But people have to get where they’re going somehow, and often in a city (like Los Angeles, where I live) there aren’t many ways around driving. For example, I live approximately 3.5 miles away from my job, but due to the inadequacies of our public transportation syster, I would have to leave my apartment by 6:25am in order to make it to work by 8 if I rode the bus. I’d love to bike, but the roads in Los Angeles are also not biker-friendly - traffic is insane, drivers are incompetent (and scary), and streets are often poorly lit. So I guess my real hope is that higher gas prices will lead more people to get out of their cars and push the city of Los Angeles to actually come up with a viable long-term solution, such as more frequent buses and more extensive bus routes, or safer biking conditions (well, biking would automatically become a little more safe with less people on the road). Of course, for people in other cities I can’t really speak.

And yeah, I know that people in other countries are paying much higher prices for gas. And some countries are paying much less. Either way, $4 or 5 or 6 a gallon is still a lot of money, and is just one demonstrative of the way that the cost of living is ever-rising - and unfortunately my income isn’t.

As for moving closer to work, I’d love to but, I work in the city where house prices are unfordable by me.

Currently gas is 4.739/US Gallon or 1.252/liter in Toronto, Canada.

Plus, the single biggest cost of gasoline is the cost of a barrel of oil. Crude oil makes up over 60% of the cost of gasoline, and that’s the cost that the oil companies have to pay to get the crude…and that’s before it gets refined. If their cost has gone way up, do you expect them to just eat the cost increase out of the goodness of their hearts? Here’s a news flash for the economically illiterate: businesses pass cost increases on to consumers!

The gas price problem lies mainly on three main fronts: treehuggers who would rather we remain dependent on oil from volatile parts of the world instead of farming our own; worldwide demand; and the leeches known as speculators.

EnvironMENTALists have sold the world on this junk science fad known as global “warming”, but all that is is just a cover for their anti-American anti-capitalist agenda. Just look at Kyoto: China and India can pollute at will, but America has to wreck its economy? No thanks. Even Canada isn’t meeting its agreed-upon targets, and it looks like they have no intention of doing so. Anywho, the treehuggers won’t let us get our own oil, so we have to keep begging the weirdbeards at OPEC for more oil to run OUR country.

Worldwide demand for oil is up, even though demand in America is down. Countries like China, India, and Brazil have emerging economies, and they’re buying more oil now like there’s no tomorrow. As a result, worldwide demand is way up.

Speculators are arguably the biggest problem. These vultures are creating their own wealth through highly dishonest tactics, and they contribue absolutely nothing to the oil-to-consumer process. Here’s how:

Let’s say I come over to your house and breathlessly warn you that a fire is rapidly approaching your house (even though I know it’s not true). Fortunately for you, I just so happen to have bought a firehose (that I paid $10 for at The Firehose Store). I will sell you (or lease you) the firehose for $100. After a convincing sales pitch, you believe me and say “Wow, $100 is kinda steep, but I need to save my house! OK, I’ll take the hose.” The fire never comes, and I just profited $90 off of feeding you a load of crap. I created my own lies-based wealth, and I added nothing of value to your life’s equation.

Was that a normal case of “supply and demand”? No! Demand was artificially, and knowingly so, inflated by the speculator in order to make a profit. That, my friends, is what is happening right now with this commodities market speculation, especially with food and oil. Speculators pump their money into the commodities market by buying low, they convince the producers that conditions suck in order to get the producers to jack their prices up, then they sell high and profit off the mess they created.

Speculators helped create the real estate mess by driving the price of homes up to irrational levels, and the correction came, hurting a bunch of people in the process (after most speculators cashed in first, though). Not content with having damaged the real estate sector, they’re now setting their sights on inflicting pain and suffering on the food and energy sectors. Is this really what capitalism is about? Frankly, I don’t think so.

So don’t blame the oil companies. Blame the bunnyhuggers and the vermin speculators.

In your money thats you current price of $3.40 compared to ours of $9.84

I must admit being a little envious of your price.

For those of you who wonder why the USA fuel price is so cheap, one easy answer, their government does not tax the heck out of the product at the pump.

All countries buy crude on the world commodity markets, its the government that puts the taxes on it that cause you to pay the high price at the pump. So if you are suffering higher prices than the USA look no further than your government and put the blame on them.