Gas prices today.

[death row]

Filled up yesterday.. 74.67 liters which cost 116.04 euros. 1.554 euros per liter, which is about 2.424 dollars per liter so about 9.2 dollars per US gallon? Good thing the car only has 3 liter V8...

moi vihta. yeah its pretty bad these days, but i cant imagine paying 9.2 dollar per gallon.. its almost like.. whats the point of having a car. lol:ermm:

[Pandagirl!]

Oh, ok lizard.

Yea if gas here got up to $9 a gallon I don't see how Americans making minimum wage could get by... they'd have to raise minimum wage again probably.

[Jerome Scuggs]

Oh, ok lizard.

Yea if gas here got up to $9 a gallon I don't see how Americans making minimum wage could get by... they'd have to raise minimum wage again probably.

sigh, the sad thing is that's what politicians are thinking. you'd make a great senator.

as they say, ignorance is bliss. that, and the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

minimum wage goes up? the value of the dollar goes down, gas jumps to 10-12 a gallon to accommodate what investors perceive as more spending money, and minimum wage fails.

you'll probably want a price ceiling on gas, then. force it to be $5 a gallon. you should ask someone who lived in the '70's about how that worked out.

[Pandagirl!]

Well yea, but if gas is $9 a gallon and you're making minimum wage full time ($7 an hour, 40 hours a week), and let's say you put 10 gallons of gas in your car every week, 32% of your paycheck before taxes goes just to pay for gas. That just isn't feasible. I know raising the minimum wage isn't a panacea, but spending one third of your paycheck just on that gas to get to work isn't right.

[Jerome Scuggs]

Well yea, but if gas is $9 a gallon and you're making minimum wage full time ($7 an hour, 40 hours a week), and let's say you put 10 gallons of gas in your car every week, 32% of your paycheck before taxes goes just to pay for gas. That just isn't feasible. I know raising the minimum wage isn't a panacea, but spending one third of your paycheck just on that gas to get to work isn't right.

And you don't see a problem with, let's say, the fact that almost 40% of your paycheck goes to taxes? And that Oil companies get a 9% profit margin off of a gallon of gas, and yet the government gets 20%? They don't drill it up, refine, it, or even touch it, yet they get a bigger cut than the people who are ACTUALLY providing us with oil (no matter how much we hate them).

It might not be right... but it is what it is. Reality's a bitch. The gas prices are a reflection of poor bureaucratic decision-making, useless and counter-productive politics (like war), and the fallacy of fiscal policy.

[Pandagirl!]

And you don't see a problem with, let's say, the fact that almost 40% of your paycheck goes to taxes?

No, it actually pisses me off that we pay taxes on our income and then pay more taxes when we spend that money.

All I'm saying is that if gas rises to $9 a gallon and minimum wage stays the same, the ones who are making minimum wage (or near to it) will soon be impoverished. That means more people on welfare, more home foreclosures, etc etc.

Our economy fucking sucks though... I spent today at work changing all the shelf tags to make everything 10 to 60 cents more expensive. It doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but if everything you buy is more expensive by even 10 cents, it adds up.

[Jerome Scuggs]

No, it actually pisses me off that we pay taxes on our income and then pay more taxes when we spend that money.

All I'm saying is that if gas rises to $9 a gallon and minimum wage stays the same, the ones who are making minimum wage (or near to it) will soon be impoverished. That means more people on welfare, more home foreclosures, etc etc.

Our economy fucking sucks though... I spent today at work changing all the shelf tags to make everything 10 to 60 cents more expensive. It doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but if everything you buy is more expensive by even 10 cents, it adds up.

If you haven't, you should take a macroeconomics course. Learning a few basic principles about supply and demand (and how taxation affects both) will help you understand the implications of what you're saying.

[Pandagirl!]

I was going to but then I got senioritis and didn't.

[Jerome Scuggs]

I was going to but then I got senioritis and didn't.

if it's not required by your college then i will be very surprised and/or saddened at the state of our country's education

[Pandagirl!]

Yea, I have to take an economics class, but only for a prerequisite for my finance class.

[Jerome Scuggs]

Yea, I have to take an economics class, but only for a prerequisite for my finance class.

thank goodness for what decency there is left in america

[Vykromond]

Well yea, but if gas is $9 a gallon and you're making minimum wage full time ($7 an hour, 40 hours a week), and let's say you put 10 gallons of gas in your car every week, 32% of your paycheck before taxes goes just to pay for gas. That just isn't feasible. I know raising the minimum wage isn't a panacea, but spending one third of your paycheck just on that gas to get to work isn't right.

idea: use less gas

[Singularity]

Panda, looking at your calculation: why would people drive 50 miles a day for a minimum wage job? I mean, come on, anything available close to you is preferable to the job you have at the moment thats probably an hour away by car.
Using a median hourly income for such a calculation would make more sense, and probably is closer to 15 dollar an hour.
Also, if you really have a good job somewhere, you might as well move to be more closer to your job, saves time and money everyday.

[Cops]

I think she lives at home and is a full-time student. I bet she's losing 30% of her part-time salary though :/

Everyone's been up in my grill about me getting a car recently, it's gonna cost me 2000 for something decent plus 400 a month in insurance, plus gas to and from school/work is easily 150 per month. Maybe I just don't see the point in spending 80% - 100% of what I make on driving a vehicle. I really don't know how teenagers/young adults can afford it without them being co-signed to their parents isnurance as well as their parents helping out with gas.

[DankNuggets]

Panda, looking at your calculation: why would people drive 50 miles a day for a minimum wage job? I mean, come on, anything available close to you is preferable to the job you have at the moment thats probably an hour away by car.
Using a median hourly income for such a calculation would make more sense, and probably is closer to 15 dollar an hour.
Also, if you really have a good job somewhere, you might as well move to be more closer to your job, saves time and money everyday.

i don't think it's too unreasonable for an arguement. It's more like 40 miles a day @ 20 mpg and no weekend driving. I admit I don't know the fuel economy of her car, but 20 mpg is probably a modest estimate, though 25 isn't too unreasonable. Most people wouldn't want to commute 15-20 miles to work, but plenty of people do. I personally live 2 mi from my job, but i live downtown so it still takes 20 min or so to get there. However my girlfriend just changed jobs because she had a 16 mi commute to get to it. The new one is still 10mi away, and we live in the center of the city. If you lived in any of the "suburb" neighborhoods, you'd have at least a 15-20 mi commute. Moving closer isn't always an option -- there aren't any housing options within 2 mi of her job, and most of the ones closer than where we are now are 200,000 dollar houses or more. Plus, it'd be moving further from my job, but I'd make that concession.

And once again, the income figure isn't too far off either. like i said before, the min. wage in ohio is $7, but it's still 5.85 here. Gas prices aren't that far apart to represent the difference. However, median income's right around $13-$14 / hr, so that's a good point to make. The average person isn't spending 1/3 of their income, but those living at or near min. wage are. But then again, this is all based on the assumption that gas hits $8/gal, which I don't really see happening before they raise the minimum wage again (which I agree won't help, but something needs to be done).