I remember hearing at one point the amount gas actually costs is so minimal compared to what we pay for it, its just that the government allows for the prices to be how they are because of the demand we as Americans have for gas....
Well, not actually. I am NOT an apologist for the Petroleum Co's, by any means, but the situation is a heckuva lot more complicated than the price of milk, or cotton, or Zaino...
Gasoline, at least in it's current state and form, is one of those few commodities for which there is not a ready replacement providing the same utility. It is also one of those commodities that is an end product of a resource whose presence around the planet is arbitrary and, where it is found, is extremely difficult to extract. Oil wells tend to be a heck of a lot deeper than coal mines. Sweet crude doesn't just come "a-bubblin' up from the ground" anymore, Jed Clampett notwithstanding.
Compared to many other liquids, gasoline is extremely expensive to locate, extract, transport, refine, and deliver. Compare it to milk. Or, jezzus benightly, your local bottle of Evian. Both are relatively simple to get, easy to find, require far less post-extraction processing, and just as expensive.
The price of this commodity is very tightly coupled to both supply AND demand. Demand, worldwide, has nearly doubled in the last ten years. Supply lines in several top producers (Read: Venezuala, Nigeria, Iraq) have recently been sharply cut back for both political and non-political reasons. This will lead to a rise in price. Inevitable.
It's also true that in the US, environmental concerns have acted to reduce the exploration and extraction of petrochemicals from our own shores - for good or for bad, it's a fact of life. We buy gas from overseas because we can not produce enough within our own borders to supply our demand. And we tend not to want to have oil refineries in our back yard (even though I have about 5 of 'em within 10 miles, plus a nuke plant down the road... lucky me.)
In the overall economic picture, using real dollars, gasoline has not jumped that much in the last quarter century. It has kept pace with inflation (or, if you prefer, inflation has kept pace with it). Regardless, we as a Nation of Drivers need to either sharply curtail our use of gasoline, or get used to paying higher prices for it.
Government action can only make it worse. I remember the gas lines of the 70s. If the government puts some sort of price ceiling on gas, it simply won't be sold. The stations will not get it from the refineries, because the refineries won't make it. An artificially low price would encourage even more consumption, as it is.
It helps to keep things in focus. A gallon of gas at $3.00 is about the same as three hershey bars, 1/4th of a CD, 8 first class stamps, or two loaves of bread.
The reason people get so hung up on gas is that it's one of the few things we tend to buy by itself - unless you're in the Stop-n-Shop getting a Slushy or something, the bottom line number for that tank of gas is usually the only thing on the receipt. When we buy groceries or clothes or other stuff, there's usually more than one item on the bill.
We also buy it in bigger chunks. If you bought milk 25 gallons at a time, I bet we'd also be crying about those rapacious dairy farmers in Wisconsin.
Think about it.
) is stupid.
.