Gas Calculator

[Michele]

about 1.5 hours

[GreyhoundsRUs]

Re: Gas Calculator

4.75 hours at 3.89/gal

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4.35 hours for an average of $3.60 (it's been $3.50-$3.70 for the last two weeks). - sucks.

[Vanquisher]

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21.97 hours. DH is 2.49 hours.

That is just ludicrous. Something needs to be done about this. Right. Now. I don't understand how our government can sit back and watch this problem grow and grow.

The average gas price in the USA today is 3.62. If a person who makes the average US income of a person in the US is 36,000 (not poverty level), it would take them 3.13 hours of work to pay for the cost of one tank of gas, pre-tax. A person who makes minimum wage would have to work 10.54 hours!!! You know, this is hurting a lot of families very deeply, and I have to wonder if any of these politicians give a rat's ass about any of it. What's $60 for a tank of gas when you're blowing through millions of dollars on campaigning and billions of dollars on war expenses.

*I* can't afford gas at these prices. We make more money than the average American worker. I can't imagine if we were in medical school right now! It just pisses me right off.

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Heidi, it's jumped 20 cents since I posted this calculator. They say we are going to crack $4 before Memorial Day here.

I really don't think it's going to get better - at least not in the next 5 years or so. I think it's just another symptom of our economy slowing/screeching to a slow roll. When you consider the subsidies we have for gas compared to other countries (who are taxed higher) I really don't think that anything will be done to adjust up for it - it's already pretty high (the subsidies).

ITA. When our exchange students from Germany lived with us in '92 and '93 their gas costs then where above $3 maybe $4. I remember our exchange student told us most Germans at the time didn't get their own car until 30, and some never got a car. They had such a great transportation system via bus and light rails, that a car was not necessary.

To me there are a couple of things in our economy that are playing on how detrimental it is the average blue collar family:

Manufacturer jobs are mostly gone - making or economy a science/engineer/banking driven society, which means people are commuting from rural areas to non rural areas for those types of jobs, increasing the need to drive for those families. With so many commuting, those who live in the Midwest IMO are hurt the most (possibly) as there are no light rails for the most part, everything is extremely spread out. In MO we know lots of people who live in an area out west of STL that even 5 yrs ago use to take only 30 mins to drive one way, but now with so many moving out there it's now a 45-1hr drive - and no light rail in that direction (though there is talk about one). If California can make these kinds of changes so can everyone else. While the idea of manufacturer jobs or say coal mining jobs going down the tubes seems good, because we are now wanting more educated jobs for individuals and seemingly more healthy environments, we now have caused a huge shift in the way people live - but no one has really changed, yet, but with these gas $$$ we will. People will have to give up their trucks in those rural areas, as it's just a calling card for most, like a mascot of sorts - and most don't haul a lick. People will have to move out the rural areas to keep these new kinds of jobs. And most likely more people will work out of their homes as well.

It's a harsh new reality, that has been the worlds for some time, now it's time for us to suck it up, get rid of the Suburban that a mom of one is driving, and realize we've had it pretty darn good. Now we just need to figure out how to cut the waist. And learn what American's new way of life is, and hope we all survive the metamorphosis. And get a president in office who will embrace these change instead of ignoring it.

[Vanquisher]

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Yeah, but the U.S. is huge, and MOST Americans do not live in places where they can catch the subway or lightrail. I think it is short-sighted to expect that everyone can just give up their cars.

I am not saying that we haven't been paying less than much of the rest of the world for some time. I am saying that it is crippling to working American families. We do not have a decent transportation infrastructure to bail us out. People can not simply take light rail, or quit their jobs so they can move into the city to save on gas, meanwhile increasing their housing costs.

I am not saying that we need government subsidies. I am saying that we need to start passing some laws that require cars to get really, really good gas mileage. We have the technology, it needs to be implemented, everywhere. We need to start spending government money on the alternate and cleaner transportation methods that work for the United States. Germany is a little larger than the state of New Mexico, but smaller than Montana. It would be a lot easier and more feasible to build a national infrastructure that supported getting rid of cars, if our country wasn't as expansive. We need to figure out solutions that work for the United States. We might need to look into tapping our oil reserves. We need oil producing nations to increase their production, while we decrease our consumption, but the ideal of getting everyone to move into the city just isn't going to happen.

21 percent of the people in the U.S. live in rural areas. 59 million people are going to be hard to move into cities.

About 70% of the population of the United States lives within the boundaries of urbanized area (210 out of 300 million). Combined, these area occupy about 2% of the United States. The majority of urbanized area residents are suburbanites; core central city residents make up about 30% of the urbanized area population (about 60 out of 210 million).

Most suburban areas do not support the unfrastructure for commuter rail lines either. Nearly as many people live in rural areas as in core central city residents.

We are not in Europe, and we can't possible apply the same logic here. Whether or not we "should" be paying $5/gal of gas is irrelevant. The fact remains that it is not feasible for the average American household to subsist on their current salaries AND pay that much for gas. Furthermore, with the price of gas going up, it affects the prices of many of our other essential industries, including retail, grocery, and manufacturing. Ask economists if we are in a recession, and they will tell you we are headed that way. Ask the average American, and they will tell you, "YES!!"

Perhaps this thread needs to be moved to debates?

[Vishenka69]

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We're averaging at about $3.65. I kind of agree with both opinions. I think we can definitely increase the rail system but also need to invest more into the alternate energy and make hybrid cars more affordable.

We used to have a rail system that went down to Philly and NY but then the interstate was build and the rail was converted to industrial use. We do have a bus but the round trip ticket is currently more expensive than gas, tolls and parking and the trip takes longer. I would love having the train and there's talk about reviving it but we'll see how long that will take.

It would also tremendously help for hybrid cars not to cost so much more than regular models. Although with the increasing gas prices, they might pay for themselves much sooner. But making them more affordable to the general public is very important.

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I didn't mean those things would solve the problem for the whole U.S., more of some things that will have to change. People will have to give up their jobs that commute long distances if they are paying more than they make for these jobs. People will have to change how they work, or where they work. These things have changed drastically in the last twenties years. I have my 10 yr high school reunion this summer, and I will find it very interesting what people are doing. It's a more rural, but not actually a rural area. It's a combined population with it's sister town of say 35,000. Most of my classmates either went to college, or got a tech degree or went to trade school, or went to cosmetology school, or joined the military, or worked the family business. I'm not sure how much the area is able to make these kinds of jobs work for the population anymore, especially with pentions being obsolete now, and health care coverage almost gone too. I'm curious how many actually commute an hour into St. Louis, as I assume many do, or 30 min away further south to another bigger town. These types of jobs just don't pay enough for most families to make it w/out a good dual income family. And, I'm not sure who many can afford to commute, having a lower $ job. Things have to change, I don't have the answer, but our lives and our parents lives aren't the same - and we can't financially make it the same way, and only now is it blaringly obvious. And yes we aren't Europe, but at some point we have to live on actual cash, and cough up our fight to keep things as they were. I like the idea of making Hybrids more affordable. DH thinks SUV's should be heavily taxed when bought new, and I ... agree. If you want the "choice" to have what you want, then you should have to pay the cost to society at some level. We have a SUV that was given to us. I appreciate the free car like you can't believe, but I do feel guilty about having it, and our gas costs are higher. When we can buy new, I'm getting a wagon. Cities are going to have to be more efficient in transportation, period. Rural areas are going to have to change the economics which make them tick as coal plants, manufacturer jobs, and even farming jobs have all shifted drastically. Remember towns became ghosts towns a century ago for a reason, they were unsustainable, no matter how much people wanted them to be. Our gas is never going to be $1.00 again. I remember in hs when it was. Tapping into oil reserves just let's Americans ignore the obvious, that it's time to change our ways and for one generation or another at some point it won't be sustainable to live so heavily on oil. Ignoring that to pollute the gorgeous mountains of Alaska is absurd to me. Nova did a special recently where Click and Clack when to other countries to see how they live on much less oil consumption, and *gasp* they do. The government needs to wake up, and put our tax money to good use instead of fighting elections at cost we do. It makes me so angry how much money we are spending for this presidential campaign, a system we made, and money we waste horrifically. Imagine if used that money for hybrid tax relief, instead of useless campaign ads. Other countries, they don't all have the same solution, but more solutions than us in regards to this topic, and some we could take on. Either we change or we go broke.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/