Personally,

I hope the price of gas continues to rise since I own a few shares of the oil companies. It helps to fund my retirement account. I would much rather depend on my retirement account than social security.

I thank you for spending your money to fund my retirement account. Of course, when I buy gas...I give some of that back.

Let the prices continue to rise.

Remember though...there is a difference between profit and profit margin.

Would you consider 10% profit a good, healthy profit? I would. If you sold lemonade for $1.00 a cup and it cost you 90 cents per cup to make, your profit margin is about 10%.

What's wrong with that?

How high will oil go? Who cares? I'm enjoying the benefits of it right now.

When your money works for you...instead of against you...it's a good thing.

There are three primary reasons for the increase in gas prices:

1) Devaluation of the dollar. This is by far the biggest reason for Americans. While Europe and Britain have seen gas price double over the past six years, Americans are approaching a quadrupling in the price of oil.

To further clarify:
In 2002, $1 = $1.59 Canadian.
In 2008, $1 US = $1 Canadian (37% devaluation).

In 2002, $0.90 US = $1 Euro.
In 2008, $1.46 US = $1 Euro (38% devalutaion).

In 2002, $1.40 US = $1 British pound.
In 2008, $1.98 US = $1 British pound (30% devaluation).

If gas prices were 33% cheaper, it would cost around $2.30. So we need to demand our government and Federal Reserve make moves to shore up the slide of the dollar. Unfortunately, this mean higher interest rates.

2) World demand. Yep, plenty of that in China and India, as well as other developing areas of the world.

3) Chaos & speculators. With instability in Iraq, Venezuela and Nigeria (and others), oil speculators continue to raise their "futures" price of oil every time there is the fear of political unrest or production shut-down. Less wars = more stability = lower prices.

One last note, everyone derides the oil companies for making large profits, but no one stops to realize their profit margin is around 10 percent. Ask any business man, in just about any business, if 10 percent is a high profit margin and almost all will certainly say 'NO.'

Exxon made $10 billion in the first quarter, so will make around $40 billion for the year. That certainly seems like a lot. But how many people realize Exxon has 110,000 employees? That's about $90,000 profit per employee.

Major League Baseball players will make a combined $2.685 billion dollars this year. With about 900 players, that's almost $3 million per "employee." I'm sure Exxon employees are not making so much.

Now, I realize that its not a true comparison to weigh profits per employee to player's salaries. However, I still think it shows that Exxon profits are not out of line, unusually high or the product of price gouging.

GAWalkman, I'm not sure everyone will understand your attempt at sarcastic humor. That is what you meant, right? Of course you don't really want to see gas go higher....

I can't believe that there is not a solution to this. It costs me almost $100 to fill my truck and yes, I am considering purchasing an old Honda or Toyota to use when I don't need the truck for hauling things. The gas situation is ridiculous and it ticks me off there isn't more being done to help find a better option.

The 10% profit margin thing involves a lot of "creative" bookkeeping. It is like Buisness owners and self employeed people, who live very comfortable lives claiming a loss or very little income! We have all seen them. I'd wager that for one thing the oil companies show on paper that they pay pump price for the fuel they use! We are getting gouged!

What can we do about it? Not much unfortunately! If you try and control the profits of the oil companies, where do you stop? Toying with things like that is playing with Communism, or as Jake would call it Socialism! Do you tell the Herald they can't charge $.50 for a paper? Do you tell phone companies how much they can charge? You can't very well control one industry and not others.

World demand? Not really the problem! OPEC creates the world demand problem by controlling the flow or oil! They used to be famous for cutting supply just in time to create a shortage during high demand times! More oil could be pumped! Would this cause a bigger problem down the line? Probrably!

The left thinks Communism is the answer, the right calls price gouging "Free market"!

I happen to believe that a big part of the answer is to stop burning oil to make electricity! Use more renewable sources to make it and give the plants better subsidies than the oil companies get. Give them to any plant that doesn't burn oil! Even Nuc! Lower my gas prices and lower my electric bill!

The other biggest thing we can do as Phil pointed out is to make our Dollar worth $1.00! It would not only help this issue, but many others also! The devaluation of the dollar is killing us!

Did someone call my name, not knowing the difference between socialism and communism?

Anyway, here are my quick thoughts. First, isn't the price of oil pegged to the dollar? I thought that would insulate it against extreme currency fluctuations.

Also, how about taxation on pollution? That'd have the effect of incentivizing "green" tech *and* nuclear, especially if the Carter restrictions on reprocessing nuclear waste were rescinded (what were you thinking, Jimmy?).

As it stands right now, the subsidies on fossil fuel far outweigh any subsidies on renewables. It's scary to think what would happen to prices without those subsidies, though.

Maybe this is all just a ploy by the government (the following is not necessarily my view, just a hypothesis). Right now, renewable energy technology is expensive. To switch from a fossil fuel-based economy to something else would be expensive and more than a little tumultuous.

Why should we be going through all that heartache right now while there's still oil left? Let's say we go ahead and make the shift to renewables. We're going through all the pain, while China and India get cheap oil.

Better to keep riding the black gold gravy train until it runs out, then use our superior resources (brains, technology and guns) to emerge in a leading position when everyone's on the same oil-less level playing field.

Or the current administration could just be in the pocket of oil companies. I dunno.

Oil is traded in dollars, but is not "pegged" to the dollar. But the sheiks are considering trading in Euros instead (some already are).

The reason for this: Barrel of oil $90. Value of dollar falls against the euro (primarily because of low interest rates and an increasing money supply). Barrel of oil goes to $100/$110/$120/$127 as the value of the dollar continues to fall. The value of their dollar based bank accounts falls compared to the rest of the world - so price (in dollars) keeps going up.

Other notes: stop burning oil. Yes! Build nuclear. Yes! Stop corn-based ethanol subsidies. Yes! Promote (but not subsidize) solar. Yes!

I can't say I blame the oil companies. If I had a product that people were buying, and I continued to raise the price, and they kept buying it, then I would be extremely happy. I went through Atlanta this past weekend, and I can tell you people are driving just as much as ever.

The downside to it is that America's and the world's consumption (demand) level has a direct effect on just about everything else.

We have a gas addiction in this country. We are acting like addicts also. We blame other people. We say we aren't going to buy anymore, then we do. We say we are going to drive vehicles with higher MPG's, but then we go for the "pretty" car with lower MPG. Some people think the answer is to get more oil or cheaper oil, but that will just feed the addiction.

In practice theres not really a difference in the two! Yes I have heard the Liberal prop on how it isn't Communism. Let's just don't take our chances letting the Government take the little we have.

I am not all for subsidising, but if were gonna do it for oil don't you think it is for the better to do it for other sources. If we did go to greener energy we would have people screaming about the price of there electricity then. Thats where subsidising would help some, but if it worked and oil came down the prices may offset. Just a thought.

Does anyone take part in GA powers green energy program, where you pay a little more, but they buy some green energy? Does anyone know if they actually do buy the green energy? I am skepticle of big industries usually.

Homeowners associations need to revamp their regulation about animals on property.
A lamb is beautiful and cute. It will mow your lawn by eating grass. Soooo-no more gas in the old mower.Take the fleece and make a sweater to keep the thermostat down next winter.When reaching an edible size eat and replace for many good meals.A donkey in the back yard and a small shopping cart allowing trips to the grocery without gas by donkey power.
The dung drops from both to fertilize your veggie garden and eliminate the price of good produce.
I could go on and on .You say that you can not eat the donkey? Donkeys are also called burros. Their ground meat could make BURRITOS !

Why do I feel like someone just came in and sang "Kumbaya"!!? I've been out of town while you all have been "chatting away about the gas issue. Thanks for jumping on and discussing it.Borogop....... I'm sorry you would take full advantage of people if you had a product that they kept buying even as you continued to raise the price. When I was in business, I had the opportunity to charge people up to $90.00 per hour. That was the average rate in my field at the time. My credentials were very high and I easily could have charged that rate. Others were getting it, but I was never okay with charging that much, so I usually kept my rate at about $65.00 per hour. I did just fine and people appreciated that I cared about their pocket book also. Our world is never going to get better until we begin to care about others more than ourselves.