Fuels going up again!!!!!!!

Flyboy152

pompeyrich wrote: »

When I started driving, 1977, petrol was 69p a gallon, around 15p a litre and I took home £15 a week, so if I spent all my income on petrol I would get 100 litres. At todays prices 100 litres would cost me about £140, less than 2 days money for me.

Oddly enough I started driving around the same time as you. However, I was hearing about thirty pounds a week then (about a hundred and forty pounds in today's money). Ergo, I could buy about a hundred litres of fuel with that money. Nothing changes.

Flyboy152

asbokid wrote: »

i'm guessing at osmosis?

Certainly not in the principle of supply and demand.

pompeyrich

Lum wrote: »

You are (hopefully) in a somewhat better job than what you were doing in 1977.

Can you compare your fuel cost per litre against the average wage of someone 34 years younger than you doing whatever it was you did in 1977?

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Oddly enough I started driving around the same time as you. However, I was hearing about thirty pounds a week then (about a hundred and forty pounds in today's money). Ergo, I could buy about a hundred litres of fuel with that money. Nothing changes.

Caught me out there guys, I was an apprentice back then and now, long since qualified so my money is better now. I'm not trying to defend the constant price rises, just pointing out that in "real terms" things aren't massively different. My 1st years car insurance was £52 on a Cortina Mk1 1200, it was 12 years old and cost me £120, could probably buy a 12 year old Ford for similar money today. Wrote it off after 3 days, so young male drivers were a risk back then too .

Tucker

thescouselander wrote: »

I dont see what you're getting at. I have a bike - in fact I have several and I use them frequently - this has no bearing on my requirement to own a a car though. Owning and using a bike will not automatically save the hundreds of pounds you claim.

Also, have you considered the effects of an oil price shock to the already fragile economy? What if we are tipped back into recession and jobs start to go? People could lose their jobs due to this.

Most families have 2 or more cars at their disposal. It's simple, if you are finding to hard to cope with fuel costs, cycling can make it possible to run one car and half your costs. We've done it when we needed to and made sacrifices.

I'm not saying it's possible for everyone to become carless. Simply that most families these days rely way too heavily on cars and are too idle to look at alternatives.

There are people on my estate who drive their kids 500 yards to school and back for gods sake. That's all that car does every day!!

There's even one bloke who drives quarter of a mile to the paper shop every morning.

People a lazy and thoughtless. I'm simply saying car use in this country in this day and age is excessive and in many situations totally needless.

Lum

My partner does a 120 mile round trip to get to work each day. Mine is only a 32 mile round trip but it's in the opposite direction (Gloucester for her, Cardiff for me) and crosses two mountains (or I could go the long way around but that requires use of the M4)

So no we wont be giving up our cars, we even have a third, spare, car just to ensure we can both get to work. Only way we could do it would be to move to Gloucester and for me to quit my job.

davidjwest

I'm going to start a new political party who's only policy will be to reduce tax on fuel so it's around £1 a litre, who'd vote for me?

All other policies would be by referendum or picking the best ideas from the other parties - or from internet forums.

:rotfl:

Biggles

davidjwest wrote: »

I'm going to start a new political party who's only policy will be to reduce tax on fuel so it's around £1 a litre, who'd vote for me?

Not me, I couldn't afford your income tax!

davidjwest

No need to increase Income Tax, just scrap Trident and bring in a Robin Hood tax on the banks or something along those lines.

Lum

I'd rather see income tax used to pay for the services that everybody uses and/or has a right to (NHS, pensions, social security, education etc.) rather than just milking certain special areas. Sure this would mean a Dutch-style 50% income tax for most people but at least we'd know how much everything really costs.

This simplified tax would also reduce bureaucracy. Think of how much money, paper and labour goes into just issuing tax discs, for example.

Derivative

If more people cycled to work, less demand, prices would fall.
Unless of course the UK government decided to ramp up taxes.

I don't care either way. People cling on to their entitlements; if you can afford petrol, buy it. If you can't, don't. Not much sense moaning about it.

I know people who hire cars when they genuinely need them and cycle/public transport otherwise. Saves them a ton.