Gas Prices

[Mazin]

Ok just farted in my tank...Didn't do much though.

[StagLefty]

Ok just farted in my tank...Didn't do much though.

WRONG CONVERTER

[patrick0685]

IMO, it has little to do with supply/demand. I think if every single American stayed home just ONE DAY and didn't drive or fill up at the gas station, the oil companies would feel it in their balance sheets.

sadly this wouldnt work, there income for that day "might" go down but the next day there income would explode because all those people would have to buy the next day.

[lebru]

diesel ftw. my jetta goes 500+ miles on 30 bucks of diesel.


i can also use bio-diesel if I get it cheap enough (or free)

[patrick0685]

diesel ftw. my jetta goes 500+ miles on 30 bucks of diesel.


i can also use bio-diesel if I get it cheap enough (or free)

iv have always wanted a jetta turbo diesel, are they fun to drive?

[lebru]

iv have always wanted a jetta turbo diesel, are they fun to drive?

its a blast, they have a break in period where you have to drive like a grandma. after that they are awesome. The torque is incredible, you don't expect a small little car like that to pull as hard as it does.

[patrick0685]

its a blast, they have a break in period where you have to drive like a grandma. after that they are awesome. The torque is incredible, you don't expect a small little car like that to pull as hard as it does.

nice...ill have to check one out

[Mtn.man]

But they SUCK when pulling a gooseneck Trailer.

[lebru]

nice...ill have to check one out

I will admit though, for the same price I paid for this little Jetta I could have bought a base model 2011 Mustang (the 300hp 3.7l v6 version).

[Hoosier]

what do you think our kids are going to be saying to us? our immediate gratification to elect the first black president, bail out private companies with tax dollars, get "immediate gratification" to save some jobs and brands and banks. they will be paying far more for our lifestyles IMO.

I hope not. Bailing out the banks and auto industry has a short term cost, most of that money will be/has been recouped. The bigger problem was the bailout was that these companies were deemed "too big too fail" and as a consequence of the bailouts and the many failures/acquisitions of smaller institutions they are now ever larger. We should probably require them to break apart into smaller institutions, and one of which could be allowed to fail. That's seen as government intervention and is frowned upon.

Obama's big bet, the recovery acts, totaled approx $1T, but half of that was in tax breaks -- which the GOP would have done in the same situation. In the end the recovery legislation probably did shorten the recession, but of course that will be debated ad nauseum. I think the GOP would have done similar things because politicians can't be seen as doing nothing if they want to be re-elected.

I don't know what gratification came from a black president, I don't believe Obama was elected because he is half black, I think the only telling factor is that he wasn't defeated because he's black, as would certainly have been the case less than 50 years ago. The real question, to my mind, is how long before we could elect an avowed Atheist president? I don't see that happening anytime soon.

I think that what our kids think in 50 years is really going to depend on how we continue behaving. If we keep waging trillion dollar wars, if we keep our tax rates low while debt skyrockets, if we continue to kick infrastructure down the road these things will come back to bite us in the ass.

The real problem is that Americans, and thus American leaders, haven't had to cohones to raise taxes and reduce spending to actually acheve a balanced budget, let along the surplus we must have to pay down the deficit. It's as if we've been left with the tab for the past thirty years of American Exceptionalism, and now we're faced with the question of: Do we pay it, or do we keep adding on to it for the future to deal with?

H.