In light of Congress’ passing of the price ceiling bill, there has been a large amount of speculation and fear mongering enforced by the media and opposing views. While the prospect of a price ceiling is rather worrying, we are here to dispel any fears you may have. Yes, in some cases a price ceiling may create a shortage of gasoline in the community, but with where our price shall be set, and with our distribution of resources, we believe this issue can be resolved rather easily and with minimum negative impact. Considering the effects of a price ceiling on the free market, the equilibrium of supply and demand, or the set price decided on the natural process, is altered depending on whether the price ceiling is above or below the equilibrium …show more content…
Beginning with the most prioritized, we will be giving the highest amount of gasoline (compared to other groups) to public transit, to relieve some of the stress of gas shortages to the people. This will dampen some of the harsher results on parents and teenagers, who I’ve allocated minimum gasoline to. When I say parents, I mean parents that transport their children to after-school activities such as soccer or football. We will use public transit to help move the kids to their destinations, similar to school buses. Teenagers will simply have to use public transit as well, as they are the least likely to need gasoline in most situations. The next priority is farmers. Without farmers creating food, people will starve. That’s quite self explanatory. As for transportation of goods, truckers receive a good portion of gasoline as well, however certain products holding low priority may be out of stock for a short amount of time, or longer depending on issues. Public safety will receive enough gas to continue enforcing laws and saving lives, as well as performing duties like …show more content…
High-priority workers and commuters still get a portion of gas sufficient to sustain needs, and finally, long distance drivers, I.E travelers, will get no privileges over other citizens. Reading this may be disheartening to most, but I assure you that this is in a state of severe shortages, and as I mentioned before, our price ceiling will much further above the equilibrium line, therefore the chances of that being an issue are rather low. So to be clear on this, our price will be set at $2.80 maximum per gallon. That way, the free market can continue to function, and will relieve a lot of stress on the average consumer’s wallet in reference to buying gasoline. And with the price of oil continuously declining, and 60-90 years of fuel reserves at the current rate of consumption, gas prices shouldn’t ever peak above that with reasonable pricing in mind. While a price ceiling is an anti-capitalist prospect, it certainly shouldn’t mean it’s a negative enforcement. The Department of Energy will continue to serve in the best interest of both consumers and
A price ceiling is a government-levied maximum rate for a product or good. When a price ceiling inflicted by the government is more than retail equilibrium price, the price ceiling has no effect on the market or economy. This is because it does not obstruct supply, nor does it boost the demand. A different effect transpires if the government imposes a price ceiling below the market’s equilibrium rate. The suppliers will no longer be capable of charging the price that the market mandates, but they are required to meet the maximum price determined by the government’s price ceiling. When the demand rises beyond the capability to supply, shortages ensue. This leads to rationing of the product, causing some consumers to experience longer lines to obtain the product. In a worse case, there would be no products available for the consumer to buy.
Despite the real life anecdote described above, a lot of people don't understand why and how gas prices rise and fall. There's an increase in attention to gas prices when they're higher or lower than usual because that directly concerns them as a consumer. Even when gas prices are higher, consumers keep paying because there's not really an alternative out there besides buying a new environmentally friendly car. However, there's currently a much deeper problem in the United States related to gas prices. Today, in particular, gas prices are a lot less than they have been but most Americans brush it off and wonder something along the lines of ""Who is that bad for?"". I mean, fuels costs eat up a large share of earnings in the
If gasoline were to result in a surplus, people would buy less gas, the gasoline industry will become more competitive; gas stations would begin to shut down because their earnings won't be enough keep the company up and running. Thankfully that moment doesn't look like its coming in the near future.
There has been some talk about an “oil-extraction tax.” With this tax in place, it would force companies to fork out more of the tax instead of the consumer. If higher taxes are put in place for the producer ultimately they are not the ones paying the higher price the consumer is. Either way producers will receive revenue and in order to do that they will just raise their prices. The demand for fuel is based on necessity forcing consumers to pay outrageous prices because they need it. In addition to the tax, oil companies would have to disclose more information about their supplies and prices. Since the companies have market power, some believe with the tax in place it would reduce the price of the good.
The price of gas has gone up for the 30th day in a row, and with it tempers are rising. Increased demand for public transportation is expected to continue into the spring [1]. The impact of high oil
The Wisconsin minimum mark-up law (also known as the Unfair Sales Act), sec. 100.30, is a law that was passed in 1939 forcing retailers (gas stations) must markup their prices for motor vehicle fuel either 6% above what they paid for it or 9.18% above the average terminal cost advertised in their area, whichever is greater. One point to note is that the 9.18% is not the retailer’s marginal cost but it is a terminal price, which is more than likely higher than the gas station’s actual cost, putting consumers in a worse position. As the main controversy of the law lies within the premium pricing of gasoline, the law also applies to the sales of prescription drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and other products sold within the store. When first
If the government decides to continue with the drilling of new sites or expand the Keystone XL Pipeline there are environmental dangers and concerns to follow and still not enough oil production to fuel the countries demand. The importing of oil from foreign countries would still be a necessity. For now the prices of gasoline are still on the rise and with use of the oil money future tool prices are sure to continue rising. As it seems in this current economic crisis, consumers need to make their voice heard with the government and hope something will change with the way oil is produced and imported to lower the cost for everyone.
This question is a casual argument because it speculates the consequences in increasing the gas taxes.
Supply and demand is best describes as the varying of prices of a specific service, product or commodity and the desirability for consumers. In theory, the supply and demand model works best for markets that are normally in perfect competition. Now in order for this desired market to work, there has to be a numerous amount of sellers and a numerous amount of buyers that have no real or major impact on the pricing of goods and services. In the follow essay, we will receive a better understand on what the supply and demand really is, further discuss a brief historical perspective on the supply and demand in comparison to the fickle prices of gasoline, go into detail about government involvement in gasoline prices, and finally examine how the supply and demand of gasoline is applicable in our everyday lives.
The demand of gasoline has increased steadily over the last twenty years. In 1981 the U.S. averaged 6.5 million barrels of gasoline consumption per day. By comparison, in 2004 the U.S. averaged 9.2 million barrels of gasoline consumption per day. For most of this time period, gas prices stayed relatively the same. This is because the U.S. refineries increased their production to meet the demand and maintain the equilibrium price. Also during this same time period worldwide demand for crude oil increased 27%. Crude oil producers also increased their production to meet the demand keeping prices the same.
At some point in everyone’s lives, we are affected by the rising gas prices in today’s economy. Natural gas is not a renewable resource, since there is a fixed amount of it trapped in the Earth. However, many people carry the misconception that there is a very limited amount of natural gas, and that we may use all of it up. This isn’t true. The gas shortages of the 1970's were prompted by the government’s lack of faith in the industry’s ability to discover and develop new reserves, not by lack of gas supply. The unfortunate impression left by the shortages of gas in the 1970's caused the people to believe that there was a small amount of gas left. On the contrary, the gas resource base is vast, and probably even
If the government puts in a price ceiling, then the quantity demanded will exceed the quantity supplied, meaning that not enough goods or services will be supplied to satisfy demand. This situation is called a shortage. Because price ceilings are installed in the interests of
Drivers realize that the price of gas is tied to the market value of crude oil, and has a direct impact to their daily commutes, errands, and vacations. However the reality is that the price of fuel has implications much grater than most consumers realize. Fuel prices affect nearly everything we purchase. For example, the price of farm commodities and food increase because farmers pay more for the fuel for their farm equipment and trucking firms pay more for fuel to get the commodities to market. These shipping “fuel surcharges” impact all goods
Lonnie, I enjoyed reading your discussion this week about raising gasoline taxes. I read the article and found it to be a tough topic to grasp. The article states, “A big argument against raising the gasoline tax to provide more money for transportation projects is that the gas tax, by its nature, affects low- and middle-income people more than it does the wealthy.” I found this statement to be very accurate for many other things as well. As we have learned in this class there are many different ideas to change taxes or hourly wages for certain brackets of individuals but we must look at all the consequences this might cause. Raising taxes for gasoline just for individuals who fall into a specific bracket seems to be unfair. After reading the
The US consumed 142 billion gallons of gasoline in 2007 and the tax applied on it is 18. 4 cents on one gallon. All around the US, there are around 162,000 retail gasoline outlets. With the price of crude oil hovering around $100 a barrel, it is no wonder that concern is growing about the gas prices being so high. After all, modern economies are kept moving by this lifeblood. For instance, in the United States alone personal vehicles consume more than 140 billion gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline per year.However, there are several factors that contribute to the gas prices being so high. Given below are a few of them. Increasing Demand for Oil One of the main catalysts for the incessant rise in gas prices has been one of the most