Schwarzenegger as Governer?

[jmc]

Wow, looks like I was sure wrong....of course, after I moved here I learned just how low an opinion just about everyone here had of Grey Davis, across the board.  

I think he's doing an okay job, but the hole the state is in is very deep and is something that has been going on for years and years.  Arnold seems sincere about wanting to bring people together, but it seems like he's got a lot to contend with...much like the action hero fighting against incredible odds!  It will depend on who his opponent is of course, but I'll definitely considering voting for him when he's up for re-election.

[daveblackeye15]

Has he done anything at all while in office? I've been a bit busy listening to other news. I swear all I've heard from him was getting a mountain named after him and that's all. And I think "s**t" is the smartest guy here.

[Eirik]

"Has he done anything at all while in office? I've been a bit busy listening to other news. I swear all I've heard from him was getting a mountain named after him and that's all."

The media has ignored him (except ever so briefly during the gay marriages in SF thing, and even then he was only a sideshow.  That the media isn't covering his administration is probably a sign that everything is going great.  Let's face it, if he slipped up even a little the TV news stations would be letting us know.  (This is all from the perspective of an East Coaster).

[jmc]

He got a couple of propositions passed--I believe they refinance the state's debt and make it a lot more difficult for the state to borrow more money, if I remember correctly.  There was a lot of bipartisan support for each of them.  I believe he pretty much stayed out of the gay marriage debate, which was wise in my opinion.

I listen to radio more than I watch television news, but it seems like he mainly keeps his head down and does his job--maybe he's on the television news more, but it doesn't seem like he's in the news a lot here either.

[Kory]

They announced yesterday morning that California's credit rating has improved for the first time in 4 years, so he must be doing something right.

I'm still p**sed off that I'm paying $2.45 a gallon for gas, though.

[AndyC]

Gas prices are bad everywhere. We're paying roughly the same in Canada. No politican (with any clout)  seems to have the guts or integrity to stand up to the greedy, price-fixing oil companies. And most consumers are such sheep that they'll b***h and moan, but they'll never bother to participate in a boycott.

[Andrew]

I am not certain that a boycott is the best option.  The companies know that you need the gas sooner or later, so I am uncertain on how effective a boycott is.  I think your best bet is to advocate intelligent gas usage and practice it.  For example:  I carpool to the unit with another Marine who lives nearby, try to hold off on running errands except for one day where I get them all done (one trip), and purchased a car that gets 25 mpg town and 34 mpg highway.  (Have been actually getting about 27 around town and nearly 38 on the highway.)  No SUVs for me.

I also looked into a hybrid, but I was really worried about the longterm maintenance costs.  I think that in a few years the tech will be mature and definitely worth it.

[Jay]

I agree with Andrew. I think a gas boycott is sorta like a food or electicity boycott.  You can limit your usage responsibly, but an outright boycott would never really work.  

Even a limited boycott like a one day boycott recently advocated doesn't really do anything but hurt the local pumps for a day, but in the end, unless you change your behavior, you're going to buy the gas eventually anyway.

That being said, I just got a new job in my home town that allows me to telecommute so my gas usage will be dropping, but that's more an incidental, and highly timely, bonus than an intent.

[ulthar]

AndyC wrote:

> No politican (with any clout)  seems to have the guts
> or integrity to stand up to the greedy, price-fixing oil
> companies.

Here we go with this, again.  Show me real data that the oil companies are (1) working together in collusion to gouge the consumer (2) that they are 'fixing prices' to make exhorbitant profits and (3) that there is any industrial endeavor whose final product price is not linked to the cost of raw materials.

This 'evil oil companies' stuff is pointing the 'finger' at the wrong (imagined) problem, and really helps to divert attention from more realistic explanations.  The truth of the matter is we buy the raw crude from a region of the world that is political unstable, must pay to ship it here and then refine it.  If you do any kind of homework on this issue at all, you'll learn that the American oil companies are all but out of drilling raw crude and are merely processing facilities to refine the crude into the thousands of products oil is made into.

Also, I heard this just this week from a dude in the petroleum industry.  Many US refineries have shut down (hurting production) because it is simply too expensive for them to process crude into the FORTY-FIVE separate gas formulations needed by various states.  California, in particular, has formulation laws that have put many smaller refining companies out of business.

So, the real causes of high gas prices?  We purchase the raw material.  Over-regulation of the industry at both the processing and the consumer level.   State and federal taxes that are in some cases over 60% of the retail price and general inflation.

[ED]

Every year or so, this gets circulated.  See the following link  to see the gas boycott SPAM story.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/gasout.htm

-Ed

"Still working on that tagline."

[Neville]

Funny stuff. I really laughed when the morons who wrote the document said three dollars per gas gallon was abusive. Here in Europe some countries charge as much as 1 euro per liter. 1 euro must be like 1'1 US dollar now, I think. In my country 1 liter of unleaded costs 90 cents of euro.

[The Ghoul]

Gas in Hong Kong is as much as $6US a gallon regular. We have it good in America.

[AndyC]

Petitions are useless in most situations. And an outright boycott of gas stations would not work for obvious reasons, but targetting a few carefully chosen companies for a period of time would not prevent anyone from filling up, and could be sustained for a long time. Once those companies lowered their prices, the others would fiollow suit or face unfair competition. Granted, it would only result in temporary price relief, but price relief nonetheless, and it could be repeated. Most importantly, it would send the message that people aren't going to buy gas at any price, which is what we're doing right now. If there is some indication that people are willing to do more than grumble and cough up the money, governments and oil companies would put a higher priority on finding ways to make gas more affordable to consumers. As it is, there is no motivation that will mean anything to them.

As for finding ways to cut down, it doesn't work too well if both you and your wife drive to work in opposite directions, you both have meetings on various nights, you live at least a couple of miles from any stores, none of your coworkers live near you, your job requires you to drive a lot, and none of your relatives live less than 20 minutes away. Also doesn't help if you need something bigger than a compact car to serve your purposes, or if you can't afford the latest technology. There are really few places I can go without driving, and my vehicle is about as fuel efficient as it can realistically be. Gas costs me more than $200 a month.

Besides, high fuel prices don't just hurt you when you're buying fuel. They raise the price of everything that has to be transported. They also raise your property taxes, because it takes fuel to operate buses, snow plows and graders, and to truck concrete and road gravel. I've seen first-hand just what a difference it can make in a municipality's budget. I've seen fewer bad roads fixed in a year, simply because the cost to transport the materials was higher than expected.

High fuel prices hurt trucking companies, farmers, retailers, and a lot of other businesses. Most people just don't see beyond filling up at the pump.

Something needs to be done.

[ulthar]

AndyC wrote:

>
> Something needs to be done.
>

Aside from letting the market forces work things out, what?  I don't ask this cynically or with sarcasm, but honestly.  I agree with what you said about gas prices effecting far more than just 'filler up.'

There's an old adage:  "Whatever the market will bear."  Until the price hits that point, most of what is said in complaining about it is lip service.   When the valuation becomes too far out of whack, demand will go down.  Somehow.

(Showing my stripes as a free marketist)

PS: One thing that can be done is the state and fed can cut the very high exise taxes on fuel.  Some areas are actually doing this, on a small scale at least.  I *THINK* one place is Pennsylvania, but I may have that wrong.

[AndyC]

That, I think, is the problem with gas. Normal market forces don't have the same effect, because there is very little competition. If they keep their prices about the same, all of them will have a steady stream of business regardless of what they charge, because our jobs, our businesses and our lifestyles depend on it. It's certainly no coincidence that prices jump when people buy the most. Any other retail business would have sales at the peak times of year, but the nature of the fuel business allows them to hike the price when we want it the most.

I don't just blame the oil companies, of course. The overseas oil producers have the luxury of causing the price to rise simply by producing less. I wish I could do the same at work. Governments are also to blame. In Canada, we have a federal government that calculates sales tax on gas after all the other taxes have been added. The provincial government in Ontario has been raising gas taxes for years, justifying it by telling us the money will go toward maintaining our highway system. Then they turned a bunch of highways over to the municipalities - but none of the money. They still charge the high gas taxes, and insist that they had never earmarked the money for any specific purpose.

The problem is that the oil producers, oil refiners and distributors, and governments are all benefitting greatly from the situation as it is, and they can all conveniently shift the blame onto each other. I'm not suggesting, by any means, that they are conspiring with each other, but they all know how the system works, and how to exploit it to the fullest.

The only thing that can be done is for consumers to do more than complain while continuing to pay. A well-targeted boycott would at least send that message. Pick one large company, and participants don't buy from them for a day or a week, or indefinitely. Buy from somebody else. That would be very costly to a company if enough people did it, and the threat that it could happen to any company at any time might just break their ranks, and force the kind of healthy competition the industry needs.

There's no guarantee, of course, but I haven't heard a better idea.