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The "EveryBody" Insider
Communicating the Concerns of Black
People
This was my feedback to CNBC on a poll
regarding gasoline prices in 02-03.
Folks are paranoid over gasoline prices.
Every time the price goes up and the media starts running stories and
polls it causes the anxiety level in our society to rise. It is
more psychological than anything else. Further, if Congressman
Domenici and other politicians REALLY gave a rip about lowering
gasoline prices they would eliminate some or all of the exorbitant
taxes that are on gasoline. Some states see 26-48
cents/gal tax rates on gasoline (average is 40.2). The
politicians, not the oil companies and refiners, are to blame for
those taxes. Tell the senator to lower the tax (fed tax
runs about 18.4 cents/gal) if he is serious about helping.
With the price of crude oil running nearly
$0.93/gallon ($37/bbl) add about 40 cents for the tax
rate = you would pay about $1.33/gal just to put unrefined
crude into your tank (but you'd have to get it out of the well by
yourself)!
[For the remainder of the cost - well it
does actually cost something to turn crude oil into gasoline and to
get that gasoline to your station]. The point is that the bulk
of the cost is for crude oil and taxes.
The main difference in gasoline prices
across the nation is due to differences in the tax rates which the
states and local governments impose. We should really look
at the before tax cost of gasoline to see what's really going on.
But, even with the exorbitant taxes when
you adjust gasoline prices for inflation over the years it is cheap.
Does it really matter to most of us that you pay $15 to fill up or $30
or $40? Does it cause us not to take the same number of trips or
modify our driving? - usually not. I think the cost of auto
insurance and finance charges is a bigger budgetary factor.
I took a trip to a baseball game where I
sat in the $30 seats. I paid $4 for my car to sit still on
a side street for 2-3hrs instead of $5-10 for the
"real" parking lots. I paid about $8 for peanuts and a
hot dog. I paid $3.50 for one pint of bottled water. But,
the killer was that I had to pay about $3.75 for gasoline for the 60
mile round trip. It just killed the whole experience even though
my team won!
KJ
Texas
P.S. if/when the gasoline prices drop
again please be sure to re-run this poll.