conservative credentials are sound and I was just offering a counter-argument, a different perspective to Smitty's post.

I understand that you don't believe that. I just hear that brought up constantly when people complain about taxes, regulation etc. When people try to compare us to other nations and say: "it's not so bad, they have it so much worse". I say WHY ? Because they didn't complain, they didn't put up a fight at every turn.

We could end this gas issue really fast, but everyone would need to be united and agree to do it.

Every trucker puts his truck in Park for a week. Nothing gets delivered. Let's see how long it takes to drop gas prices then. I figure it will take a week for all the stores to be empty and every gas pump to be empty. I gurantee you prices drop then.

Will that ever happen? Nope. Every man for himself...no one is united, we are as broken we have ever been. So, we will suck it up and pay $5 a gallon when it comes, then come on here and bitch about it.

Rwalker wrote:We could end this gas issue really fast, but everyone would need to be united and agree to do it.

Every trucker puts his truck in Park for a week. Nothing gets delivered. Let's see how long it takes to drop gas prices then. I figure it will take a week for all the stores to be empty and every gas pump to be empty. I gurantee you prices drop then.

Will that ever happen? Nope. Every man for himself...no one is united, we are as broken we have ever been. So, we will suck it up and pay $5 a gallon when it comes, then come on here and bitch about it.

Such a true answer. We are headed to become the SSA instead of the USA if things don't turn around.

Rwalker wrote:We could end this gas issue really fast, but everyone would need to be united and agree to do it.

Every trucker puts his truck in Park for a week. Nothing gets delivered. Let's see how long it takes to drop gas prices then. I figure it will take a week for all the stores to be empty and every gas pump to be empty. I gurantee you prices drop then.

Will that ever happen? Nope. Every man for himself...no one is united, we are as broken we have ever been. So, we will suck it up and pay $5 a gallon when it comes, then come on here and bitch about it.

Has that EVER worked? Don't they do those national strikes in France and Spain all the time? Does it ever get them what they want?

jpete wrote:

Rwalker wrote:We could end this gas issue really fast, but everyone would need to be united and agree to do it.

Every trucker puts his truck in Park for a week. Nothing gets delivered. Let's see how long it takes to drop gas prices then. I figure it will take a week for all the stores to be empty and every gas pump to be empty. I gurantee you prices drop then.

Will that ever happen? Nope. Every man for himself...no one is united, we are as broken we have ever been. So, we will suck it up and pay $5 a gallon when it comes, then come on here and bitch about it.

Has that EVER worked? Don't they do those national strikes in France and Spain all the time? Does it ever get them what they want?

Well let me ask you this: where the hell is your food and gas and all other goods going to come from if no trucks are running? How would it NOT work??? I commute 80 total miles a day for work. I count no less then 100 or so trucks in the 18 mile stretch of interstate I use. If they all stopped running, there would be no profits for anyone-including the gas companies.

I'm just asking if it has ever worked in the past. I hear about them from time to time but I never hear whether or not the protesters were successful at achieving their goal.

It has never been done on the scale proposed. If it would happen, and I agree that if it did, the price would drop.

BTW: If farmers did this as well, with only 1/2 of one percent (1 out of 200) did this, fuel prices would drop as well.

NoSmoke wrote:It has never been done on the scale proposed. If it would happen, and I agree that if it did, the price would drop.

BTW: If farmers did this as well, with only 1/2 of one percent (1 out of 200) did this, fuel prices would drop as well.

There's national strikes all the time in Europe. It's almost a past time there, like baseball.

A couple years back the French(?) farmers were dumping their milk in the streets because the government mandated price was so low.

I never did hear if they were successful in raising the price of dairy though.

Why wouldn't some enterprising truckers become some of your hero's that you were all defending gouging the storm victims for gas be hero's once again for hauling while others sit & they could gouge for everything & really help people out. (Out of their money anyhow but that would be your free market)

I doubt it. It is more of a protest vote, but dairy farms are just a small segment of the farming industry. If EVERY farmer stopped shipping their product, it would have a huge impact, just as if the truckers stopped trucking. In two days time we would be dumping our milk as we only have capacity for 2 days supply, and our cows would run out of grain dropping production. We run by trucks for sure...and that is just one farm!

The real issue with milk is: big surprise...imports. Milk is still being produced at a rate then lower then what it costs to produce it, but the powers that be in the State of Maine still allow 12 tankers of milk to be imported into this state from Canada every day. Why they allow that is beyond me when our own dairy farms are failing at incredible levels. Down from 400 farms a decade a go, to less then 180 farms now...

jpete wrote:

NoSmoke wrote:It has never been done on the scale proposed. If it would happen, and I agree that if it did, the price would drop.

BTW: If farmers did this as well, with only 1/2 of one percent (1 out of 200) did this, fuel prices would drop as well.

There's national strikes all the time in Europe. It's almost a past time there, like baseball.

A couple years back the French(?) farmers were dumping their milk in the streets because the government mandated price was so low.

I never did hear if they were successful in raising the price of dairy though.

NoSmoke wrote:The real issue with milk is: big surprise...imports. Milk is still being produced at a rate then lower then what it costs to produce it, but the powers that be in the State of Maine still allow 12 tankers of milk to be imported into this state from Canada every day. Why they allow that is beyond me when our own dairy farms are failing at incredible levels. Down from 400 farms a decade a go, to less then 180 farms now...]

Why isn't domestic milk cost competitive with imported milk?