Schadenfreude- one of my favorite words, even though it is quite untaddy. It is described as feeling some joy at the misfortune of someone else.
I think I had a taste of it today. I was at a gas station I like to go to that's out in the sticks, but usually has cheaper gas than in town. On the way there I saw the gas prices range from $3.49 per gallon down to 3.29 per gallon. As I pulled into this particular station I was happy to see the price at 3.15! Many other people were taking advantage of this deal, and it was hard to find an available pump.
Finally I landed behind a person who was all ready pumping. There was a free pump in front of her, but I couldn't get around to it. She left the pump several times to go inside the station. Meanwhile other people were pulling up, filling up and leaving. After a while an attendant came out and the two of them fiddled with the pump, which seemed to be having some sort of problem.
I was worried that if I moved I would end up in a slower line, but I gave up on waiting for her to finish and moved to another open pump. As I began to fill my tank, the attendant went over to the price sign and changed it to 3.25 per gallon! I looked up at my pump, but it was still reading $3.15, so I guess I got there just in time before the price went up 10 cents!
Secretly I congratulated myself for moving when I did, and not being stuck behind other people who had just gotten the last good deal.
(Edited to fix numerical booboo)
Yay! Good job--good job!
Nice feeling to get one back on the so-and-sos. Doesn't happen often. ;D
You're lucky either way - we're paying around £1.35 - £1.40 per litre - call it $10 / gal.
Quote from: Sibling DavidH on October 15, 2011, 09:54:39 AM
You're lucky either way - we're paying around £1.35 - £1.40 per litre - call it $10 / gal.
You mean we are paying tax!!!!!!
Well, we don't, because our main car runs on autogas (http://autogas.ltd.uk/savings.htm), or LPG, a propane/butane mixture. There is very little tax, I think it's 25p / litre. But if you burn petrol or diesel, you may as well open your wallet and hand it to the government.
Yes, I'll just pretend that a US gallon is equivalent to 2L, to take the sting out of paying around $1.15/L at the moment in a bloody petroleum producing province. Like the UK, it's mostly tax, and partly the 'value added' cost of bringing the stuff out of the ground up in Alberta, sending it down to the Gulf Coast for refining, and then sending it back up (probably most of the stuff sold in AB is refined here, other refineries exist back east I think, but we don't have enough capacity for all of Canada's needs, AFAIK).
Don't get me going all Schadenfreude again!
If the ratio is 3.78 litres to 1 gallon, the 4.29 they're paying per gallon in Washington DC isn't too far off. Maybe living in the sticks isn't so bad, sometimes.
Those taxes discourage driving, and considering global warming that should have a positive effect. Personally I wouldn't mind paying more taxes on my gas (and I say this while driving ~35mpg car ;) :P).
Actually, I think a high fossil fuel price is the only way renewable alternatives are really every going to go mainstream. Even oilsands development started to suffer when oil was at record heights before the crash (it became too expensive to fuel the heavy machinery and trucks to do the work), although those sort of prices provide the motivation for developing marginal, messy sources.
I do agree with fuel taxes; would it be fair to say that the lack of taxes plus Big Oil corporate tax cuts amount to a subsidy in the US?
Yes, it would.
Of course, vast swaths of the population in this country thinks that Public Transportation is beneath them, and I've attended city council meetings in which the businessmen elected representitives emoted contempt as they attempted to kill municipal buslines.
Many employers look askance at any candidate whose application doesn't specify owning a car under the "How do you intend to get to work?" question. Moreover, this is Amurka, where the boss can ask you to come in early or stay late with no warning, thereby short-circuiting carpooling plans among family members or co-workers.
The result is a population extremely dependent on single-occupant car travel coupled to often ridiculous commutes. If it weren't for the tacit subsidy that exists, many would be in a bind to travel to and from work. At some point, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free have to speak forcefully and united on getting alternative forms of fuel into the mix for utilities and commutes.
(Title Edited by Opsa to reflect Gas Price discussion)
Oil & Gas corresponds to ~50% of the economy in the US by market cap, no wonder why despite many promises by different presidents since Nixon to stop relying on foreign sources of energy, no real attempt has been made to do so. It's true that alternative sources have been slow to come by and that due to the wide spaces urban growth have been more horizontal than vertical (which makes public transportation less efficient and more expensive), but that has been a clear advantage for the oil corporations that are very reluctant to move in any other direction.