[Leanan]

MSNBC has asked their readers to tell them how high gas prices are affecting them. You can read the answers here: link

[FoxV]

its nice to see that some people are getting it and buying smaller cars, and walking and biking more

but then
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')'m a single mom with two teenage boys living with me... I own a 2003 Ford F150 Pickup w/4.6 V8.

[heyhoser]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FoxV', 'N')ow this just defies belief. Buying a new car because your "old" car has 40,000 miles on it. WTF??

[Leanan]

And don't forget the rest of the story:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')o off to the dealership we went and home we came, with two brand new gas guzzlers. Did I mention that I drive 74 miles each way to work. That's 150 a day. Can you think of a more comfortable way to spend those hours than in a big, comfortable vehicle? Me neither.

[some_guy282]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Leanan', 'A')nd don't forget the rest of the story:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')o off to the dealership we went and home we came, with two brand new gas guzzlers. Did I mention that I drive 74 miles each way to work. That's 150 a day. Can you think of a more comfortable way to spend those hours than in a big, comfortable vehicle? Me neither.

[arretium]

I just read that post by the gas guzzlers. I think they are likely fairly well off to have that attitude. Someone who is struggling to feed their family isn't going to go buy two new SUVs and flaunt it. Another possibility is that they are just faking it. Maybe they are people who disagree with the lifestyle and wrote up that message as a fake in order to get people somewhat angry about SUV drivers.

[Leanan]

I wondered if the person who wrote that was some kind of rightwing nutjob. The kind who'd claim they'd never stop driving, even if gas was $200 an ounce, and made up that story to prove it.

But I think it might be for real. And he might not be that rich. Someone rolling in the dough probably wouldn't be driving an 8-year-old car. He may actually have seen these "temporary" high gas prices as a buying opportunity. A chance to save money on a gas-guzzler. The price was so good, he had to buy two!

[RiverRat]

If I’ve said it once … I’ve said it a thousand times.

I do not understand people’s fascination with an object that depreciates at such a rapid rate. Detroit has done a fabulous job at brain washing the masses.

I drove my Honda Civic for almost 11 years and put over 250,000 miles on it. These people that buy new cars every two years are really getting bent over (if they do not apply a sizeable down payment). I’ve got a feeling that their momma’s did not pay them any attention when they were babies.

[Leanan]

It's just like those giant stone statues on Easter Island. Conspicuous consumption. Proof of your wealth and success, to impress prospective mates and intimidate prospective rivals.

[Roy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t's just like those giant stone statues on Easter Island. Conspicuous consumption. Proof of your wealth and success, to impress prospective mates and intimidate prospective rivals.

[duke3522]

This morning I was speaking to someone about how in 1979 I was working at an Amoco gas station when gas went over $1 for the first time. The pumps handled the price change OK except that we had to add a little $1 sticker at the beginning of the price.

So she asks me a question I have never thought about. If we have a huge price spike, can today’s pumps handle $10+ gas? I know $10 gas is a long way off, and I would think that modern pumps would handle it without a problem. But we never thought we would see $1 gas back when I was a kid.

[The_Toecutter]

The pumps in my area have their prices listed digitally, so I don't reckon it's a problem at all for most stations.

[Ancien_Opus]

In the 1970's most gas pumps where still mechanical. Similar to cars a lot of the issues with timing and delivery systems have been taken over by electrical/magnetic pickups. The impeller in the pump circles one time and a small magnetic pulse is sent to the digital read indicating a known volume has been delivered. No direct contact to the moving parts. This is identical to the timing pickup in your car that tells the sparkplugs to fire. It's really quite simple and reliable. At theTexaco Station I worked at, we'd have impellers wear out on the mechanical drives and they'd start pumping a lot more gas. That just won't happen anymore. The digital pumps will have no problems at $10.00/gallon or 10 Euro's/liter. Now the economy at those prices, now that's something that will fail!

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ichigan
Bills crack down on gasoline gougers
House measures target stations that cheat their customers on quality, amount of fuel sold.
By Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING -- With gas prices inching toward the $3-a-gallon neighborhood, state lawmakers are anxious to show solidarity with beleaguered motorists.

[I_Like_Plants]

Yes! Patriotism GOOD! (Except it was BAD in the mid-90s when Patriot was a bad word!) and consumption GOOD (except in real wartime when it's "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without") and it's the PATRIOTIC DUTY of 'murricans to go out and buy a new Hummer with the special radio locked onto the local Rush station and I don't mean the band that that gave us the song "Take Off - To The Great White North".

[The_Toecutter]

If the politicians really wanted to help things, they could try to make their locales less dependent upon oil itself. But alas, that would mean they would have to try a system that doesn't maximize consumption and growth and instead embraces the fact that our resources are finite.

What a world. To sugest that the oil companies should see less of their product consumed and should see an end to their reliance is tantamount to treason in this country. But ending our reliance upon them is the only way we can lessen the effects of the global calamity peak oil is causing. Ending that reliance makes the oil industry cry foul: peak oil is indeed making them much wealthier and granting to them profits that keep increasing.

Heres to hoping someone takes out a couple refinaries and teaches this country a lesson it needs to learn: use less oil or lose your wallet.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Toecutter', 'W')hat a world. To sugest that the oil companies should see less of their product consumed and should see an end to their reliance is tantamount to treason in this country.

[The_Toecutter]

The largest factor in Carter not winning in '80 was likely Reagan paying the hostage holders in Iran to keep the hostage crisis going. That made Carter appear incompetent, just as Bush does today. Meanwhile, the bastards that commit treason get 'elected' president.

You know what's interesting? We could increase the fuel economy of our cars and light trucks by nearly 50% without even changing the engines that power them, but instead by reducing the places on the car's body that generate turbulence along with using low rolling resistance tires, correcting brake drag, using synthetic transmission oil, ect.

But alas. The lemmings in this country don't understand how much they're getting ripped off and how much they've been forcibly lead into the car culture by an industry that hates mass transit and tore down most of it in the 1940s(Because access to mass transit means less cars are sold and used), and now pushes upon them high maintenance gas guzzlers that serve to part consumers with their money and nothing more.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Toecutter', 'T')he largest factor in Carter not winning in '80 was likely Reagan paying the hostage holders in Iran to keep the hostage crisis going. That made Carter appear incompetent, just as Bush does today.

[ClassicSpiderman]

http://tinyurl.com/3qt8sa

Don't get me wrong, I love the doomer porn sound of self-entitled SUV drivers squealing like stuck pigs every time the price of gas goes up, but there are more costs to driving a car rather than the price of gas. But I think the mainstream press needs a new headline for sure.