Holy Price Gouging, Batman!

[elfs]

It's gonna get bad.

[Edit] If you live in the Puget Sound region, consider using and contributing data to the Seattle Gas Prices database website.

Comments

[shadowfey.livejournal.com]

The shortages are marginal; it's already been examined. But people are panicking, and panic drives up supply and demand better than anything but an /actual/ shortage.

Not only has Opec pledged to match demand in light of the aftermath of Katrina, but it is ultimately a temporary shortage. While a lot of petroleum product was shipped through New Orleans, it is not the only port in the country (or even on that coast), nor the only refineries, etc.

I imagine the others will be getting a boost to their budgets for production etc, but really, the biggest problem is that people /will/ assume that numbers like '40 per cent of the oil in the US is GOOOOONE' and not realize that it is considered a 'replenishable resource'.

This isn't to make light of the severity of what's happened (to New Orleans et al or to the gasoline). Just - (the gasoline loss) is perceived as a much more severe issue than it is, and that will lead to perception becoming a price 'reality'.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Exactly. The price hikes are occuring not because of the limit in supply, but because of a fear that a limit will occur in the near future.

And in answer to Elf's comment about the owners of the gas pumps needing to eek out that last little penny to make sure that their families are fed, I say this: While their families are fed, we non-gas pump owners have paid two to three times more in gas than before, which means that that money doesn't go to feeding our families. Further, if the gas is limited, then we are stuck at home with no way to get to work and be paid, so we've lost that avenue of money too...but we have no way to increase our income quoto over the short term like they do to compensate so that our families will get fed too. So why is it fair that their families get fed and ours don't?