Poll indicates Americans are getting used to gas prices but that it causes financial hardship

[Selatius]

I remember paying 1.10 or 1.20 for gasoline in 2000.



WASHINGTON - Nearly half the country thinks near-record gasoline prices will cause serious hardship, prompting ever more people to consider trading their gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient cars, an AP-Ipsos poll says.

Yet there are signs that more people also are clinging to their driving and vacation habits while grudgingly accepting the higher price tag. The government said this week that prices for a gallon of regular gasoline had hit a nationwide average of $3.22, nearly 50 percent higher than in January and pennies shy of the all-time mark.

Forty-six percent said they expect spiking gasoline prices to cause them severe financial problems, said the poll, released Friday at the Memorial Day weekend’s unofficial start of the summer driving season. That measure of public pocketbook pain is up slightly from last year and appreciably above the 30 percent figure of June 2004, when AP-Ipsos first asked the question.

Despite the skyrocketing cost, slightly fewer people than last year said they are reducing their driving, trimming other expenses or curtailing vacation plans due to higher energy costs. Asked to name a fair price for a gallon of gasoline, for the first time most volunteered $2 and up, and not less than $2.

...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18864234/

[LynnTheDem]

1. Americans said if Halliburton had ONE MORE unbidden contract,

that would be IT! Then we discovered Halliburton had FOUR more unbidden contracts.

That was 5 years ago.

Americans got used to it.

Americans no longer have habeus corpus, the very foundation stone of law.

That happened last year.

Americans got used to it.

[acmavm]

2. This is bullshit. No one I know is "getting used" to anything. And

we're all driving a lot less.

Somebody better clue this buffoon that we all don't have the money to run out and buy a new hybrid. And the way the ecomony's tanking, fewer and fewer of us will by the day.

The ONLY good thing I see coming from this is more people hopefully using mass public transportation. Unless they up the fares to an unreasonable price.

[depakid]

3. Maybe, maybe not- but Americans had better prepare

because prices are going to be very volatile and the moving average is going to inexorably rise. People need to start asking themselves:

"At what point do certain (maybe vital) activities begin to become uneconomic- and how will this affect me, my family and my neighbors."

The bottom line is that we should all expect a very "interesting" decade....

[acmavm]

5. I used the word interesting the other day and someone give me the

day's award for understatement.

I'm passing it on to you now.

[Rydz777]

9. As the old Chinese curse puts it,

"May you live in interesting times." You're right, we have some "interesting" years ahead. I foresee the complete wreckage of the Republican Party on the economic shoals, and I sincerely hope the Democratic Party has the wisdom and integrity to lead us through the turbulence.

[saras]

6. It takes more than hope

In our town, the public transportation SUCKS. Employers will flat out tell you public transportation doesn't count as transportation that is reliable enough, or available enough, to get you to work. It's about as good as telling them that you hitchhike to work. Unless you're a college student going from the rabbithutches to school, or going out of town to the mall. The buses work great for those two purposes - only. Otherwise expect 3-5 hours per trip, and a couple of miles of walking.

The city and county government have, for the last twenty years, been driving employment out of the city into far-flung "enterprise zones" with no housing, stores, sidewalks, etc. for miles.

Because our law requires providing new developments with the same level of traffic services as existing neighborhoods, the city has consciously and overtly chosen to degrade traffic services to ALL neighborhoods to the lowest possible level (i.e. potholes and road damage, extensive traffic jams) so they can get more developments past the regulations.

And my work (handyman, etc.) REQUIRES that I drive to people's houses with tools and materials (ever try carrying 4'x8' sheets of plywood or drywall on a bicycle?).

And most people who use my services do so because they can't afford a general contractor, supplies delivered by semi, etc. - especially for little jobs (1 hour@ $35/hr, $15 in materials, $200 delivery fees is a no-sale).

It does not look promising for those of us without corporate careers.

[Selatius]

7. Unfortunately, in many places, mass transit either doesn't exist or is woefully neglected.

This isn't France, Germany, or Japan we're talking about with advanced mass transit. I'm not defending what anything the AP-Ipsos poll says, but the fact is a large chunk of our mass transit was destroyed in the 1940s/1950s by the auto companies who bought up the street car companies and junked them in favor of cars. Then they encouraged people to live far away from work causing them to drive more. "Live the American dream. Live out in the countryside far away from the city and work. Have a big home."

Well, it turns out that idea is stupid for what it is not only because it wasted land, encouraged sprawl, and led to the rise of gridlock but because it made people into slaves of oil companies, and at this point I would say you'd have to be asleep to believe in the American Dream because I don't think it exists.

I'm not disagreeing with you on the point of mass transit, but I would more agree with you provided there was mass transit.

[acmavm]

8. I'm hoping that the obscene scams of the oil corporations will force

communities to insist on better mass transit systems, and to invest in them.

I'm certainly not saying it will happen. But as a last chance alternative to corporate blackmail, at a price millions of us cannot afford, I hope that local governments realize that to keep people working at all, they need to do something.

[IChing]

4. I think your OP title is misleading

As far as "getting use to" goes
but still, a $2 for a "fair price is delusional in they are still wanting
the same price for their crack but the dealer has upped the price
and keeps pushing the price up to see how much they will pay.

Watch the price go down right before the Bill on price gouging goes before little Bushie
and he vetoes it.