uke

I thought of this when my sister commented to me about how gas prices are down. It annoys me how the oil companies are so good at acclimating people to higher prices this way. Raise the prices by $1.30 over ten months into the summer, then drop them by $.30 and people go about clapping that prices are down. Meanwhile, prices have gone up by an entire dollar from the average at this time a year ago. It must be great knowing people are this gullible, and being able to so freely take advantage of them.

Lamplight

Yes, some of my coworkers have been discussing how nice it is that the high prices are "finally over". They were just complaining about this same price three months ago!

Hobartlemagne 

If you were selling gasoline, what would you do with retail prices when the price of a barrel of
oil goes from the $60 range in 2006 to the high$90s in 2008?

The price is rising because of increased demand.

The only "down" there is to retail prices is part of the normal seasonal fluctuation. They'll be back at an all
time high next summer.

Allen

$4.00 a gallon for high test here.
But I'm on an island right now, prices here are usually higher.

wahoonc

Gullible isn't quite the word I would use...stupid or ignorant would be more like it. They have no clue and won't until the last drop has been pumped. I saw a similar situation after Katrina hit, people spending hours waiting in line to get 5 gallons of gas Me I filled my truck BEFORE the storm hit, then didn't drive it unless absolutely necessary. Amazing how much gas my bike needs

Aaron

Nightshade

Yes, the oil companies have once again "conditoned" the public to accepting high fuel prices.

It worked and was proven out during the OPEC oil embargo of the 1970's and still works today.

mattm

i read that if hurriane Gustav takes out lots of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, prices could shoot up to the $5-$8 range.

not that it will affect me a whole bunch.. besides food/shipping prices i suppose.

Allen

But every product you buy is shipped.

mattm

right. which is why i said "besides food/shipping prices."

the point was that, as a car-free hippie, i at least don't really need to worry about the price of gas going up. i can absorb rising prices at the market no problem.

Dahon.Steve

All you have to do is look at the Europeans. They are conditioned to pay way more than we do. Their roads are more packed than ours!

Sammiches

Gas prices aren't high enough yet. The real fun is all in front of us.

pueblonative

We'll still have some costs to pay but cutting out driving will eliminate a lot of the costs that others will be paying.

phinney

I think it's more that the trend of ever increasing gas prices has stopped for awhile so people are feeling better about it. Traffic has certainly picked up around here.

mike

Of course, we all know that a storm in the Gulf of Mexico couldn't disrupt supplies enough to change world total supply significantly.

What was telling is that oil and gas prices rose IN ANTICIPATION OF THE HURRICANE IN THE GULF OF MEXICO!!

So, prices are no longer being adjusted for what is happening to supply, they are being adjusted to what MIGHT happen.

I think at this point, Big Oil, can just stop all the BS efforts and just raise prices. I don't need some story about weather in the Gulf of Mexico, or potential wars in the Middle East, or violence in Nigeria, or the nuove riche in China to appease my displeasure at rising fuel prices. Today, Big Oil has the world by the throat and we all know it.

gerv 

In a moment of brilliance, I decided I wouldn't make a long car trip, partly because of the high price of gas. So I decided to fly.

smsimpson83

its not big oil you need to complain about, but instead the futures market....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futures_exchange

dynodonn 

I've seen this trend so many times, it's no longer amusing. Regular gas is down from $4.80 to $4.40 locally, traffic has picked back up, but with a larger number of newer compact cars, and with the addition of older compacts and small motorcycles/scooters that have been pulled out of mothballs.

Newspaperguy

Someone mentioned the price drop to me the other day. I agreed prices have come down in recent weeks but we're still paying 25 per cent more than we were on Jan. 1. That put it into perspective.

keiththesnake

I was just complaining to my wife yesterday how the public seems to think gas prices are "down." Saw Robin Meade's show in the morning, and she was talking like that. Naturally, the public would believe CNN early in the morning. My wife replied how the higher gas prices didn't really effect driving patterns around town here at all. How easily our society grows accustomed to higher prices, and then is fooled into believing there's been some relief!

mesasone

I thought your comparison chart was interesting, in that in late 2003/2004 when I first started driving, I was paying $1.35 a gallon to fill up my 85' Lincoln town car. I think I put nearly five bucks into that thing every day.

I have stopped driving now, but just a few weeks ago my co-workers were paying over $4.00 a gallon. That's a 300% increase in four years. It astounds me that people are considering $3.50 a gallon cheap, not because I think it's too expensive, but simply because how cheap gas really was just a few years ago. It's like the days of sub-$1.35 a gallon were decades ago, not a few years.

mike

You can fool people for awhile, but eventually, people are going to look in their thin wallets and then start searching their pockets for coins. The increases in gasoline prices are going to be felt, especially by those with lower incomes.

People are smart enough to start looking at their transportation and lifestyle and make changes.

Lamplight

Maybe in the snowy Midwest, but for middle TN you are giving people too much credit, I'm afraid.

oldride

I live on a lower income, trust me, no one cares how fuel prices affect lower income people.

Tom Stormcrowe

It's a classic example of "How to boil a frog"

UmneyDurak

For people who never boiled or attempted to boil a frog, can you explain that?