OT: New Five Dollar Bill

[mike klein]

Anyone seen the new five dollar bill yet? Sorta scary as someday it may
be reality.

http://www.precngraving.com/new5dollarbill.jpg

[Thad Nickoley]

Thats great

[Frank Corker]

We use a £5 note for one of those gallons. It's almost double so don't complain too much, we think your fuel is REALLY cheap!

[Mitchell Andrus]

Gas is cheap. Compared to the price increases for most things over the last 50 years, gas is a bargain. It's just a shame (and a sham) that it's gone up so fast lately. If the price had risen level with CPI, we'd hardly have noticed.

Frank, how much of you gas cost is taxes?

[Frank Corker]

Mitchell, not too sure on that but I believe the vast majority of it is tax. I'll try find out for you.

[Daniel Cline]

On Vancouver Island in BC, Canada it is $1.20 a litre, about $4.80 a US gallon! We already use the $5 note. :eek:

[Jeff Belany]

I don't like the high gas prices either. But, what really amazes me is how much people pay for bottled water. Add up the price for 6 20 oz bottles (about a gallon) and see what that costs. And, in most cases these water companies are using city tap water.

Don't get me wrong -- I think what the oil companies are charging is obscene considering the record profits they are making. But why don't people complain about the cost of water which certainly costs less to produce.

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

[Homer Faucett]

But why don't people complain about the cost of water which certainly costs less to produce.

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

I don't complain about the cost of bottled water because their is a viable alternative for it--tap water in my thermos.

Find a viable alternative for gasoline that cuts the cost of gasoline by the same percentage, and you'll have people beating a path to your door.

[Vicky Orsini]

Find a viable alternative for gasoline that cuts the cost of gasoline by the same percentage, and you'll have people beating a path to your door.
There are alternatives, but they are being squashed by "the powers that be" because there's no money in it for them ... or so the little voices in my head are telling me. :D

[Lisa Walter]

Living on an island will make your items more expensive also. You are limited to what can be grown on the island and everything else is imported (I saw a couple of people that responded live on islands). And since your island is smaller than let's say, the continental USA, you have less competition which will drive your prices up. I cannot wait for the day that cars run on something other than gasoline (I know they are out there, but not reliable apparently).

Jeff: I also read an article about bottled water!! The same article gave comparisons on what we pay for things like cold medicine. We'll shell out between $3-$7 for a small bottle of liquid cold medicine.....can you imagine what that is a gallon?!?! It really makes you sit back and think. If the gas slowly went up over time I don't think it would have had such an impact on us.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Energy has to come from somewhere. If we all drove electric cars, we'd be burning coal instead of gas.

I'm working on a wind powered car myself. But, I'm having a problem with phone lines getting snagged by the rigging.

[Lisa Walter]

Energy has to come from somewhere. If we all drove electric cars, we'd be burning coal instead of gas.

I'm working on a wind powered car myself. But, I'm having a problem with phone lines getting snagged by the rigging.

Maybe you could use another type of wind. A car powered by baked beans. HAHA!

[Bryan Cowan]

Jeff: I also read an article about bottled water!! The same article gave comparisons on what we pay for things like cold medicine. We'll shell out between $3-$7 for a small bottle of liquid cold medicine.....can you imagine what that is a gallon?!?! It really makes you sit back and think. If the gas slowly went up over time I don't think it would have had such an impact on us.

Not to get too far off-topic, but calculate how much a gallon of black ink costs for your inkjet printer...I believe someone did this and it came to $4700/gallon

Everything is all relative :D

[John Noell]

"Living on an island will make your items more expensive..."
No kidding! Try Fiji (rather in the middle of the South Pacific ocean) - where we have price control on "motor spirits" but it still costs over USD$1.40 per liter - and your five dollar bill is not enough for a single gallon of gas. :(

[Mitchell Andrus]

Maybe you could use another type of wind. A car powered by baked beans. HAHA!

And add to the cow's methane production???? Blazing Saddles LIVES... and long may it reign.

[Pete Simmons]

During the oil crisis of the 70's I saw a debate.

Bunch of upset people vs. oil company exec.

People - Long winded rant about how you are over charging and that you can drill,ship, refine and sell gas at $0.50/gal and still make a profit.

Oil Company Exec "I suggest you do that. You will sell a lot of gas."

The American public thinks they are entitled to cheap gas, fuel oil and electricity. Wrong. Let it be a free market and value willl find its price.

I worked for a Utility for many years. What did we do? Made electricity to sell at a profit. Not to give away as many wanted us to.

People will say.....

But I cannot afford to drive to work!
( example - I live 45 miles from work and drive a large SUV. )

Well that is your problem but maybe in the big picture it is Americas problem also and that is where all the problems start.


Taxes - We all know that state and fed tax are a huge part of each gallon but it goes even deeper.

Property Tax on the land, buildings and equipment of everyone involved - oil company, shipper and reseller.
income tax of everyone making $$ from the gas.

and many more. If we could ever add it all up I would not be surprised to see tax is 75% or more of the total price of that gallon of fuel.


It is the same for electricity. Of that $0.05 - $0.18/ Kilowatthr a large part of it is tax. In some states it is not allowed to show on the bill how much is tax.