When will gasoline prices be TOO MUCH?

I have a question since I live over 500 miles away, how much is gas around Cedar Point. Here inthe Philly metro area we are paying $4.20 a gallon

http://www.ohiogasprices.com

I've got back my local driving, by taking less pointless trips into town, combiing more errands than I used to, etc. By actually paying attention to how much gas I'm using, I may be using less and therefore spending less on gas than I did a year ago. With the savings and conservation during the week, I'm not really going too far out my budget to take trips to CP. Granted, I can get there and back on a little less than half a tank, so.....about $20. That's still not enough to keep me from enjoying a few trips to the Point this summer.

I feel like if 25 extra dollars a trip is really that big of a problem you shouldn't be spending your money at an amusement park anyway. Of course if you're making more than 2 or 3 trips a summer (like a lot of the people here do) it can definitely add up.

The government is inflating this dollar of ours with out of control spending. The government's job is to keep us safe and leave us alone, not waste our money. I don't see why I have to give them 35% of my income that I could be spending on things including gas to go to the Point.

-TedFuzz

^^2-3. Ive already been 3 times, and I consider myself a lightweight on this board. Last year I made it to the point 10 times, I doubt Ill be there that much this year (but thats because of my job that starts in July,) like I said the gas price to CP is not hurting me yet, bump it up another $1 or 2 and it will will.

If prices hit the $4.50 mark and stay steady and rising still. I will say that THAT will make me go you know..lets stay home and go tubing down the Muskegon River (for free). I used to think Michigan's Adventure was a great deal and the $25 admission (well platinum pass doesn't matter for myself). But to spend $10 on a locker, and than $6 or $8 per inner tube. Makes you say to heck with this and you would rather go to Soak City.

or.. buy a more efficient vehicle.. take a bus.. take a train... drilling in Alaska's National Wildlife Refuge does nothing except destroying pristine Earth and delaying a solution to a problem smart people have known about for over well over 30 years, the world is running on an empty tank.

(Trouble is, OPEC knows that, and the glory days for them are numbered.)

^ - you know, that same argument was made when they put the pipeline in.

^^Yes because we are absolutely incapable of not destroying the land when we mine now. Oil companies are a scourge on the earth, all that they do is destroy anything they touch, and steal money from all of us. When was the last time you heard of a major oil spill on land not caused by sabotage?

factory81 said:
If prices hit the $4.50 mark and stay steady and rising still. I will say that THAT will make me go you know..lets stay home and go tubing down the Muskegon River (for free). I used to think Michigan's Adventure was a great deal and the $25 admission (well platinum pass doesn't matter for myself). But to spend $10 on a locker, and than $6 or $8 per inner tube. Makes you say to heck with this and you would rather go to Soak City.

Have you ever been to soak city? It kinda really sucks. And aren't the 6 dollars per tube prices just deposits that you get back when you return the tube? (Or is that the lockers) I know one of them was last time I was there 5 years ago so things could have changed.

I've never paid for a tube at MiAdv. They are free for the rides that require them, and they should be banned from the wave pools, or at least 2 of the wave pools.

I don't want to bring politics into this but yesterday as I was on my way to Taco Bell <--- Very yummy... I was listening to the radio and they were talking about the gas company reporting a 30+ billion dollar profit in the first quarter. WOW is all I can say to that. I of course was putting the blame of the prices to the gas company and as I continued to listen I found out that the government taxes them at a 49% rate.. So in return $2.00 a gallon goes to the government. I just thought I would throw that into the discussion.

In case anyone was wondering I was listening to 104.1 in Orlando....

I found this interesting and thought I would share!!

Senate Republicans block windfall taxes on Big Oil :(

JuggaLotus said:
^ - you know, that same argument was made when they put the pipeline in.

Just because an argument was made prematurely doesn't mean it isn't rational and won't someday be correct. The question is, is this that time or isn't it? Hubbert certainly seemed to think so. He predicted in 1952 that American oil production would peak and then decline in the late 1960's to early 1970's. The peak year for American oil was 1970. His formula, modified and updated by later analysts, has been used to successfully predict when many individual fields would begin decline.

We're NOT running out of oil. If indeed we're at peak oil, that means there is still as much oil left in the ground to recover as we have used. What it does mean is that all the easy oil is getting used up, and it gets much harder to obtain what is left. Maintaining current levels of production will prove impossible, let alone increasing it to meet growing global demand.
Edited for that grammar thing.

^The windfall tax is a exercise in poor economics. For one thing, yes oil has a huge gross profit, but because their cost of business (buying crude, transporting crude, refining, transferring refined products, etc.) is so high their net profit is really not that high.

On top of that, if we tax them to obvilion what is to stop them from just picking up and leaving? China and India are growing like gang busters now and the United States' impact on the oil market shrinks everyday (dont believe me, demand is down in the US but yet the prices continue to climb) if we give them another reason to leave, they will. Just like last time in the late 70s/early 80s when we did the same thing and lost a majority of our domestic oil production.

There is only one word for that: moronic.

Of course the same goes for the other candidates idea of dropping the gas tax, too. The only that will do is up demand (leading to an up in prices) and a loss of our transportation budget. Just thought I would add that in before someone accuses me of being a partisan.

Apologies for the quoting...

Touchdown said:
..their net profit is really not that high.

You obviously have no idea what you're talking about. At all.

Yeah, McCain's tax holiday is one of the worst ideas I've heard.

Not to mention, the profit margins for oil companies are only slightly higher on average than the rest of the S&P 500 (9.7% vs 8.5%). I got this info here. So, while they are making a LOT of money, most of it (about 90%) is getting re-invested in the company.

In 2007, Exxon disclosed income taxes of $30 billion on revenue of $390 billion and net income of $40.6 billion, a new record.

Source

Their profit margin still isn't that high at about 10.4%.

A look at other profit margins.
BP -> 7.5
Chevron -> 8.0
Exxon -> 9.7
S&P -> 10.7
Apple -> 15.1
Google -> 24.9
Microsoft -> 28.3
source
Profit Margin is Net Income/Net Sales. So, how much do you actually make after you've sold your product.
It looks to me like the oil companies are right in line with what would be expected from any company. The dollar amounts just seem so inflated because they are HUGE companies. Huge companies that employ lots of American workers.