Random Comments - Volume....I will figure out for the next time

Random comments from yet another beautiful summer weekend…

Please, please Kwame – do the right thing for ONCE in your life.

I am somewhat irritated by the gas stations in the area charging me another 10 cents a gallon when I charge by credit card, The worst part is despite gas prices going down nearly 10%, that new charge will not be removed from my transaction. I don’t like paying up front because I like to fill up all the way and they are only allowing you to pay cash if you pay before pumping the gas. Now sure I have a rough estimate on what it will cost but in the end, I prefer the credit card. What impact will have on your pocket book? Know you will have to change the numbers based on your filling requirements. Hypothetically, you fill 12 gallons (this number can be different based on the car and how many miles you drive a week) once a week. That means you are spending another almost $63 a year. Of course one would have to ask themselves if that extra cost was already put into the price of gas to begin with and those paying cash are just now getting a discount. I will stop before my mind gets all knotted up.

Someone asked me the other day if I watched any of the coverage of Obama’s trip to Europe and the Middle East. I responded saying there did not seem to be any reason to watch the coverage as I knew how he would be portrayed by the media and it was my understanding he was not answering any questions from journalists. Did he hold press conferences? Yes but only answered questions from military personnel. I am beginning to wonder if being a garbage man is a more enviable job than being President.

I openly admit I am not a big movie guy. I am not sure why other than I find 95% predictable and just sheer lame. I occasionally go the movies. Occasionally means MAYBE twice a year depending on if the crowd has nothing else to do that night. At this point and time I will be committed to be an outsider and say I have zero interest in the new Batman flick.

The Olympics start in less than two weeks. I have watched like 30 minutes of the different trials. With everything being taped delay, waiting for primetime, it will be presented for the first time a full day later. I am one of those people who do not want to watch something that should be seen live.

Another viewpoint about Gas

Gas prices are funny to me. They are funny due to everyone’s perception. Right now, everyone has an issue with the way prices have shot up specifically in the past week. You hear people say this is ridiculous and something should be done about it. The question is what should be done or could be done. I would even ask you if you know if things are bad at all. Take a look at the image at this link. You will see two lines. The black one represents cost which will represent the prices you have been pay for gas when you fill up. The other line (light blue) represents the price for the gas at the pump adjusted for inflation. In the end, we come to three conclusions. The first we have been getting a below market price for gas for quite some time. The second conclusion is we are at where we should be right now with gas prices.

The third conclusion is we need to stop focusing on the gas prices and looking at what we are doing with the gas. Two things make gas impact our pocket books. First, we drive cars that have improved very little in fuel efficiency over the same previously discussed period. Twenty five years ago furl efficiency was not much better with cars. Standard was 15 to 20 miles. Yeah sure you could go out and buy a car with closer to thirty miles per gallon but with technology the way it is I think it should be expected that 40 should be readily available. There has been no pressure on the car companies to make though because everyone is in love with their gas guzzling SUV’s that are getting even worse gas mileage.

To follow up with the first point – and I admit I have not looked this up – but I bet you would find the average American goes through gallons of gas WAY FASTER than they ever have in the past. We all drive long distances to work and find it necessary to drive anywhere and everywhere. All in all, due to those two factors the demand for gas has gone up which basic economics say that gas has to go up in price.

I think in the end, I am just letting people know that we are creating a case against ourselves due to our habits and decisions.