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Automotive News & Views How does gas at $4 and higher impact you?
2183 messages, Last post on Nov 21, 2009 at 5:13 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: larsb (Oct 06, 2008 7:25 am) No need to fear larsb; for every $1 someone may save on gasoline or oil, people are losing $20, $40, $75 or $100 in their retirements. So no one's going to have much $ to go out and buy even $2/gal gas. And since food prices will likely remain high, again that takes away from money that people would have spent on gas. |
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Replying to: larsb (Oct 06, 2008 7:25 am) On the other hand, getting oil from tar sands or oil shale will become uneconomical again, and that kind of stuff is pretty nasty from an environmental standpoint. Plus pressure to drill in our fishing grounds will ease. Oil fell to $85 a barrel for a while today.
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Replying to: steve_ (Oct 06, 2008 11:41 am) It would particularly be nice if there was a process to recover all the radioactive elements under my geographical area to stop the natural radon pollution. Who knows how many cases of lung and other cancers can be attributed to that. I don't take the viewpoint that everything natural is good, and that everything man does is pollution and bad. And just an FYI that because the climate is relatively cold, we've just turned the oil burners on here at work for heat; oil which is fortunately on the decline.
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Replying to: kernick (Oct 06, 2008 12:13 pm)  I'm flying next week - 3rd trip since August. I don't think I want to know what my carbon footprint is. At least this trip is using air miles so my out of pocket expense is about 3 gallons of gas. |
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Replying to: flash11 (Oct 04, 2008 6:29 am) The 1.5 percent of homes in foreclosure is not the sole cause of this crisis, and please note that most of those who are now in the foreclosure process could not afford their mortgage payments regardless of their employment status. You cannot afford a $600,000 mortgage on a $60,000 annual salary, unless someone gives you at least $425,000 as a downpayment. flash11: Answer: Unemployment is not low, it is the one of the highest in a long time. The analysts have been wrong for a long time. From Jan/08 to Aug/08 600,000 people lost their jobs. Unemployment in the early 1980s was well into the double digits. By historic rates, it is not high. flash11: Take at least some of the $700B and use it to offer preferred shares in the failing companies (or give it to the successful Banks and buy out the ''bad banks'' who have poor policies and allow the good banks fix the problem.). Part of the reason that banks and many mortgage companies adopted "poor policies" regarding lending standards (the root of the current mess) is because they were under government pressure to lend to poor communities, or face charges of redlining. The long-term solution is a return to sane lending standards. flash11: If you lose your job or can't pay for it, I guess you will not be able to buy gas, hence lower demand. I still say we need those new hybrid concept cars like the new Chrysler Jeep renegade concept (110mpg) or GM Saab 9-X concept cars and electric cars to become a reality. If you lose your job, you won't be in the market for a new car, regardless of its mileage. And even working people won't be able to afford new cars that are considerably more expensive than their current ride. Which most of these fancy new vehicles are. The projected sticker price of the Chevrolet Volt has escalated to over $40,000...even with government tax breaks, it will still be priced out of the range of most middle-class Americans.
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The price of oil will not change no matter where it comes from. The world oil market "is what it is" and will not be modified by drilling here. What WOULD happen is that the money we SPENT on the crude oil would go to AMERICAN companies and AMERICAN workers and not to OPEC SHEIKS. That's the advantage of drilling here.
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Replying to: grbeck (Oct 06, 2008 1:06 pm) We will have to see if buying all that debt will help banks start loaning money again. Apparently once the Fed starts the bailout process, the Fed wants to force banks to start lending again to people and businesses with good credit. they were under government pressure to lend to poor communities, or face charges of redlining. I was not aware there were legal ramifications if you did not lend to poor people, surely they knew these people would not be able to pay it all back?! I always thought it was an excuse to cover up predatory behavior so they could knowingly bankrupt naive people, take all they had, and keep the property and house as well, knowing they could sell it for a profit down the road. Unemployment in the early 1980s was well into the double digits. By historic rates, it is not high Tell that to the 1 million people who will lose their jobs this year. It seems like a ''perfect storm'' of events leading to a major recession. This feels different than the 80's in terms of layoffs and the impact it is making. I lived through the 80's. Outsourcing was not as big an issue as it is today. I have a feeling that we have not seen it all yet. We are not through this yet. Lets hope things start to flatten out on the stock market and not drop any more. It is looking pretty grim. The projected sticker price of the Chevrolet Volt has escalated to over $40,000 Don't you think the new generation North American cars will compete in price with say the Toyota Prius ($28K fully loaded)? Not that it is the solution but similar cars like it are coming like the Chrysler Jeep Renegade 1L diesel electric car 110mpg. Already Chrysler is putting a smaller diesel engine in their Minivan at the Windsor Minivan plant, and no doubt it will come in a hybrid ($25K?). Not quite an electric car but may be a good alternative to lead us into electric cars. Unfortunately we will take a hit on price in the beginning but there will be new car buyers out there too who are not as skeptical as you, and at least they will be able to eventually buy into the new technology and have a choice to move into something that does not pollute the environment as much. One gallon of gas produces 20 lbs. of carbon dioxide green house gas. In 10 years it will be irreversible according to NASA experts and scientists (saw this on PBS). The world will have to change its habits once we run out of petroleum in 100-150 years. |
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From Yahoo/Finance on the economic crisis: ''But it allowed lawmakers still smarting from a politically painful vote Friday for the largest federal market rescue in history to put a face on their outrage at corporate chieftains who took home hundreds of millions of dollars while betting on risky mortgage-backed investments that ultimately brought the financial system to its knees''
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Replying to: flash11 (Oct 06, 2008 7:20 pm) And how much CO2 is produced from burning heating oil? My point is - if you save oil/gasoline in transportation it keeps the demand down, keeping the price down, and then home builders continue to put oil-heat systems in new housing. I was just in the market for a house and saw place after place putting these systems in. Oh, and natural gas and your electric power plant are also creating CO2. Summary: as long as oil/gasoline is mor eeconomical then another viable energy source people will use it one way or the other. So don't really fret whether it is your neighbor's SUV or the new house down the street. |
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