• rosahaj@piefed.blahaj.zone
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    11 hours ago

    Americans having the cheapest fuel in the first world, and still being crippled by the cost says a lot, I think, but I don’t know how quite to express it. Res ipsa loquitur.

    • bstix@feddit.dk
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      7 hours ago

      I think that the cost of fuel is a larger percentage of the average Joe’s budget. They drive more often, longer and consume more per mile.

      Lots of things are cheaper in USA but they also have other costs which are a lot more expensive than elsewhere. Health insurance for instance.

      I live somewhere where gas prices are much higher, but it’s still a smaller percentage of my budget. Also, the reason why our gas price is higher is that it’s heavily taxed by volume, so when the wholesale price changes, it only affects the consumer price in a smaller percentage of the total.

      All together, this means that Americans are more affected by the fluctuations of gas prices, even if they get it cheaper.

      • rosahaj@piefed.blahaj.zone
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        4 hours ago

        That makes sense, my comment was originally going to be something along the lines of a lack of foreplanning, or sustainable development, but I felt unequipped to comment on in in any depth given I have no experience. I feel like the factors you mentioned could have been avoided, if the United States served the best interests of it’s people.

    • ThePantser@sh.itjust.works
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      11 hours ago

      Were not actually crippled but the motorheads are a bunch of winy bitches. Its the gas guzzler trucks that are driven for no reason other than because they can who get the most vocal about gas prices. We let the auto industry supersize the autos to the point they are obnoxious which now become a pain for those owners.

      • BlueOysterCultist@lemmy.zip
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        11 hours ago

        The small farmers look crippled, diesel prices doubled

        Long haul trucking/shipping is probably gonna raise costs everywhere

        • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          After seeing all the investigations into lettuce basically showing 4 farms providing all the lettuce (and Taylor farms being so big) basically removed the idea that there are small farms or small farmers.

          Keep in mind any farmer is sitting on land that has an enormous equity value that those same farmers leverage for very special loans (farmers even have their own special Chapter 12 bankruptcy type to let them keep as much as possible). Farmers don’t need our help.

          • JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
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            7 hours ago

            What about the young man who just invested in an excavator and a new truck to haul it? There are lots of trades that do actually rely on diesel and it’s naive to pretend otherwise. Plus, all of the food at your grocery store? Diesel brought it. Every machine that maintains the roads, and plows them in the winter, most of the small boats we rely on for seafood, it’s unfortunate, but it’s used everywhere and it’s cost is tied to lots of other goods.

            • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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              4 hours ago

              The scope of my comment is to farming. I agree diesel is critical and will stop almost every logistics solution from trains to ships to trucks. Shit is fucked but don’t shed tears for farmers.

      • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.worldOP
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        11 hours ago

        Its the gas guzzler trucks that are driven for no reason other than because they can who get the most vocal about gas prices

        Lol and they like to have massive trump flags on their truck to kill any bit of efficiency they might have.