Gas


  • :belt_onion:

    In the last 4 days, every gas station in today has raised their prices 40 cents a gallon.

    Merry Christmas and Fuck You
    0_1513999579949_TjK2EDZ.gif



  • @el_heffe Hey that's the mic Ben just bought... Ben? Is that you?



  • @blakeyrat said in Gas:

    @el_heffe Hey that's the mic Ben just bought... Ben? Is that you?

    No, I bought the black mic with the $-15 game, remember?



  • @blakeyrat That's one of the most popular consumer microphones ever, even I have it and my sister has it. There's better ones for cheaper but we didn't know that back then.



  • @lb_ Yes, and its impossible that I was making a joke!


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @el_heffe said in Gas:

    In the last 4 days, every gas station in today has raised their prices 40 cents a gallon.

    Where are you? They've been pretty stable around here for the last few weeks.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @el_heffe said in Gas:

    In the last 4 days, every gas station in today has raised their prices 40 cents a gallon.

    Google maps appears to have a problem finding Today.

    Is gas there as expensive as it is in the UK yet? (Roughly $8.60/US gallon (£1.18/UK* litre for those that want to check the maths/assumptions ))


    * What? Pints and gallons are different. Just a bit of CYA.



  • Well, at least it's not as unpleasant as what I expected given that thread title.

    Filed Under: I am talking about the Gnu Assembler, of course. What did you think I was thinking? :face_with_stuck-out_tongue_winking_eye:



  • @pjh I can promise you, fuel prices are nowhere near that anywhere in the US, except maybe somewhere in Death Valley or the wilderness of Alaska. The US government spends more on Welfare for the petroleum industry than it does on Welfare for human beings.

    No, that's not a joke. Twenty years ago, I saw estimates indicating that all told, the price of gasoline was subsidized at a rate a 500%, meaning that a $2/gallon price at the pump was actually closer to $10/gallon - and that is just in terms of tax breaks and other pork, without even including the national security costs (though since those are tied into so many other parts of national security, it would be impossible to come up with a trustworthy figure on that).

    Of course, since most of the 'job creation' from it (and most other things corporations do) is just Welfare for their 'employees' by another name, perhaps that's not as clear-cut as all that. But whatev', Shell Games always have an unlimited pool of suckers (with the hucksters being the biggest marks of all, in the end, just like with all con games), and if neither the corpse-rat executives nor the government 'leaders' realize that they are subverting the very system they claim to be supporting, who am I to wise a sucker up? I mean, really, they actually think they run things, and thinking it is even possible for any one person or group to do so is a level of delusion worthy of PT Barnum.

    I am quite certain that it hasn't decreased since, as making sure that the ordinary people of the country don't feel the price in a way that they will notice serves the interests of both the Right and the Not-Quite-So-Far-RightLeft equally - the poor get to keep affording to go to work at their make-work, no-it-isn't-the-same-as-Welfare-even-though-the-company-doesn't-really-need-the-job-to-be-done minimum wage jobs, the rich get lots of money on the government's dime (though they don't seem to realize that it is their own money just being recycled to them), and everyone gets external targets in the form of people in other countries pissed off at the oil companies. Win-win, right?

    Do You Believe That?™


  • :belt_onion:

    @pjh said in Gas:

    @el_heffe said in Gas:

    In the last 4 days, every gas station in today has raised their prices 40 cents a gallon.

    Google maps appears to have a problem finding Today.

    Yes, I accidentally left out the words "in my area"

    Is gas there as expensive as it is in the UK yet? (Roughly $8.60/US gallon (£1.18/UK* litre for those that want to check the maths/assumptions ))

    Take away all taxes and gasoline prices are pretty much the same in the U.S. and U.K.


  • :belt_onion:

    @boomzilla said in Gas:

    @el_heffe said in Gas:

    In the last 4 days, every gas station in today has raised their prices 40 cents a gallon.

    Where are you? They've been pretty stable around here for the last few weeks.

    Gas prices had been declining steadily and on Monday they were the lowest they've been in a while. Then, on Friday, when I needed gas, Merry Christmas Fuckers.



  • @scholrlea said in Gas:

    @pjh I can promise you, fuel prices are nowhere near that anywhere in the US, except maybe somewhere in Death Valley or the wilderness of Alaska. The US government spends more on Welfare for the petroleum industry than it does on Welfare for human beings.

    No, that's not a joke. Twenty years ago, I saw estimates indicating that all told, the price of gasoline was subsidized at a rate a 500%, meaning that a $2/gallon price at the pump was actually closer to $10/gallon - and that is just in terms of tax breaks and other pork, without even including the national security costs (though since those are tied into so many other parts of national security, it would be impossible to come up with a trustworthy figure on that).

    Of course, since most of the 'job creation' from it (and most other things corporations do) is just Welfare for their 'employees' by another name, perhaps that's not as clear-cut as all that. But whatev', Shell Games always have an unlimited pool of suckers (with the hucksters being the biggest marks of all, in the end, just like with all con games), and if neither the corpse-rat executives nor the government 'leaders' realize that they are subverting the very system they claim to be supporting, who am I to wise a sucker up? I mean, really, they actually think they run things, and thinking it is even possible for any one person or group to do so is a level of delusion worthy of PT Barnum.

    I am quite certain that it hasn't decreased since, as making sure that the ordinary people of the country don't feel the price in a way that they will notice serves the interests of both the Right and the Not-Quite-So-Far-RightLeft equally - the poor get to keep affording to go to work at their make-work, no-it-isn't-the-same-as-Welfare-even-though-the-company-doesn't-really-need-the-job-to-be-done minimum wage jobs, the rich get lots of money on the government's dime (though they don't seem to realize that it is their own money just being recycled to them), and everyone gets external targets in the form of people in other countries pissed off at the oil companies. Win-win, right?

    Do You Believe That?™

    I'd have to see that data. I highly doubt it. Everything I've seen shows that gas/oil companies get only the same basic depreciation breaks as other natural resource companies.

    In 2013, the US oil and gas industry did about $1.1 trillion dollars of business per year (source). In that same year, the total expenditures of the federal government was about $3 trillion dollars (source). Those numbers make a 4:1 subsidy rather improbable.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @el_heffe said in Gas:

    Is gas there as expensive as it is in the UK yet? (Roughly $8.60/US gallon (£1.18/UK* litre for those that want to check the maths/assumptions ))

    Take away all taxes and gasoline prices are pretty much the same in the U.S. and U.K.

    Subtracting 20% sales tax, then 58p/l excise* translates to around $2.43/USg.


    * Yup. Excise is applied, and then sales tax applied on the resulting amount.



  • @pjh said in Gas:

    @el_heffe said in Gas:

    Is gas there as expensive as it is in the UK yet? (Roughly $8.60/US gallon (£1.18/UK* litre for those that want to check the maths/assumptions ))

    Take away all taxes and gasoline prices are pretty much the same in the U.S. and U.K.

    Subtracting 20% sales tax, then 58p/l excise* translates to around $2.43/USg.


    * Yup. Excise is applied, and then sales tax applied on the resulting amount.

    As to the footnote--it works the same way here. And there's multiple layers of excise taxes--city (sometimes), state, federal. The total excise tax (average state + federal) is about $0.50/gallon (about 1/6th of what you pay, if I'm doing the math right), and sales taxes are usually in the 5-10% range.


  • Grade A Premium Asshole

    @pjh said in Gas:

    @el_heffe said in Gas:

    Is gas there as expensive as it is in the UK yet? (Roughly $8.60/US gallon (£1.18/UK* litre for those that want to check the maths/assumptions ))

    Take away all taxes and gasoline prices are pretty much the same in the U.S. and U.K.

    Subtracting 20% sales tax, then 58p/l excise* translates to around $2.43/USg.


    * Yup. Excise is applied, and then sales tax applied on the resulting amount.

    Fucking hell, those are usurious tax rates on fuel.

    They have to pay for all those speed cameras somehow I suppose.


  • :belt_onion:

    @pjh said in Gas:

    @el_heffe said in Gas:

    Is gas there as expensive as it is in the UK yet? (Roughly $8.60/US gallon (£1.18/UK* litre for those that want to check the maths/assumptions ))

    Take away all taxes and gasoline prices are pretty much the same in the U.S. and U.K.

    Subtracting 20% sales tax, then 58p/l excise* translates to around $2.43/USg.

    Current price in my area is $2.40 to $2.45



  • @scholrlea said in Gas:

    the price of gasoline was subsidized at a rate a 500%, meaning that a $2/gallon price at the pump was actually closer to $10/gallon

    Surely that's only an 80% subsidy (the government subsidising 80% of the $10/gal cost).


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @polygeekery said in Gas:

    They have to pay for all those speed cameras somehow I suppose.

    No. Those pay for themselves outside of this particular govermental accounting measure.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @scholrlea said in Gas:

    The US government spends more on Welfare for the petroleum industry than it does on Welfare for human beings.

    :rolleyes:


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @pjh said in Gas:

    @el_heffe said in Gas:

    Is gas there as expensive as it is in the UK yet? (Roughly $8.60/US gallon (£1.18/UK* litre for those that want to check the maths/assumptions ))

    Take away all taxes and gasoline prices are pretty much the same in the U.S. and U.K.

    Subtracting 20% sales tax, then 58p/l excise* translates to around $2.43/USg.

    That's roughly the local average price including tax. We have the normal Federal excise tax (of course) plus a 2.1% tax at the wholesale level by the state.



  • @boomzilla said in Gas:

    @scholrlea said in Gas:

    The US government spends more on Welfare for the petroleum industry than it does on Welfare for human beings.

    :rolleyes:

    I didn't say it was a bad thing, did I? Just that it was a thing.

    But then, as I also said, it isn't as if most of the petroleum subsidies are anything more than Welfare for people who are only nominally working, in the first place. If anything, the fiscally minded ought to be looking to cut out the middle man.

    But then, I expect that the Tabularchy is on top of it - even if it has no idea it is, of even of its own existence, because the Invisible Hand makes even more sense if you note that the conceptual divisions between private enterprise, government, religion, and ideology are inherently illusory. Never attribute to greed or corruption what can be adequately explained by a near-total lack of self-awareness (which is a terminal condition for humans in general).



  • GasBuddy.com is a useful tool to find the lowest gas prices in your area (USA only, AFAIK) or to check out what the gas prices are elsewhere in the nation.



  • I have to apologize; I do not want to spill the venomous contempt I feel for H. sap - especially myself - onto fora this way, but there are times when my rage grips me such that I cannot resist it.

    In the kingdom of of the idiots, the half-wit shrieks in despair.


  • Grade A Premium Asshole

    @scholrlea said in Gas:

    But then, as I also said, it isn't as if most of the petroleum subsidies are anything more than Welfare for people who are only nominally working, in the first place.

    Huh??

    Your posts in this thread just seem like schizophasic rantings.


  • BINNED

    @polygeekery said in Gas:

    in this thread

    just in this thread?



  • @scholrlea said in Gas:

    Well, at least it's not as unpleasant as what I expected given that thread title.

    Mason Williams - Classical Gas - ORIGINAL STEREO VERSION – 03:03
    — You Can't Download Vinyl


  • Grade A Premium Asshole

    @luhmann said in Gas:

    @polygeekery said in Gas:

    in this thread

    just in this thread?

    Touchē



  • @polygeekery Well at least it's not about Lisp or a distributed database filesystem thing that simulates how humans think or something.

    EDIT: and BTW when are we going to get the edited-down version of that second one?




  • ♿ (Parody)

    @scholrlea said in Gas:

    @boomzilla said in Gas:

    @scholrlea said in Gas:

    The US government spends more on Welfare for the petroleum industry than it does on Welfare for human beings.

    :rolleyes:

    I didn't say it was a bad thing, did I? Just that it was a thing.

    :rolleyes:


  • 🚽 Regular

    @blakeyrat said in Gas:

    @el_heffe Hey that's the mic Ben just bought... Ben? Is that you?

    Doesn't seem to be working. I can't hear a thing he's saying.


  • 🚽 Regular

    @polygeekery said in Gas:

    Your posts in this thread just seem like schizophasic rantings.

    Except for the first one. That one was pretty good.



  • @polygeekery You knew this was a difficult job when you signed up. Now, get back to work and remove that beam!

    Filed Under: And here I thought Alice was going to be my new name. But I guess you can't help that here.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @scholrlea said in Gas:

    Now, get back to work and remove that beam!

    0_1514141016155_8b805a22-c50c-4b79-8335-3cb1cc69de49-image.png

    ???



  • @zecc said in Gas:

    @blakeyrat said in Gas:

    @el_heffe Hey that's the mic Ben just bought... Ben? Is that you?

    Doesn't seem to be working. I can't hear a thing he's saying.

    It's a directional mic, of course.


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