Quote:
Originally Posted by tophcfa
North of $60, try north of $100! Filled up my pickup truck today along with two 5 gallon gas containers and it came to $158. Ouch! I still need to fill up two 5 gallon diesel containers for my tractor at $6.39 per gallon. Look no further than the price of diesel for the root cause of inflation, everything needs to be shipped with diesel burning engines, not to mention the fact that diesel powers almost all the farming equipment that produces our food. It makes no sense that diesel costs about $1.40 more per gallon than gas since diesel is much closer to raw crude and requires less refinement. The only reason I can come up with is taxes, which is a hidden tax on all American consumers, hurting the lowest income the hardest since we all have to eat.
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If that's the only reason you can come up with, then you're not paying attention at all.
The reason the prices are so high, is because the oil companies have chosen to raise their prices. The taxes aren't any different than they were before the hikes. They're at the same percentage as usual. Some states have more taxes, but the taxes are charged as a percentage, not a dollar amount. 10% tax on $100 is going to be more than 10% tax on $50. You knew that though.
The oil companies have enjoyed record-breaking profits in the last year. For those who say oh it was only $5 billion - no, that's not true. It's $5 billion MORE THAN THE YEAR BEFORE. Not $5 billion total. If the year before last was $20 billion, this year it's $25 billion. In profits. Not revenue.
The stockholders are having a field day. The people at the pumps, not so much.