Why aren't people complaining about gas prices?

I just heard it broke four bucks on average in Hawaii, and it's creeping upwards elsewhere.

Why is hardly anybody making a big deal out of it? I remember not too long ago where $3 seemed like you were pulling a trigger on a gun aimed at your head instead of a nozel in your gas tank.

I think people are just resigned to it now. It's over $4 a gallon most places here in southern California.

^ This, pretty much. 3 years ago, $4/gallon made everyone freak out, but now, it's like, what are you gonna do?

I'm not complaining because I walk/bus/carpool everywhere.

I wish buses/public transportation were a more viable option where I live (i.e., the outskirts of Columbus).

This is getting off-topic, though.

If nothing else, it's probably going to have me taking the bus / train into work some days. Which is probably good for me.

Living outside the US I always smile when Americans complain about that gas prices are high at 4$/gallon where here it's usually above 7. Of course it doesn't really affect me since I use public transport. Maybe it's because I live in aa city where Public transport actually works most of the time but I don't understand when people complain about it since to me it is cheap and always within walking distance. Of course every year they are surprise than the trains can't handle the amount of snow that falls but that survivable.

I'd say people are just used to it. It doesn't seem that high here, about 3.30 IIRC.

Its been this high before. Nothing new really. This is So Cal's version of storms when we don't have fires to complain about. It happens.

The level of shock the first time, though, makes sense; gas hit a low of $0.89 here in late '97/early '98, and slowly rose to a more normal about $1.80 over the next few years, and then, bam! suddenly doubled.

I don't know about your areas, but around here there's also the price-creep factor. The prices jump twenty or twenty-five cents a gallon for a while, then drop again, to only maybe a nickel more than they were. Then it happens again. It doesn't take long for the actual base price to have gone up 25 cents, but it happened in little jumps.

It does the same here. It's been inching up for a while, probably mostly right now because of the middle-east turmoil.

I'm pretty sure we'll hear a lot more about gas prices once election time comes around.

Though I genuinely hope they won't stay that high but I'm too practical to hold onto that hope.

I think the government should just slap an excise tax on gas and force us to use the transportation that the revenue could be spent on.

That way, even if you don't take the bus, you're paying for a ride.

Except where I live public transport isn't feasible.

Gives you a good incentive to figure it out, eh? :V

I mean, obviously if you live in Kansas or Arizona outside of a major metropolitan area the tax shouldn't be there. Or your car should be electric.

Electric cars aren't feasible either.

I doubt any law that only applied to cities like that would ever be passed.

Where's here?

My father works at a gas station, and he mentions the prices ($3.73 for regular) sometimes at dinner.

$0.0828 per gallon.

edited 15th Mar '11 3:34:17 PM by Stormtroper

Because most people on the forum aren't old enough to drive yet?

Too bad for them!

I am old enough to drive, but gas prices are exactly why I don't have a car. I wouldn't be able to afford keeping it full.

I'm pretty much resigned to gas prices being high, since I can't do anything to avoid them. There is no public transportation where I live and things are too spaced out for me to walk anywhere. I also can't afford a hybrid or electric car.

We oughta make those cheeper too, subsidize those instead of windmills.