Originally posted by zgendron:
I'm with you! This is not a big news story, and people are making WAY to big of a deal out of this. Is it going to affect some people. Sure, and Nick, you're one of the unfortunate, and it sucks. But in the grand scheme of things, this is NOTHING!

I'll take my area (Eastern MA) as an example. In the last month gas prices have shot up about $0.25/gallon.

They were roughly $1.75, and now up to about $2

Comeon people, lets go back to some simple math!

First, some assumptions
Annual Milage: 20,000 miles.
Ave MPG: 20 miles/gallon

So how much do you spend annually on gas?

20,000/20 = 1000 gallons/year * $0.25 = $250/year or $20/ month increase.

Now let me give you an idea of where you can get this money back. Again, some assumptions first

# of work days/year = (52 *5) = 260 (give or take)
Average Cup of Coffee = $2 (and thats none of these special coffees)

Annual cost of daily cup of coffee = 2 * 260 = $520/year, or $43/month!

Amazing how no one has complained about the coffee prices lately! Hell, even if you only have a cup of coffee every other workday, you've paid for the SMALL increase in gas prices.

Take a look at gas prices across the world, and you'll find that we've got the cheapest prices around! Stop your whining, suck it up, and start conserving or ride a bike!



This argument assumes that people still have excess cashflow in their budgets. Over the last couple of years, and especially for families, budgets are already as tight as they'll go. The people sweating $30-$50/month more in gas expenditures don't buy $2 coffee. These folks can't cut much more without sacrificing necessities for their family. Why can't people figure this out?

-- 1999 SVT #220 -- In retrospect, it was all downhill from here. RIP, CEG.