I’m currently in the process of taking drivers education and
am hoping that by the end of the school year, just in time for summer, that
I’ll have my very own first car. I have
a job and I work hard to save my money because I know that I will need it for
college. Because college is just around
the corner, I have been more aware of where my money goes and finding out how
difficult it is to save up those few pennies I earn. It’s much easier for me to say no to purchase
that item that I didn’t really need. But
with having a car there comes expenses.
Insurance, oil changes and of course gas. Why is it that we pay so much money for gas
anyway, and I really don’t understand why the price of gas changes from one day
to the next? So of course, the best way
to find an answer to this question is to go on line and research it.
It was difficult to find a website that spoke to me in terms
that I understood. When it comes to
things that the government and financial institutions have their hands in, it
always seems like the talk in ‘big words’ that makes it difficult to
understand. So first I looked for an
answer to what made up the actual gas prices.
I found this: Crude Oil +
Refining Process + Retail Sales/Distribution + Taxes = Gas Price. Makes total sense. Without even looking this up, I assume that a
big reason that the prices fluctuated so much was because of the actual gas
station owners. Gas prices are much
higher now than they were back when my parents first started driving cars. My grandparents paid about $.25 per gallon
back in the 1960’s. The reason for
this? Well, according to this site, one
big reason is due to the increased demand. Large countries with big populations
such as China have seen an increase in demand due to the increase in
motorists. Additionally, oil companies
have had to work harder to get oil because so much oil has already been taken
out of the ground causing the extraction process to cost more as well. The quality of this oil is not as good either
so it costs more money to refine it and make it usable. Between the jump in demand and flat
production, gas prices have risen.
Countries that supply oil who are in volatile situations such as Iraq
and Iran can cause other countries who are in good standings to raise their
prices. They see that Iran and Iraq can
tell us that they won’t send us any oil so they up their prices basically
because they can. Then you ad taxes in
there….
So, I guess I was wrong.
I thought it was the gas station owners who were just playing games with
each other and us but there really is more that goes into it. Whether it is right or wrong, until we figure
out another way to make our vehicles move…it looks like we are stuck paying the
prices. Someday maybe we will go back to
the way it used to be. A time when there
was much less but we had a lot more…HORSES!!!!(549)
Ardeeemilla(:
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