Petrol price beyond a joke

Forums: Human Interest Stories
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Picked someone up from Heathrow yesterday, round trip cost me nearly £60. £4 a gallon ($7.60) this is getting beyond a "!*&%+"$!% joke.

What really p****s me off is that little old me contributes little to global warming whilst the airlines who measure the fuel they burn not by the gallon but by the ton, pay virtually nothing in fuel tax. Evil or Very Mad

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 829 • Replies: 15

No top replies

Don - I know I'm just going to annoy you by being logical, but there are heck of a lot more cars than aeroplanes - so I'd tax cars.

Your car doesn't employ stacks of people.

Welcome to capitalism, whatever the market can bear.

If you want to strike a blow against petrol prices boycott petrol, or reduce your consumption.

But I do sympathise. Our govt is making a bundle out of flat rates of tax on rising petrol prices. And the buggers don't even include fuel costs when working out the cost of living.

0 Replies

Gas in the USA is between $2.20 and $3.10 a gallon. But we are stupid enough to drive SUV's and trucks that get under 15 mpg., so were are probably paying the same to get to the same place.
I think George Bush & Dick Cheney make 5 cents on every gallon.

0 Replies

$7.60/gallon sounds just about right.

I wish it was that expensive in America, so people would think
about what their lifestyle does to
- the environment
- politics, industry, foreign policies
- time spent driving
- community traffic and involvement together (lifestyle)

Without some money involved, I'm afraid that Americans don't really
change their behavior, or truly think through their actions.

$7.60/gallon would be a really nice kick in the arse
to wake people up.

0 Replies

hingehead wrote:

Don - I know I'm just going to annoy you by being logical, but there are heck of a lot more cars than aeroplanes - so I'd tax cars.

Why wouldn't you tax both?

0 Replies

Administrative payoff.

Besides, the get tax on your fare, and company tax and profit tax.

Maybe the time was just never right to bring in a new tax. Remember poll tax?

0 Replies

Hear, hear, CodeBorg! I am fully for that! Plus people may actually walk more! and use public transportation. but that's way too radical...

0 Replies

The problem in the US is that, outside of the major metropolitan areas, there is no public transportation to speak of. I use public transport all the time, but I live in a major city which has an excellent subway and bus system. What are the people who live in a rural town supposed to do? They can't get to a grocery store without a car. I know; I have lived in such environments as well.

0 Replies

No cars indeed. So I don't feel urgent shortage of that at present.

0 Replies

CodeBorg wrote:

$7.60/gallon sounds just about right.

I wish it was that expensive in America, so people would think
about what their lifestyle does to
- the environment
- politics, industry, foreign policies
- time spent driving
- community traffic and involvement together (lifestyle)

Without some money involved, I'm afraid that Americans don't really
change their behavior, or truly think through their actions.

$7.60/gallon would be a really nice kick in the arse
to wake people up.

I agree completely with your and Dagmaraka's opinion CodeBorg, I've argued twice on this forum that prices in the USA are criminally cheap and should be doubled with immediate effect, however there is a limit to what we can pay, and realistically the UK is at that limit.

I have read two news clips today re. this subject, one was petrol prices will rise in this country in June AGAIN

and the second story was that profits for Shell oil are up by 42% this year

Evil or Very Mad

0 Replies

If you think petrol is expensive now, just wait ....

http://www.peakoil.net/

0 Replies

Green Witch wrote:

Gas in the USA is between $2.20 and $3.10 a gallon. But we are stupid enough to drive SUV's and trucks that get under 15 mpg., so were are probably paying the same to get to the same place.
I think George Bush & Dick Cheney make 5 cents on every gallon.

Can you please clarify what you mean Green Witch when you say Bush and Cheney make 5 cents a gallon. Do you mean that this is their profits as private oil producers?

Tell me FFS you dont mean the USA only puts this much tax on a gallon of gas.

0 Replies

My heart bleeds for the owners of 4 wheel drives (SUVs) in the suburbs. Come on now, admit it, something more suitable for city driving, that guzzled considerably less gas, might actually have been a brilliant idea!

0 Replies

You've got a problem alright Don. You may well be at the limit of what you can pay. If so, in the US, we are only about halfway there. US prices are only beginning to limit consumption in the US, so you are paying for the dent we make in world wide demand. Sorry about that. With less disposable $ than many employed people, I'm doing what I can for you, but as Merry Andrew says, these little towns just don't have much in the way of public transportation.

0 Replies

Merry Andrew wrote:

The problem in the US is that, outside of the major metropolitan areas, there is no public transportation to speak of. I use public transport all the time, but I live in a major city which has an excellent subway and bus system. What are the people who live in a rural town supposed to do? They can't get to a grocery store without a car. I know; I have lived in such environments as well.

Right you are, of course. But I'm wondering, if prices continue to rise and there is increased demand for public transportation whether it would develop even in areas where there is currently none to speak of? I'm not quite sure what would have to happen for it to be on the level as in Europe, but it is possible and likely that we may see more of it in the future. There's hoping, at least.

0 Replies

What really amplifies this problem was the privatisation of public transport by the SOB Tory party. We had a great public transport system when it was publicly owned, buses were regular and more or less on time, and it was CHEAP.

Now if a particular route doesn't show a set return on investment it is simply scrapped, and because investors expect a decent return on their investment prices were doubled at day one and some routes are now more expensive than getting a taxi if there are two of you sharing.

Consider this, my daughter has two teenagers at school, their bus fares are £12 each per week and my daughter pays £14 for a weekly pass thats a total of £38 ($74) per week just for bus fares, and none of them travel more than a mile and a half to school/work.

0 Replies

Petrol price beyond a joke

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know