what are some reasons that gas prices should be lowered?

Question

i'm doing an essay for school and i need to know reasons why gas prices should be lowered

Answer 1

In the short-term, gas prices should be lowered because it would be a stimulus to the general economy. People would have more money that would normally be spent on gas and can choose to buy other products. Also, it could possibly be a boon to the tourism industry and such if people are willing to take longer car rides to see various attractions. Businesses that would otherwise spend money on energy might use that money to be more competitive in the world market, etc. However, in the long-term, lower gas prices will create a crisis due to lack of natural gas reserves as well as global warming.

Answer 2

We could all get bicycles and quit driving. Your question is flawed because the price of gas is governed by demand. The more people want it the higher the price, the more gas and less people buy the price goes down. The only way to reduce prices is to quit buying gas. Every one complains about the cost of gas but they haven't change their driving habits. For historical context, in the early 1900's gas was equivalent to 5 dollars a gallon. In the forties a entry level (minimum wage) job paid 2 dollars a day and gas was .20 cents a gallon. In the sixties 4 dollars a day and gas was .40 cents a gallon. That would put gas at around 5.50 a gallon in today's dollars. Gas is cheap now isn't it?

Answer 3

the simple fact of the matter is... gas prices doubled during/after hurricane katrina and haven't gone down since... much of the hurrcane damage has been fixed, but gas prices are still high?

SUPPLY AND DEMAND overall is a slow process... for the most part, a few pennies a year per gallon if demand is SKY HIGH, like it was through much of the 90s, where it constanly was on the rise, both domestically and internationally, BUT the price never DOUBLED...

anyone that says it can double overnight without a major reason and stay there without a constant major reason is smoking some good hash... granted the wars in the middle east have caused concern over the supply, but overall price doubling is ridiculous...

all you have to do is look at the profit margins for the oil companies to see just how things are going..

Answer 4

And who would be lowering the price?

The federal and local tax on oil isn't a whole lot. Dropping that would be pretty much neglegible.

The oil companies are working on razor thin profits. If they drop the cost, then they lose money.

Society is the only thing left as they dictate demand and play a heavy influence upon the price. The current high prices are due to an increase in demand in developing nations (those moving from third world to first world). It would be difficult to cut their demand. Of course the first world countries always need more oil. We could ask the United Arab Emirates to cut down on thier consumption (they are the biggest comsumers of oil with the US not far behind) but it will be nigh impossible to get them to do that.

Could always try to reduce the demand on the home front. We would need to cut down on comsumption by conserving oil and raising use of alternative fuel.

On the plus side of the high prices, it has acted as an impotus to conserve and research alternative fuels which will eventually overcome the price hike.

Answer 5

Lower gas prices allows more money to flow into the economy to buy other things. You know if you only fill up once a week at $30 but since gas double in the past couple years you are spending an extra $15 to fill up which you could have spent on something else.

Answer 6

Gas should be lowered, since no one is getting a comparable
raise, except the politicans who are able to vote themselves
a raise, every 4 months.
Because of gas costing so much, the price of everything else
is also going up - of which, is leaving many people to go
without necessities.
Other consequences are resulting - just today in my local
newspaper, there were 3 pages of peoples names, who
are behind on their taxes.
What happens if most of these people lose their homes?
Gas has influenced the economy, I'm sad to say, to a disaster,
no matter what our pres. wants to believe.

Answer 7

Gas prices can't be artificially lowered without something ELSE going up (like taxes, debt or some other consumer payment).

Gas prices shouldn't be lowered, if they are not yet at the level where the consumer in the U.S. is paying the true value of that gas. Europe's gas prices include massive taxes that fund roads, conservation programs, environmental programs and a host of other things that are affected by the use of gasoline. In the US, we burn gasoline at a much quicker clip, without paying the true cost of that consumption.

So, if gas prices were lowered, artificially, you would enjoy:

a) more disposable income for other things (like sales taxes on other goods to make up for the lowered taxes on gasoline- a big chunk of the cost per gallon is gasoline tax)

b) cheaper goods that are transported by gasoline consuming vehicles

c) higher income or sales taxes (again, to make up for the lost gas taxes)

d) more pollution (without cleaner burning gasoline)

e) more congestion (cheaper gas=more cars/drivers)

f) cheaper clothes? (transported by trucks that use gasoline) but your sales tax on those designer jeans would go up to make up for the cheaper gas

g) warmer summers, colder winters (burning more gas screws up the atmosphere)

h) higher electricity/natural gas/coal and oil costs (things used to power A/C during the warmer summers and heaters during the colder winters)

i) greater consumer confidence (more $ to spend on things that aren't gasoline, driving up sales and prices on all other things, triggering inflation possibly, which would then make it harder to buy homes, so now you're parking your nice car with the cheap gas, on some sketchy street in front of a sketchy apartment building instead of a nice, safe, clean garage that YOU own)

Gas prices shouldn't be lowered, bottom line. We should just raise the prices and the taxes on gas until people are fed up with this 120 year old technology and are ready for an alternative fuel.

Answer 8

Do you mean how CAN they be lowered? Gas prices can be lowered by lowering the demand. Gasoline prices are set on the world market, so as demand goes up, so does the cost.
Lower demand in the US
Find alternatives to fuel
Lower demands worldwide (China's demand is creeping right up there next to ours.

Answer 9

IT'S SIMPLY NO ONE WANTS TO RAISE THE COST OF LIVING BUT EVERYTHING THAT COSTS US TO LIFE INCLUDING GAS SEEM TO BE ON THE UPSWING. LOWING THE PRICE OF GAS IS A START TO MAKING IT BETTER FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WE AS A PEOPLE CAN NOT KEEP TAKING IT IN THE SHORTS. EITHER RAISE THE COST OF LIVING, OR LOWER THE GAS PRICE.....

Answer 10

Are you constructive Why and by no skill How? properly, we stay in a capitalistic us of a, we are not a Communist us of a, nor can we've a King who can make judgements like this for us. gas is in uncomplicated words one commodity. food expenditures, clothing expenditures, application expenditures, all of those issues might want to be substituted for gas. you ought to have a liberal instructor, am I proper? i'd like to pay in uncomplicated words one dollar a gallon for gas, it would want to enable me save more effective funds for my childrens preparation, or i might want to apply that funds to pay off my loan speedier, and so on and so on. yet, i don't think of they "might want to" be decreased. I wish human beings drove somewhat a lot less, stopped driving gas guzzlers, than the decision for might want to be decrease, hence the costs. yet merely to assert why they "might want to" be decreased, to me is an idealistic non actual international propostion. Hell, the rents on the south area of Chicago and in ny might want to be decrease, the position does it provide up? To make it happen back, we opt to do 3 issues, and gas expenditures will be decrease, or no longer bypass as extreme, and those 3 issues are: seem after seem after seem after! playstation . My son is in uncomplicated words six, if he has a instructor that gave him a paper with the form of nonsensical proposition, i'd have a lengthy sit down with that instructor, and that i'd be wondering, inner most college!