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Automotive News & Views Are gas prices fueling your pain? 
10042 messages, Last post on Jul 12, 2008 at 3:07 PM
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Apr 22, 2008 2:11 pm)
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Replying to: bpizzuti (Apr 23, 2008 2:25 am) You bet it does! I could see if Exxon, Shell, etc. were having big losses or just eking out miniscule profits, but they are making profits that are the envy of other companies, even very profitable ones. Why do they want to derail the economy for their benefit? Why are they trying to kill the golden goose? Do they know something we don't? Is science on the breakthrough of an amazing alternative energy source that'll render Big Oil obsolete so they're trying to make as much as they can before it all ends? I see Congress recently had the heads of the big oil companies before them, but nothing seems to have come of it. I think gouging the American people during time of war is treasonous and these guys should hang!
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Replying to: lemko (Apr 22, 2008 5:50 pm) A month or 2 ago oil was $100/barrel. as of yesterday it is about $120/barrel, a 20% jump. Now gas doesn't always go up the same day as the crude ... but look at what you were paying 2 months ago and today; about a 20% increase right? My new house has oil-heat; I'm more worried about the cost to heat it than gasoline. I'm going to be cutting/chopping/hauling some wood this summer - good exercise and free-heat. |
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Drive. What choice do I have? 
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Replying to: lemko (Apr 23, 2008 4:00 am) Congress calling in the CEOs of big oil was pure political grandstanding.
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Replying to: tpe (Apr 23, 2008 5:16 am) If oil is that expensive, and the "oil" companies are STILL making huge profits, then that means there's LOTS of room to lower the price of gasoline and they could still be profitable. Incidentally, it's not Canada and Mexico setting prices. It's the oil drilling companies operating IN Canada and Mexico. And sometimes that's also ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, etc. Venezuela is a different story of course. 
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Replying to: bpizzuti (Apr 23, 2008 2:25 am) A lot of people are losing homes that they never should have qualified for to begin with. So if they get foreclosed upon they are simply where they would have been in had it not been for the loose lending standards. |
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Replying to: tpe (Apr 23, 2008 5:27 am) This does not absolve them from their predicament but the lending practices that brought them on were so unethical they are close to criminal.
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Replying to: bpizzuti (Apr 23, 2008 2:25 am) I think a lot of people are using this whole "misled" thing as a cop-out. While I'm sure there are some unscrupulous lenders (as there are in any business), the vast majority of people that are in trouble did it consciously and it's there own fault. You can't tell me that people don't understand what happens when their 3 or 5 or 7 year arm runs out. It's in plain print in the loan documents and explained when options are discussed. If ones doesn't understand what one is signing, they need to be asking more questions. A lot of what happened was that people went for the arms and/or interest only, etc. knowing the payment will go up later, just so they could get into a house they couldn't afford otherwise. And I'm not only talking about buying a larger house than they could otherwise afford, I'm also talking about people that couldn't afford any house and where continued renting would have been more realistic. Then when folks get themselves in over their head, they say they were taken for a ride. Let's put the blame where it belongs and for the vast majority of these cases, it's on the individual borrower. No shoving off ones personal responsibility onto the lenders or the government for not "protecting" us poor, witless borrowers. Budgeting your household is part of ones personal responsibility. If you have $200 to spend one month for food, and you decide to spend it on T-bone steaks and lobster, and then run out of money half way through the month, is it the fault of the grocery store for offering you food items that are beyond your means?
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Replying to: tpe (Apr 23, 2008 5:27 am) On the other hand, gasoline and diesel prices affect EVERYBODY, even those without cars or trucks. The price of food and other goods which EVERYBODY NEEDS is affected. I love how some of these posters say, "Get an education! Enhance you skills so you can earn more money!" Heck, I feel I already make decent money. What's it going to come to? Am I supposed to earn a doctorate so I can live the same lifestyle my Dad did with a high school diploma and a short stint in the Navy? Besides, where is the time for school and the money for tuition to magically appear for some working poor slob laboring 80 hours a week just to pay for the rent on some run-down apartment in the 'hood? Is this man to just abandon his wife and children to pursue higher education, (if he can even pass the entrance exam)? Congratulations, you've earned your MBA! Your wife and kids must be proud! Uh, I wouldn't know. They starved to death six years ago. |
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