Gasoline price whiners (some AC)

[Dave <dhaupt@bewellnet.com>]

Wait a minute.  We have a group of die-hard fans of an expensive
automobile that requires large amounts of ca$h to keep in good running
condition and this group is whining about gasoline prices?  Perhaps this
is merely a case of bad memories.  When I was in college not far from
Detroit in 1978, I remember swearing that I would give up my 1971
Chevrolet Vega (quit retching - I got rid as soon as I could afford
something better) when gasoline prices hit $1.00 a gallon.  They did
that in early 1979.  As a comparison, milk was then about 0.78 per
gallon.  Here in Denver, a few months ago we were paying 0.79 per gallon
for gasoline and $2.50 per gallon for milk.  I checked a few places for
gasoline prices versus time and my observations were echoed.  If gas
prices (U.S.) were $1.00 per gallon, they'd be as low as they'd been in
17 years (1978) and, adjusted for inflation, **the lowest they've ever
been**.  Lately, we've seen them going around $1.05 here in Denver,
$1.25 for what I have to put into my chipped '89 200TQ <----Audi Content
(AC)

What????  You don't believe me????  When the gov't can raise taxes any
time they want?  The essence of The Thing is that the governments really
couldn't raise taxes for many years because the oil "crises" had
heightened the public's awareness of fuel prices and were too
sensitive.  So the gov't found other taxes to raise on items that the
public had ignored for a while.

I wonder how many of us are so sensitive to gasoline prices that we
actually drive in a manner to improve our car's efficiency?  Right,
that's not why we have the cars we have, is it?  I'm really quite happy
that my 200TQ gets 20mpg city.  I think that's pretty good for an
overweight 3500 pound car that has at least a hint of zip. <----more AC

The gas-out has to be an April fool's joke.  Oil refineries, gasoline
distributors, service station operators, government tax collectors, and
anybody else who sees the financials of that business really won't
notice if nobody fills up on April 30, as long as they DO fill up on
April 29 or May 1. It is only businesses who are in trouble that
actually count receipts daily.  It's usually monthly, and small
businesses like service stations maybe weekly.  You want them to see
something?  Don't drive for a week (it's been said here before).  But
this, too, won't do much.  Their profit margins are plenty high enough
that they can get along just fine with a 2% reduction in sales (that's
all it is if everyone quits driving one week per year), especially when
they know this is one-time deal.  To really make a difference, we'd all
have to permanently find alternatives to driving.  I try to bicycle
anywhere less than 5 miles if it's decent (which it is 300 days a year
in Denver).  In a short drive like that on crowded city streets, I don't
get to open it up much anyway, especially if I'm a good boy and wait to
see some temperature on the gauge before getting into boost.  So I
reserve the TQ for longer drives which is where it shines anyway.
<---clever close with AC