$70.00 american dollers, a few years back I told my friends that we would see $150.00 a barrell, in the near future and not 50 years down the road but with in 15 years or sooner.
well we are 1/2 way there. when will it stop ?
will we ever see gas below then a $1.00 ?
will the Americans come across the boarder to get our oil…lol?
what do you guys and gals think ?
This may sound strange, but I believe that, in an ironic way, these high oil prices are a good thing. Here’s why.
Gasoline has been too cheap for years. It was too cheap back in the 50’s and 60’s when Detroit was churning out multi-ton cars built like tanks that got, at best, 7 miles per gallon. People could easily afford to fill up a gas guzzler like that because gas was cheap.
Then came the oil crisis of the 70’s and the story changed forever. American companies kept selling their boats, but people couldn’t afford to fill them up. But then, seemingly from out of nowhere, Japanese automakers started producing smaller, lighter, fuel-efficient cars. These cars got easily twice the fuel efficency that the American-made cars did.
Of course, the first reaction from the American automakers was to try and appeal to people’s sense of patriotism. Buy American, they said. But it didn’t work. Why? Because the market was doing what it’s supposed to do: it was sorting itself out. Soon Japanese cars outsold American ones, for one reason: they were better.
This forced American automakers to adapt, and the result was smaller, lighter, fuel efficent cars.
The same thing is happening today. Yuppies driving around in their big Explorers and Hummers, sucking up gas by the barrel. People keep trying to stop this through protests and public pressure, but it doesn’t work.
Then along comes higher gas prices again. And now you’re seeing the hybrid cars like the Prius gaining popularity. Again, the market is doing what it always does: sorting things out. Now this will put pressure on other manufacturers to design similar cars, because the market clearly wants it.
And we also have to remember that China and India–with a combined population of about 2 and a half billion–are both emerging economies. What happnes when the majority of these people get cars? Combine that with the fact that petrolium is a non-renewable resource, and you’re going to see a crisis that will make our high gas prices look like a bargain in comparison.
Sure, it sucks to pay more for gas. But you can change your behaviour to make it less painless, both now and in the future.
Retail gas prices are still 30-50% what they are in Europe, and they do just fine.
But oil prices influence everything – heating oil, plastics, pretty much everything in our economy is transported by gas-driven vehicles.
Higher gas prices = higher inflation, which isn’t a good thing. This is especially true for those who are on a fixed income, or have no way of mitigating having everything in life get more expensive.
The crazy thing is that this is a world price, we’re victims of globalization. We can produce oil in Newfoundland for less than $10 a barrel. Not sure what the Alberta cost is (a bit more, I’d venture, especially for the oil-sands stuff). But since we sell on an open market, we use open market prices. Oil companies are making record profits.
So, we could say, we should be selling at or near cost to Canadian consumers first, but nope, 'cause if we don’t want to pay $70/barrel, somebody will.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FDC39418-C323-43FD-822C-860B9B2EC1E3.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/28/AR2005082800404.html
Higher oil price= Higher merchandise price which may lower consumer expenses leading to an economic trough.
Will this be the start of the decline of consumerism as a way of life?
Will WalMart and the others suffer greatly from this?
Expect the Bush cartel to be pressured by non-oil companies to intervene. But knowing Dubya, he’ll probably invade Sri Lanka or the Canaries! 
[quote=“BigThumb”]http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FDC39418-C323-43FD-822C-860B9B2EC1E3.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/28/AR2005082800404.html
Higher oil price= Higher merchandise price which may lower consumer expenses leading to an economic trough.
Will this be the start of the decline of consumerism as a way of life?
Will WalMart and the others suffer greatly from this?
Expect the Bush cartel to be pressured by non-oil companies to intervene. But knowing Dubya, he’ll probably invade Sri Lanka or the Canaries! [/quote]
Well, one of his cronies already advocated the assassination of Hugo Chavez, saying how the oil exports wouldn’t even slow down.
By the way, the part I was saying about high oil prices relating to cars was just one facet of the problem. I wasn’t saying it’s a good thing overall, but rather that at least some good could come out of it.
[quote=“BigThumb”]
Will WalMart and the others suffer greatly from this?[/quote]
considering that Walmart has one of the largest truck fleets in
America. It will suffer from the higher oil…too bad
I’d say the opposite will be true.
Wal-mart prides itself on being ultra-efficient in shipping and delivery. Those big ass Wal-mart trucks are very efficient, as is the Wal-mart computer system that moves stuff from China to the Wal-Mart stores. There is very little waste.
Wal-mart already squeezes every last cent out of shipping. It’s ready. Sure, prices will go up, but not as much as other retailers’. Increasing costs for everybody favours Wal-Mart, unfortunately.
The good thing about high prices is that the oil sands are now viable. They claim they may hold the same amount of oil as Saudi Arabia. It will affect the cost of transport goods, but that’s partly our fault. We just won’t f***ing use the ships and railroads that are far more efficient.
The bad thing is political. We gave up the right to set domestic prices under the first FTA. First, because the oil is mostly in Alberta it feeds the concept that Alberta is being milked. A growing number of people there fall for the rhetoric and forget they’re Canadians. Seperation on the grounds of pure greed is being espoused as democracy.
Americans are drooling over those deposits, and fueling the infighting ensures a weak federal government and guarantees the security of their supply. Look at what’s going on with our softwood, the only way we can significantly fight back is to hit where it hurts, oil. Klien and the people of Alberta won’t allow it. The Yanks and our internal quislings have ‘busted the union’.
Katrina’s going to raise prices too:
Major terminals and oil supplies will be down for some time.
Hmm. Guess we’ll be seeing even more scooters around town.
Mike
[quote=“CrazyMike”]Hmm. Guess we’ll be seeing even more scooters around town.
Mike[/quote]
Have you seen those new ones they have at NIS?? Holy crap they are like the Lambourghini of scooters, and they go insanely fast for a lil thing. They aren’t like those meep meep rental scooters either… these ones don’t slow to 2km/h up a hill.
I see them over there every day when I fetch the Sheriffs truck but I haven’t yet wandered over to check them out. Right now my favorite is the sporty looking one from Yamaha. I’ll have to check the NIS ones out.
I was talking to a guy who works in at National when I was renting a car not too long ago. He owns one of the Yamaha’s. Costs like $3,000 for one of them. I think he told me it costs him around $6 to fill the tank and he gets roughly 150km’s on a tank full of gas. Definately tempting for running around town.
Mike
Isn’t it also true that you can drive a scooter with a regular car driver’s license if it’s less than 50 cc?
Okay, but take a look at some of the following search results:
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=walmart+trucks+oil+prices&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
Now, there seems to be basically two arguments regarding walmart and oil prices: (1) As oil prices go up, cost of shipping increases (the argument I highlighed); and (2) that as oil prices increase consumers have to decide what they spend their money on: stuff at walmart or gas for the car. But are interesting.
Yes. Thats what makes them so popular.
Mike
I am making money from this.
I know that Newfoundland is one of the most expensive places for gas and oil.