I am sure you know that after that last $4.00 a gallon stunt, that was the last straw that sent us into the recession. It was brought on by speculators that purchased at the lowest prices and drove the market up to the highest prices they could get. The gas stations didn't have any choice! The purchased oil sat in tankers offshore for months until the prices were where they wanted them! (I am a ship Captain and I have first hand knowledge of this!) The only problem was, they didn't realize that it was the straw that broke the camels back (our economy). Because many of our 4 wheeled friends were caught up in the SUV phase, more than 1/3 of all 4 wheeled vehicles on the road at that time were SUV's (or similar) that averaged less than 15 MPG.
Many people were at their finacial limits with car loans, overpriced homes, high taxes, astronomical health insurance costs and many two wage earners doing all they could to keep up (Not counting school tuitions or other types of costs). Double the price of gas to $4.00 per gallon and many people could not afford to drive their vehicles, but since we are a car based society, public transit was not an option in many areas and many people were forced to fill up their vehicles with $4.00 a gallon gas. At a minimum average of 15 gallons per fill, this increased a fill up $30 more per tank for an average of $60. per tank. Multiply that by 4 fill-ups per month and you have just removed an additional $120 per vehicle from our already tight budget. For drivers with bigger vehicles that needed upwards of 35 gallons per fill up and they experienced an average increase of $280 cut out of their take home pay per vehicle. Many times, there were two vehicles per family and for them it was as much as $560 per month more out of their take home pay.
Now, take that much money out of an already over extended household budget and something has to give. People started falling behind on mortgages, car payments or whatever else they had to decide they couldn't afford while still working. It doesn't take long to figure out what happens next! No one could get rid of gas guzzlers, pay off their car loans, home loans started falling behind, home sales slipped as people started dumping them, good were not needed and production slowed which caused layoffs, which then caused foreclosures and bankruptcies and you know the rest of the story!
OK, I'm off my soapbox...... :rtfm: :rtfm: :whip: :whip: :doh:
