Higher gas prices from anything but a higher gas tax helps who exactly?

Hey, look, Exxonmobil is writing more articles. Next up: Higher gas prices make you look younger! No, really!

dahmers love zombie: Actually, the math isn't quite that linear.

Each $1 increase in a gallon of gas will save 11,000 lives, up to about $4 more extra (or $7.50-8.00 a gallon). At that point, the billionaires who run the petroleum industry in the US can literally buy themselves an entire Republican congress, which, along with the dramatic increase in economic power given to the despots in the most politically unstable region of the planet, greatly increases the chance that we'll enter into another war for oil in the next ten years. This will result in the LOSS of life, potentially as many as were saved through the rise in gas prices.

Now, if you increase the gas TAX to get to $8/gallon, you end up weakening the petroleum megacorporations, weakening the oil sheiks, funding a massive improvement of the transportation infrastructure in the short term, and encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship at all levels in both the short and long term, not to mention the boost to science research and discovery that will accompany the required move to a new energy plan for transportation in the US.

...which wilk never happen (sadly)

Everyone also seems to be assuming that sales will be exactly equal with each increase of gas prices (which is pretty weird, considering TFA also notes how bike shops and driving alternatives will be getting more buisness). Haven't gas price hikes before just caused pretty significant (temporary) drops in gas usage and stuff?
Sometimes you have to drive, but a lot of it is being lazy and/or being excessive.

Zakumene: Higher gas prices from anything but a higher gas tax helps who exactly?

gawdamm tururists! praze jeebus!

Er, wilk = will

/touchscreen smartphone = shiatty typing

untaken_name: Hey, look, Exxonmobil is writing more articles. Next up: Higher gas prices make you look younger! No, really!

And help you lose weight!

Came to post the XKCD pic. Beaten to it.

What about people who are racing to the hospital because of heart attacks and severed appendages? Does it help save their lives?

Fossil fueled cars to go the way of the dinosaur?

Is this the oil industry version of cop math?

So, then... We could theoretically solve world overpopulation simply by halving gas prices?

So, I'm guessing no one, including subby, read tfa?

Farker T: Fossil fueled cars to go the way of the dinosaur?


Meh, wrong thread, but it still works.

Sort of.

This space intentionaly left blank: untaken_name: Hey, look, Exxonmobil is writing more articles. Next up: Higher gas prices make you look younger! No, really!

And help you lose weight!

And help you get laid!!!

Yet another good argument for nuclear cars.

About 75% of the Pentagon budget should be funded with a gas tax. Maybe 90%.

The US military spends most of its efforts assuring you can drive your fat ass in your SUV to 7-11 for a slurpee.

No, subby, at $27K a gallon, all the lardasses will drop dead from trying to walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail. So, you are simply going to have to find another way to keep the planet overstocked.

Lower oil prices will drive down profits for the big oil companies, and those bastards at opec. It will drive up profits for local gas stations as people buy more gas.

Win-win!

The sad thing is, you just know that there was some fat farker out there somewhere, who pulled out his calculator and tried to prove submitter wrong.

There are some people who should never drive, or use tools.
Detroit is a good place to observe this genotype.
The big savings of lives is due to these types not be able to afford the gas to drink-drive.
now they just drink.

Will also help out automotive parts manufacturers, as people buy more tires, and other replacement parts.

Doppleganger871: Will also help out automotive parts manufacturers, as people buy more tires, and other replacement parts.

I talked to a guy recently who sells auto parts. Business has never been better, people are repairing instead of replacing their cars.

Barakku: Everyone also seems to be assuming that sales will be exactly equal with each increase of gas prices (which is pretty weird, considering TFA also notes how bike shops and driving alternatives will be getting more buisness). Haven't gas price hikes before just caused pretty significant (temporary) drops in gas usage and stuff?
Sometimes you have to drive, but a lot of it is being lazy and/or being excessive.

Clearly you don't live in a place that has damn near no public transportation. I'm a 20-30 minute drive from school, depending on traffic. The only public transportation is downtown and I can't afford to move closer.

Until dropping my high college ideals or moving on campus became cheaper, I physically cannot use any less gasoline. None of my friends live out this way to carpool. A lot of people are in this situation, except instead of school, it's work.

But no, gasoline demand doesn't vary a whole lot. If demand does drop sharply, it has done so because the price has risen so high that people can actually not afford it. When you have to start borrowing money for gas because the price is so high, you're pretty much farked because then the price of everything else goes up because shipping costs more and suddenly your $10/hr job has the same purchasing power as a $2/hr job did ten years ago.

It costs me about $5/day to get to school and back right now. Back when I used to work near there years ago when jobs were plenty, it cost me literally about $2/day. So gas prices have MORE THAN DOUBLED in less than ten years. Has demand dropped? fark no. Not one bit.

I guess you could start with the 'price the market will bear' bullshiat, but you just can't apply it to gas because it's so vital to most people. What if water went up to $10/gallon? You'd still buy it wouldn't you? $20/gallon? $30/gallon? $40/gallon? The market can bear it, but the economy cannot.

jaytkay: Doppleganger871: Will also help out automotive parts manufacturers, as people buy more tires, and other replacement parts.

I talked to a guy recently who sells auto parts. Business has never been better, people are repairing instead of replacing their cars.

Yea, I can see that, too. I guess I'm kinda blind to it, because I always fix my own vehicles... well, except for tires, I haven't dropped the cash on a tire machine or high speed balancer... yet.

But, routine maintenance happens less frequently when people drive less, tires wear out less, etc.

I dont think this means what you think it means.jpg

theknuckler_33: Does that mean if I kill 11,000 people, gas will go down a dollar/gal?

Just, you know, out of curiosity.


Reverse social engineering, eh?

dahmers love zombie: Actually, the math isn't quite that linear.

Each $1 increase in a gallon of gas will save 11,000 lives, up to about $4 more extra

Regardless of the rest of your post I didn't include, there are 35,000 annual driving-related deaths in the United States per year.

So if the math were true and perfectly linear, more than $4 wouldn't save any more lives because there are no more deaths to prevent.

The solution to all problems is to simply ban all vehicles weighing more than 800 pounds.

I was told there would be no gas.

Because everything is always linear over any arbitrary range.

dahmers love zombie: Now, if you increase the gas TAX to get to $8/gallon, you end up weakening the petroleum megacorporations, weakening the oil sheiks, funding a massive improvement of the transportation infrastructure in the short term, and encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship at all levels in both the short and long term, not to mention the boost to science research and discovery that will accompany the required move to a new energy plan for transportation in the US.

I'm not sure that'll work. People might use less gas and be more interested in alternatives (not that the infrastructure exists to support any alternative...), but the suppliers will simply raise the price everywhere. If demand somehow stayed the same despite the additional tax, the suppliers might actually end up with higher profits because they can increase the price just a little bit more than the applied tax, even if the additional increase is not noticeable at the point of purchase.

It's all a dream, anyway. Nothing will change in the foreseeable future.

vodka: The solution to all problems is to simply ban all vehicles weighing more than 800 pounds.

How about banning all people half that weight, too?

And, no, people will still die on motorcycles.

Doppleganger871: vodka: The solution to all problems is to simply ban all vehicles weighing more than 800 pounds.

How about banning all people half that weight, too?

And, no, people will still die on motorcycles.

Probably even faster without all that shielding. I know a number of people who have been in bad accidents with stationary objects.

It would probably help if it was a bit more difficult to get a license. People argue that there are parts of this country where you need to drive, and while that's true it doesn't mean you shouldn't have to become competent at it before you're let out on the road.

I grew up in the middle of nowhere and a person can't take a bus or even bike around. To get a license I had to drive around 4 blocks, show that I knew how to operate the various lights and parts of the car, and parallel park. The last part only happened because I was one of the randomly selected few who had to do that part. There were people in my high school who could barely navigate the parking lot after passing that test.

Wow, I hope we don't research any alternatives to running our economy on oil from countries that hate us until oil production drops significantly, driving the price sky high! That would be a travesty.

I want to know that an ever increasing portion of my hard earned money is going into the hands of people who will spend it trying to kill me and my countrymen. Because socialism.

/electric cars, electric roads

Mitch Taylor's Bro: Was I the only one who misread the headline as "Yay meth"?

yip

Assuming a completely linear relationship between things that are related in a complex way is logic fail.