Why do people continue paying well over $3 per gallon for gasoline, when . . . ?

Three words: addiction to oil.

What drives me insane is people who have bought large vehicles in the past few years (like two of my neighbors) who complain about how much it costs to fill up their tanks. Uh, nobody made you buy an oversized, gas-guzzling vehicle! One of my neighbors has a Yukon to drive around her two kids around (I've rarely seen anything large hauled in this vehicle). The other recently bought a Denali to tote himself around. Neither of these two need anything beyond a compact 4-cylinder. Oil companies love people like this.

What's even better than the incredibly large profits that oil companies have made recently is that the US government gives many of these same companies subsidies.

I guess we feel helpless. People say that other countries pay far more,,,but I don't live there, I live here! I don't get why people accept it either. These CEO's and Oil Industry 'top-dogs' are reaping all of the benefits. They take luxury vacations with their designer luggage, luxury vehicles, private jets, plastic wives,,,uhhem, excuse me, I'm mean nip-tucked girlfriend(s)....and we are here spending our hard-earned $$ on rising oil prices. If only there was a way to take some control over this nonsense. They laugh when we try to make an impact by not buying gas for a day--they know we have to fuel up eventually. When an email was going around that we should only fuel up at a certain brand gas station, I'm sure they laughed at that too. All the oil comes from the same place more or less! Ughgh Maybe we should all just buy a bike and ride around town or walk more like the old days...Hey, at least we will kill two birds with one stone: save gas money & excersize! You know, I sigh when I see these dumb butts burning rubber down the street...maybe they just get mommy and daddy to put the gas money in the credit card...Ok, I'm ranting, sorry. :P

First question: people pay because they have no choice. A lot of people live in areas where they have no alternative but to drive to get to where they need to go. Others who might have alternatives such as public transportation don't want to go through what they perceive to be the enormous effort of figuring out bus routes, metro routes, that sort of thing. And for others, public transportation is simply still not as cost-effective, despite the higher gas prices. It may cost more in money to take public trans, or it may take a much longer time, or both. As far as the oil/energy company profits are concerned, I think that people have questions, and some are definitely mad, but the average Joe isn't going to stop driving in protest, simply because average Joe's life depends in large part on being able to drive, which in turn, requires gasoline (unless you're one of the few who have an electric / hydrogen car).

Second question: I don't think that a lot people really understand what influences the price of oil. I also think that most people really don't care what the price of crude is - what they care about is the price at the pump. There isn't a direct nor immediate correlation between price of crude and price at pump.

Third question: people tolerate rising gas prices because, again, there don't appear to be any alternatives at the moment. Plus, while the gas prices are relatively high compared to a few years ago, and the economy is worse, which makes the prices seem that much higher, prices are still not quite at the point where the population is going to go into revolt. Also, with elections coming up, I think a lot of people have the feeling that the economy, and gas prices, will get better once the administration changes (i.e. if we pull out of Iraq).

Overall, I think rising gas prices (and a tanking economy) are an issue, but people still need to carry on with their daily lives, and the gas prices and economy are not so bad that people are going to stop living as they have been, especially when it comes to basic needs such as commuting.

Historically speaking whenever there has been a major hike in oil prices and gas prices they have dropped well below the previous lows and I think we will be witnessing that here again soon. Petrobras in Brazil has 4 refinery/oil rigs on order and 15 tankers. With this they could supply the world with gasoline and other fuels and they have the reserves to do it. China has resources but no safety requirements on their refineries and they are heading for destruction unless they correct the problem.

But it should be safe to say that when Petrobras goes online they will be able to supply the world. Then there will be the Arab cartel, Chinese oil, British oil, USA oil will probably disappear since we only like to share our "precious" when the prices are HIGH, plus the rest of the world's oil. All this is going to add up to a glut and the prices will come down.

When Clinton was president I swear that he ordered the oil companies to curb prices and they did. Bush could do that except that he accepted hundreds of millions of dollars from oil barons and promised to keep their pockets overflowing in cash.

If Bush told them that they could not charge more than $1.99 / gallon they would find a way to make money and boost supply. Plus the gov't has to allow them to build more refineries. They're worried about pollution so the gas supply gets tighter and tighter as refineries get older and break down.

I don't know why we don't tap into the reserves in Mexico. There's tons of oil there too. The fact is that oil is everywhere and it should be 59 cents. What country? Was it Venezuela or maybe Brazil that the cost of gas was 59 cents b/c they made so much money on the exports.

It costs $2.50 to refine 55 gallons of fuel ... almost 5c /gallon. Now we just need a source. If we started a war in some remote region .. like Iraq ... we could tap into their oil reserves and extract them without them knowing ... or we could bribe the officials and take it with their blessings. This way we could get oil for 25c to 50c / gallon. Add a nickel to that for refining and another nickel for transport and Exxon could still make 40c / gallon on 99c / gallon fuel.

In fact, it seems that they ARE doing that and then they're charging US $3+ / gallon and that's why Exxon makes $40 billion / year. Plus the gov't won't let them spend money on new refineries in the name of the environment so Exxon is FORCED to keep all that money and what? Wait for a rainy day? It's time for them to return some of the loot and drop the prices of gas but who are we going to ask? Our senators like they're not on the take? It would take a presidential decree to make them pay attention. Who wants to email Pres Bush first?

:-)

Peace y'all

I'm from Britain and we currently pay £1.04 a litre for gasoline.

Just to put that in perspective there's roughly 5 litres in a gallon and the current currency rate of Pound's to dollar's is just over $2 for every £1. That's $10 a gallon my friend! I think you guys would riot if that happened!

You left some wise words in response to my last question so I will share some right back.

No matter how bad off you think you are theirs always some one worse. :p

What you might not consider is that people are cutting their driving down significantly. I myself try and drive only when necessary.

I feel your frustration and wonder why this is happening but the reality is we are in a recession and our president has his pocket in oil. He was asked about his views on what would happen when gas hits $4 a gallon. He seemed surprised and did not answer.

Gas is an outdated technology which is also harmful to the environment. We need to do away with it completely.

Like we have any choice. The government controls the oil. The government is oil men who want to make money on us poor su-ck-ers. We do get angry and do complain, but do they listen? I think not. They are gouging the h-e-ll out of us and sit back and laugh because they have all our very hard earned money lining their pockets. Some day there will be a revolution over it all. We're going to he-ll in a hand basket, so why not.

So, let me see... if I refuse to fill my tank at $3/gallon, that's going to REALLY AFFECT the bottom line of the oil companies? I don't think so..... but what it WILL do is stop me in my tracks, and prevent me from going anywhere, doing anything, or working.

Out here in the wilds of Wyoming, public transportation is nonexistent... and attempts to have it have been farcical at best.

HEY!!! LEAVE SHEBOYGAN ALONE!!! That's my daddy's birthplace! You insult Sheboygan... dem's fightin words!

Don't blame the high price of oil on the oil companies. They are not to blame. It's complex, but the REAL culprits of high oil/gas prices are:

1 - OPEC.. the oil CARTEL... for controling PRICE and PRODUCTION. Cartels are ILLEGAL in the USA because they are by nature anti-capitalist, and stifle fair competition.

2 - SPECULATORS.. Those "investors" who buy futures to speculate on the future price of oil (and other commodities). You don't think that they make BIG MONEY when the price of oil goes UP?

3 - ENVIRONMENTALISTS and their lawyers.. who have continually blocked both the development of domestic oil resources and the building of oil refineries in the USA. We actually do NOT have a oil shortage, we have an oil "production" shortage because our capacity to produce and refine oil has been growing increasingly bottlenecked by 30+ YEARS of environmentalist obstructionism.

Our largest importer of oil is CANADA... one of our "friendly" nations. But it is because of the combination of the above REASONS that that oil is so expensive... NOT because there isn't ENOUGH oil around OR because we use TOO MUCH oil. Nor is it solely the fault of the oil companies.

Unfair trade practices... price/market speculation... market interference... THOSE are the REAL reasons why gas is now over $3.00/gallon.

If I refused to fill my pitiful 20-gallon tank, it really has NO effect on ANY of these REASONS.... it would merely be an empty gesture on my part... along with having an empty tank in my car!

Everyone is entitled to my opinion.

Its called modern Feudalism in the future there will be only Kings and Nobles as in Exxon, Shell, Microsoft ....even though Gate spills some goodies to the peasants. They'll use the land soon to grow fuel instead of food .... hey let em eat cake.

Well if my car ran on hot air I certainly would not be paying such prices.

But as it is my car runs on gas. It gets 35 miles to the gallon but it still runs on gas and not anything cheaper.

If I don't drive my car I don't have a job and without a job I'm homeless and foodless.