As I was filling up my car this weekend, I realized that the price was different - about 22 cents different - from the price I had paid the week before, and that the price of that fuel was about 20 cents or more expensive than the week before.
I wish I had the receipt for the fuel purchase for both weeks - I do not really print them out anymore - but I can pretty conclusively remember that the price has gone up about 16% in the course of two weeks, which officially made it over 2 X the cost of gas during the low point of The Plague.
I shudder as I filled up the tank, as I am enough of an economically savvy person to realize the implications of this as it works its way through the system. Because literally everything travels at some point by a fuel powered conveyance, be it big rig or delivery truck or auto drop off.
The change will not show up there at once, of course. It will trickle in. Prices will start to go up, first on the delivery side and then on the item side. Delivery charges have already bumped up for the services that I use: Alibris went from $3.99 to $4.49; overseas shipments have climbed as well.
Then, of course, the change ripples out. People begin to have to make choices between fuel and other things. All of a sudden, the expendable category of expenses become more expendable. Non-essentials become the non-purchased, services become something that is done at home.
It always amuses me - in a dark sort of way - when Our Political And Social Betters react with a sort of lukewarm enthusiasm to this sort of problem. "It is temporary" we hear, or "we are doing "things" (usually undefined things) to resolve the issue". In point of fact very little gets done that is of impact; in the past they have simply played for time until the market corrected itself. That works every time of course, right until the market does not correct itself.
I checked on the price yesterday. It had gone up another 10 cents in less than 24 hours. I am now starting to think of ordering items that have delivery charges now, before the delivery charges climb again.
The Great Emergency may not be upon us. But A Great Emergency may very well be.
Yes sir, prices are rising. 30 cents this past week alone in same gas station (now $3.76 for the low grade). I feel sorry for those who are required to use Premium or lose their vehicle warranty. I'm going to buy my next two oil change components today, oil and all things petroleum will likely be affected. May as well purchase as slow as it is now, I don't see prices coming down this year at least.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - That is an aspect I had not considered at all (I am only of the Unleaded variety).
DeleteAnd yes, the plastics shortages that we are already experiencing are about to get far more expensive and far worse.
Here in Minnesota first ring suburb of the capital city, went from $3.50 to $3.80/gallon last week. Pain at the pump has returned since the last election.
ReplyDeleteIndeed Nylon12. Eaton Rapids Joe has a graph linking the rise in price over the last 14 months. One can draw their own conclusions.
DeleteI'm not sure what they can do about it anyway. Anything they do involved tax payer money so I'll end up paying for it at the pump or in April. I prefer the pump because it is based upon my consumption. In April I'm paying for myself and the 50% of Americans who don't pay taxes because that is what is considered "fair". They have no incentive to consume less when I'm footing the bill.
ReplyDeleteEd, I think there are some actions they could take. The first - simply - is to make energy independence a critical national goal. This situation existed under the Previous Occupant, but the Current Occupant immediately turned away from it. Instead of work to make the best use of our own resources, we are now reduced to either considering tapping the National Strategic Reserve because of a policy failure instead of a strategic need or begging (literally) other countries to increase their production. At least to my recent reading, the Current Administration has not once made increasing domestic production a goal. Even now.
DeleteThe second of course would be for states and the Federal government to reduce their taxes on fuel - neither of which will happen of course, but it is something they could to.
At least from my point of view, we all end up footing this bill through increased prices for everything, those that drive and those that do not. I would think that would be enough to stir the Current Administration into action. The fact that to date it does not -and likely will not - speaks a great deal to me about how this Administration views the people who it in theory represents and how it views the people's "best interests".
Fair enough. I was mostly thinking in terms of immediate remedies. Energy independence is necessary but definitely won’t happen soon.
DeleteAh, completely fair Ed. Yes, I was thinking of longer term solutions.
DeleteI do that an unequivocal statement that the US will do what it needs to achieve energy independence, although certainly not an immediate fix, would provide a statement of purpose that could both set a tone and a goal. Perhaps a moral victory, if nothing else.
It could happen soon. We were a net exporter in 2019. Just undo the day one dictatorial edicts from Jan 20, 2021. Allow the pipelines to run, sit back and watch it happen.
DeleteAll it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.
All it takes for America to flourish is for our government to be limited to the point it is starved almost to death.
STxAR - It might take longer than a few weeks (to Ed's point), but it would certainly be much sooner than us doing precisely nothing and "hoping" that the kind people in other countries will help us.
DeleteSTxAR - Biden's edict did nothing to stop oil from flowing from Canada to Nebraska. It is running at this very moment though through pipes not designed for such a task. What the edict did was stop the building of a new replacement line built specifically for that type of crude and with more capacity.
DeleteSTxAR - Ed is correct; only the XL pipeline was stopped and to my knowledge anyway, no other pipelines were shut down.
DeleteThat said, apparently the XL pipeline could add up to 1 million barrels a day to the overall available amounts in the US. Again, that would make a pretty powerful PR statement, if nothing else.
I had hoped to make a trip to see extended family this year. It's been over ten years since I've seen some of them. But I don't think I will be able to now. I've prepped for the bad days as best I could, but fuel is one thing I don't make myself... yet.
ReplyDeleteIt might be worth renting a small econobox to make the trip. I'd have to limit my pawn shop / garage sale / antique store forays.
I have started to look at shipping if it is cheaper than the gas to go and get it. With my vehicles, that starts to break even at about 80 miles round trip. Just about the same distance as major city is from home.
STxAR, sadly econoboxes are expensive anymore. We have to travel back to Old Home for wedding and were looking at a rental for 5 days. It was a shocking amount of money.
DeleteWe are going through the same thing - we have credit on a major airline for a trip we were supposed to take in 2020 but did not thanks to The Plague. Ticket prices have gone up almost 2X or so now that we are looking. My guess is that we are going to settle for something a lot closer to home (and, this will impact the tourism industry. Never thought of that before).
I suspect my travel will very soon become the same as yours. For me at this point, almost anything more than an hour away needs serious consideration.
Our 40% inflation is about to go ballistic. Are the good times really over for good? This Zombie Nation is long past the "Sell By" date. No government, no economy, no press, no religion, no education, no bueno!
ReplyDeleteThe end happened while we weren't looking. Now we are just watching the free fall.
Just So, I fear that you are right.
DeleteOver for good? Maybe not. But possibly over for a very long time indeed.
You may indeed be right - we missed the dramatic climax, and now we are only watching the credits roll.
Here in the Wild, Wild West:
ReplyDelete$4.63 last week.
$5.00 Saturday.
$5.10 yesterday... for regular... in Hemet...
Diesel is at around $5.59.
...Regular is going for over $7.00+/gallon in Beverly Hills...
Go electric; right? My electric bill went up between $90.00 and $115.00 per month, starting in December… The reason? Gavin Newsom’s “green” law requiring power companies to get most of their power from “green” sources and shut down their natural gas power plants. There aren’t enough “green” sources to supply the state’s needs, and guess what; solar panels don’t work at night. Since they can’t fire up those NG power plants they are forced to buy more expensive electricity from outside the state. That cost gets passed down to me. Edison just sent me a letter out of nowhere and did it... Ironically, natural gas-powered plants are the second-cleanest conventional providers of electricity, behind hydropower, not counting nuclear plants, which have problems of their own, and the electricity we’re buying could very well be produced by coal-fired plants! Somehow though, we're all supposed to be driving electric cars whilst happy music plays in the background... in a state that can't even keep the lights on during the summer months as-is...
...My electric bill for last month was $329.00... It's winter... In the West that's when we see the lowest electric bills because the A/C isn't running. Given the percentage of increase, it'll be easily cheaper to make a payment on a brand new Mercedes than to run the air conditioning this summer...
...THIS is what "going green really means, Mom. It means your green is going...
Yikes Pete! I mean, I am not terribly surprised - I am aware you have some of the highest prices in the nation - but that rapid becomes undoable.
DeleteYes, the electric "bonanza" is about to become more readily apparent to people in the form of higher prices and "rescheduling" for use in inconvenient hours that suit no-one.
That is a stunning number for Winter.
I wonder if there is really a price point at which people wake up, or are we just consigned to an endless "it will be okay one day" sing-along?
You don't think this was all planned? It is part of Agenda 2030.
ReplyDeleteMy thinking as well...
DeleteTewshooz and Pete - Unfortunately the current crop of leaders remains so inept of both sides, I do not know if it is something larger, or simply that they cannot manage their way out of paper bag.
DeleteIncompetence or stupidity will have a random distribution- even a fool gets something right, some of the time.
DeleteTewshooz is right. This is enemy action. There is a war on, against not just the USA, but the whole of Western Civilization.
The end goal. IMO, is to depopulate most of the New Lords Playground Earth, save for their enforcers, servants, serfs, and sex toy/torture playthings. The rest of us are useless vermin to them.
That ranch is looking better by the day!
Hamon like sunset ridge
has a line of ruby showing
after the days work.
Oh, I agree that Our Political And Social Betters view most of us as nothing more than tax donkeys and useful serfs.
DeleteAfter the days work,
sunset's deep orange shimmering
like the hamon's edge.