Today's topic is...
With a new year rapidly approaching, it seemed the right time to renew something Craig started around the first of 2008, and that’s the Topic of the Day. He stopped after a while, because he simply ran out of subjects. All he did was send out an e-mail every morning, and they became a popular item. He asked questions like ‘What is your favorite food to eat? Or favorite restaurant, or favorite car, or most famous person you’ve met, favorite actor, favorite movie, or just whatever. And, he seemed to get more people involved, than just the Heavener bloggers. Maybe he has an address book with more Heavener contacts than I do.
Let’s try it again. So, what would you like to see as the topic of the Day?
(Excuse me for butting in on John's blog, but this is Craig adding this part, not John. The topics John mentioned were and are here. They were on the Heavener forum. Anybody can post and discuss, but you have to register to vote in polls. It's easy. Plus, to help get things started, I added a new topic here. Please feel free to start a topic or begin discussions or post on existing ones on the Heavener forum. Also, here is a link to the Heavener Yahoo group where I used to start the discussion. There is some other cool stuff there also. Enjoy and I will leave John's blog now).
posted by Anonymous @ 6:09 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
A good subject that I would like to know more about is why do gas prices keep falling? This is a good thing for the consumer when buying gas, but is it good for our economy overall. Companies keep downsizing and laying people off. When are things going to stabilize?
I never can remember my password on this Google Identity, so I'll have to sign in as anonymous - Jim Patterson
Jim,
The easy answer is to look at the price of crude oil. One gallon of crude produces certain quantities of gasoline, diesel, bunker C, et al. The cost of running an existing refinery is pretty small since it is largely automated.
That answer begs another question: Why is the price of crude falling?--and that leads to the standard answer that demand versus supply sets prices. Crude prices make up somewhere around one-third to one-half the price of gasoline. Transportation costs add another third or so and the remainder is sunk in the local retailer.
Is it good for the economy in the long run? Probably, so as long as demand stays down and the supplies of crude hold out until better, alternative energy sources are institutionalized.
Hey Glen, you forgot to add in taxes! The government U.S. & most states make more on a gallon of gas than the companies who produce it. Mercy!
P.S. btw you were right-on in your description of politics being mostly emotion. ie ck the "mania" going on today. :(
Bill,
You're right in that taxes make up a large part of the cost of gasoline. I just lumped them in with the costs associated with those things that produce value and included taxes at the point of collection (thus the relatively large part associated with the retailer).
Even so, US taxes are a lot lower than European taxes on fuels. The last time I was in Europe diesel was costing about seven US dollars per gallon. Actually, when inflation is factored in gasoline at $3.00 per gallon today is cheaper than the 25-30 cents per gallon I paid back in 1956 or so.
It's good to know people are actually reading the blogs and the comments.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home