Will 20$/ barrel oil, 1$ /gallon stop people from buying an ebike ?

We just got back from the midwest on our Vaca. There was not a huge varience in pricing thru out the trip. Everyone hovered around $3 for 87/10 gas. I use no ethanol gas that was always .15 to. 20 more. It was a 5500 mile trip and fuel was our major expense. By the way, for all you RV'ers. We had zero problem finding campgrounds with water/elec. The one place we reserved in Custer, SD, never came close to full occupancy. So I have no idea what to make of that considering they have been warning of space shortage since last April. Even Custer was not crazy busy. Keystone....the little tourist town that caters to Mt Rushmore was busy, but it always is in season. The Badlands NP had camping spaces the whole time we were there, even though they claimed full. In fact it was not a busy as we remember over the many times we have visited. Maybe the price of gas slowed things down but I can't seeing $5-7 per tank more as being a deal breaker.
 
Just a thought...
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It's one of the worst things that could happen to our economy. Wealthy and many middle class families won't have a problem paying $75 more a week for gas, working poor families and lower class it will hurt very much and will have people voting for change. Definitely nothing to applaud. The working poor aren't buying Teslas.
 
It's one of the worst things that could happen to our economy. Wealthy and many middle class families won't have a problem paying $75 more a week for gas, working poor families and lower class it will hurt very much and will have people voting for change. Definitely nothing to applaud. The working poor aren't buying Teslas.
Nor are they buying king cab diesel trucks. Really the American (sort of) made vehicles aren't made for people without piles of money and good credit anymore.
Even European level fuel prices could mean some people can either buy gas or food, not both, once the rent is paid. SAD
 
Maybe some would quit smoking, and trade their smart phone and TV entertainment accounts for a home phone, a solid internet connection, and a TV antenna? Those changes alone should let them buy all the gas they need for getting back and forth to work if necessary.
 
Come winter and heating bill's are 35% more than last winter, it will hurt everyone, especially the kids and old people on fixed incomes. Employers will tighten their belts. Fuel goes up and everything else follows. 35% across the board. Pocketbook policies drive voting.
 
Come winter and heating bill's are 35% more than last winter, it will hurt everyone, especially the kids and old people on fixed incomes. Employers will tighten their belts. Fuel goes up and everything else follows. 35% across the board. Pocketbook policies drive voting.
The thing this whole economy depends on is oil. It even replaced the coal power it had running the mills with oil power since the days of J.D.Rockefeller? Standard Oil, anyway./Sorry offtopic again /
 
Come winter and heating bill's are 35% more than last winter, it will hurt everyone, especially the kids and old people on fixed incomes. Employers will tighten their belts. Fuel goes up and everything else follows. 35% across the board. Pocketbook policies drive voting.
Curious, or maybe I've missed something. Where did you see heating bills were going to go up 35% over last years?
 
I believe J.R. was just generallizing. Not just heat will go up relative to income, but oil prices influence all prices. Especially among the poor.
Think about the double digit price hikes in food, clothes, and housing of the stagflation 70s along with the declining paychecks of today. Then the gap between the rich and poor 35 percent is still a big change though.
 
Sorry, though I admit to the concept of the widening pay gap (and not liking it much), I'm not seeing the doomsday picture being painted here.

Still, working single moms have my total sympathy.

I married one. This lady brought up 3 kids, made sure they did well in scchool and did that with no assistance from anywhere. Not saying all should be able to manage that, only that she's a hero for getting the job done.... and it IS possible
 
Curious, or maybe I've missed something. Where did you see heating bills were going to go up 35% over last years?
Crude oil prices are up by 54.23%, just since January '21. CNBC, Bloomberg Financial, FOX Business all report the true inflation rate today is more than 7%. The government figure is 2%, but doesn't include food or energy. Gas at the pump has increased by more than 33%. And the government will need to print more money due to the pandemic and other increased spending this year. Although more jobs were created in the recent report, unemployment numbers were up as well.

This has nothing to do with party politics. I couldn't care less about that. I don't make those arguments. Those are the real numbers from in print reporting from many sources. I don't have cable, don't watch cable news. It's not like both parties haven't made similar economic moves in my lifetime. I remember the Nixon energy policy mistakes and the spending policy mistakes of Carter. That all yielded home mortgage interest rates of 20+ percent and the highest cost of living we ever saw. Be nice if we could slow it down before it does become a disaster for working families.
 
I think you need to have another look at those metrics, like where and when are they being pulled from. I think going back to pre-pandemic for your "before" picture might provide a clearer view (vs. the often sensationalized crap we are often fed by somebody trying to make a point). Clearly a lot of the price of gasoline is going to be based on demand for instance (early pandemic days compared to today). Making a big deal out of the then vs. now increases is really misleading.

It's going to take a while for things to settle down a bit. You can't go from "normal" to full stop (which occurred during the height/lock down periods of the pandemic) to full ahead without getting some wild (but temporary) swings in play. A look at the container shipping mess illustrates that issue fairly well.

We all learned something I believe, some changes are way past due admittedly. But let's not forget the sun is still going to come up tomorrow....
 
SNIP ...

It's going to take a while for things to settle down a bit. You can't go from "normal" to full stop (which occurred during the height/lock down periods of the pandemic) to full ahead without getting some wild (but temporary) swings in play.
SNIP...
Exactly. Any major disturbace to a complex system results in wild oscillations . The graphs never show the other side of a peak .
 
It's a "fake" crisis...


-this 2,3 Middle East countries used with propping up their citizens wealth based on oil vs Russia who needs their own oil output high to keep prices low , affecting the whole world .
Open up Venezuela, and other countries , stop giving those countries in the Middle east billions of $/year +armament, they live like kings while the whole world suffers !!! This will be a real test for PotUS , Mr. J. Biden, let's see what he will do.

Good news: Electric cars in UK are now 12% of all car sales , but they have to be under 22.750$ in Us/western countries plus subsidies in order to make a effect. Until then only the rich will buy the good ones aka Teslas.
Recently @ a huge outdoor 4th of july event (middle class neighborhood) out of over 1000cars i counted 6 T's(the regular model 3's and Y's , no S modes.That's like the 1990's era of computers.
 
If I had the space, this would be a good time to install a 200 or 300 gallon tank by the garage, like farmers used to do... I suspect oil prices are going to be unstable for a long time.
 
If I had the space, this would be a good time to install a 200 or 300 gallon tank by the garage, like farmers used to do... I suspect oil prices are going to be unstable for a long time.
I used to think along those lines. Since then though, the realities became apparent showing that's not a real good idea. Long list of reasons, but you could start with fuel degradation over a few months, the cost to deliver the fuel to your private tank (or doing it on your own in a safe manner), insurance (can you imagine what your insurance company might do if they knew you were storing fuel like that?), the cost of the tank, permits, etc. Great idea, but I'm afraid it doesn't work well in practice. It would be nice if these companies could do a little better averaging their prices a bit. And the excuses they use to justify increases are just silly most of the time.
 
Too bad that my insurance company is such a stick in the mud. Why can't I charge my 2 ebike batteries on top of my 300 gallon tank of high test? 😆
 
Crude oil prices are up by 54.23%, just since January '21. CNBC, Bloomberg Financial, FOX Business all report the true inflation rate today is more than 7%. The government figure is 2%, but doesn't include food or energy. Gas at the pump has increased by more than 33%. And the government will need to print more money due to the pandemic and other increased spending this year. Although more jobs were created in the recent report, unemployment numbers were up as well.

This has nothing to do with party politics. I couldn't care less about that. I don't make those arguments. Those are the real numbers from in print reporting from many sources. I don't have cable, don't watch cable news. It's not like both parties haven't made similar economic moves in my lifetime. I remember the Nixon energy policy mistakes and the spending policy mistakes of Carter. That all yielded home mortgage interest rates of 20+ percent and the highest cost of living we ever saw. Be nice if we could slow it down before it does become a disaster for working families.
Adding to the above numbers.



It's not speculative, not a snip or a snapshot of the minute. Numbers are explained year over year, decade over decade and includes historical information of the economy. It's not meant to scare or convince anyone, that's why I didn't debate it. I haven't raked muck here and don't intend to start now. The numbers don't have sides. Inflation hurts everyone. Few jobs offer 9 or 10% yearly cost of living increases, neither does social security. With the kind of inflation we are seeing, if it continues, if the government prints more money to meet spending, other countries and their investors will stop buying our bonds. If the credit rating slips, we will be in for a major correction. Recession or depression. Members of both major political parties have expressed concerns this week over inflation.
 
These are unusual times with supply change, shipping disruptions ad infinitum. shopping habits have changed things as has smaller but potent events like ransom attacks…pent up demand. GDP is extremely high also. Things must settle down in more ways than one.
 
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