I don't think taxing individual drivers for driving larger vehicles is necessarily the way to go. I say, increase the tax burden on the oil speculators and oil companies that are reaping the profits from this mess. If you're buying and buying and buying barrels of the oil with the intention of driving up the price so that you can sell it down the line and make a huge profit, then you should be prepared to lay down some ducat for it.

Gas is hurting. I am by no means wealthy, and I am the sole earner taking care of a wife and an infant daughter. I make less than $10 an hour and, here in WV, that's a good wage. My last fill-up cost me $46.32, and we'll go through that in less than a week. It's almost to the point where my first hour at work every day is just to pay for the cost of fuel getting there and back. And as I said, in between my full-time office job and my tattoo studio, I make decent money for this area. I can't imagine how people pulling down $6.50 an hour and supporting more kids are doing it.

Having just recently parked my Infiniti that I was filling every week at a rate of at least $50 per fill-up and going to my Civic which I just purchased that I fill every 2 weeks at less than $40 per fill-up, I'm not bothered by the recent increase of gas at all. I actually hope this might be the start of the push that this country needs to start doing something proactive about the dependancy we have on oil.

Actually you would be at about 37mpg average (not 45mpg)

100 miles @ 21.8mpg=~4.56gallons
200 miles @ 57 mpg=~3.54 gallons

300 miles/8.10 gallons=~37mpg

you've made good points before on this issue, but i must respectfully disagree...

two examples off the top of my head are the single mom and the individual that cannot maintain a $500 car his/herself.

obviously there are some out there that have nothing left after paying the monthly bills. a $500 or $3000 car is not possible because there is no savings.
if these high gas prices continue(along w/related rising prices), it is my concern that my family and others like us will be included in the "empty savings group."

BTW, people ARE being stuck in vehicles, especially SUVs. unable to sell or trade is a bad place to be.

"Big oil execs making 32mil a year and we're paying upwards of $4 a gallon.. Hubberts peak you say? Oh ok, I believe you. "

I saw them answering questions in front of congress the other day. They were asked, "how much do you personally make every year?". The answers varied from "around $2 million" upwards of $10 million. 2 of the big oil execs answered "I don't recall".

First off, I would imagine that much of these guys' transportation costs and so on are also covered by the company. So a lot of that income is maybe, probably discretionary.

Second, isn't "I don't recall" pretty close to perjury? I mean, who "can't recall" what their salary is?

Grr. Just griping. Their other argument was that it wasn't "all profit", and that they re-invest most of it. I don't know about that, either, but I kind of doubt it.

oil CEO salaries?

if these will be attacked, then let's include the drug companies, hospitals, retailers, home improvement, etc.

i challenge ANYONE out there to disprove that the capital is there to support a strong US economy via fair pay standards. point being that it is not a tax issue, it's greed. taxes along with pay should be fair.

take my company, Sysco Foods...no where at any level will you find the multi-million/billion dollar salaries. do a search, 'cause i won't do it for you. our profit margin is relatively low BTW.

my issue is not my pay, but what i'm taxed!!!

[QUOTE=bowtieguy;102295]oil CEO salaries?

if these will be attacked, then let's include the drug companies, hospitals, retailers, home improvement, etc.

[QUOTE]

I only mentioned CEO salaries for oil companies because we are, after all, talking about oil prices. You're right, it is greed. I'm not an economist by any means, but the talking heads on TV that claim knowledge about this sort of thing are even grumbling that there's no explainable reason why gas has doubled in the last year.

bodhi,

i wasn't calling you or anyone else out, just heard that argument many times. the fact is, even tho this discussion is about gas, many companies could charge less for there goods/services or pay emplyees better(how 'bout a combo) if it were not for CEO salaries and shareholder interests.

but, from another thread...

https://money.cnn.com/2008/05/20/news...ion=2008052010

N/P, i didn't feel called out :). As for your other post, I do imagine that there are probably prescription medication forums out there where people grumble about the CEO salaries at Merck and Pfizer as well :). I wonder if those people have thought about hypermiling their meds...

I can't beleive people like you survive on $10/hr and have a wife, kid, and 03 Vibe GT! I thought I was poor at $20/hr 2 years ago, now I make $65,000 / year and can mostly spend on anything I want and splurge on good food! I should be a good enough catch for a chick!