Inflation/Gas Prices/Rising Prices in General

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

I always find this hilarious. Everyone seems to think we need to take major drastic steps to combat climate change. And fair enough. But if even a 50 cent hike in gas prices is UNACCEPTABLE, then what the #### are you even talking about? Gas needs to be 4 bucks a litre and literally everything else outside of locally produced products needs to go up a similar amount.

Just figure out what you actually want already. Hunt: it can't be "solve the world's problems without inconvenience me personally or affecting my life in any way".

fine. but there are more people who are barely surviving right now.
how do they survive if your inflationary plans occur? (although the way prices of everything have gone up in the last year, I'm actually finding out)

The world isn't Calgary Puck where it seems 95% here have household incomes of $150,000+

[Geraldsh]

Originally Posted by GGG

Doesn’t that happen due to the nature of the modern world. The price of a local commodity will always be the cost of the commodity somewhere else plus the cost to ship it.

This has irked me from the day it began. A local product consumed locally should have a price minus the cost of global opportunity.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

Which is really stupid when you think about it. Someone came up with that, and for some reason we all just bought it.

Without globalization, we’d pay much more for clothing, consumer electronics, manufactured goods, food not grown in Canada, etc, etc.

[Table 5]

• Get used to good life, but forget why and how we got there.
• Spend decades vilifying fossil fuel as evil.
• Ignore basic laws of economics and think that if you kill supply, it will reduce demand, ignoring global growth.
• Fail to realize fossil fuels are critical to everything we do…from food production to basic materials, and that if the price of energy goes up, so does production of literally everything.
• Fight/protest all new development and exploration at every step to score political points. Turn communities against each other.
• Starve own highly regulated industry, rely on shady countries/cartels instead… act outraged when they don’t share your beliefs and do what you want.
• Watch large institutions and funds make big ESG show about no longer investing in fossil fuels. Prioritize putting money into apps instead.
• Think renewables will solve everything, failing to realize they are built on a backbone of fossil fuels. Ignore lessons from countries like Germany that actively went in on renewables, and now have sky high energy prices…and still rely on coal power.
• Only focus on environmental cost, fail to consider humanitarian/monetary/political ones. Forget how revolutions start.
• Ignore decade long bear market in energy… then accuse everyone of being greedy after relatively small uptick. Ignore two decades of record profits of tech boom.
• Talk of profit taxes and nationalization, ignoring lessons of past and further stunting new supply.

Why oil/inflation so high?!?? Damn greedy corporations.

[stone hands]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

fine. but there are more people who are barely surviving right now.
how do they survive if your inflationary plans occur? (although the way prices of everything have gone up in the last year, I'm actually finding out)

The world isn't Calgary Puck where it seems 95% here have household incomes of $150,000+

My wife and I make around the 100k mark combined, but outside of housing, our yearly spending averages out to around 20k. A lot of this is how we engineered our lives, we live close to a grocery store so we walk to get groceries, even in the winter. We live close enough to cycle to work(I used to cycle 50km a day when I didnt, luckily I work from home now), gas prices really are irrelevant to us because we only use the car a few times a month maybe. We buy the same staple groceries and really only eat out once a month or so. We dont have any kids

For discretionary spending I guess that we are lucky that the hobbies we have are pretty cheap in the long run, I like to game and read books and play guitar - I've had the same guitar for almost a decade now that I got on kijiji for $750. 2 years ago I bought a $2400 computer that will last me 7-8 years to replace the old 2400 dollar pc I got 10 years ago. The library is free, I do my own bike maintenance, etc

Understandably, not having kids is probably the biggest driver for why all of these price increases have not really impacted me, but a lot of it is engineering my life around what we find important. We are able to live a fulfilling and enjoyable life at what many people would consider poverty level spending

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

fine. but there are more people who are barely surviving right now.
how do they survive if your inflationary plans occur? (although the way prices of everything have gone up in the last year, I'm actually finding out)

The world isn't Calgary Puck where it seems 95% here have household incomes of $150,000+

Tax the rich and give it to the poor?

I'm guilty of it as well - but when some issue annoys us - we should just own it and not bring up the poor unless you actually want to help them with issues that don't also impact you.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Table 5

• Get used to good life, but forget why and how we got there.
• Spend decades vilifying fossil fuel as evil.
• Ignore basic laws of economics and think that if you kill supply, it will reduce demand, ignoring global growth.
• Fail to realize fossil fuels are critical to everything we do…from food production to basic materials, and that if the price of energy goes up, so does production of literally everything.
• Fight/protest all new development and exploration at every step to score political points. Turn communities against each other.
• Starve own highly regulated industry, rely on shady countries/cartels instead… act outraged when they don’t share your beliefs and do what you want.
• Watch large institutions and funds make big ESG show about no longer investing in fossil fuels. Prioritize putting money into apps instead.
• Think renewables will solve everything, failing to realize they are built on a backbone of fossil fuels. Ignore lessons from countries like Germany that actively went in on renewables, and now have sky high energy prices…and still rely on coal power.
• Only focus on environmental cost, fail to consider humanitarian/monetary/political ones. Forget how revolutions start.
• Ignore decade long bear market in energy… then accuse everyone of being greedy after relatively small uptick. Ignore two decades of record profits of tech boom.
• Talk of profit taxes and nationalization, ignoring lessons of past and further stunting new supply.

Why oil/inflation so high?!?? Damn greedy corporations.

OR - there's a war involving a major oil producing country that is being sanctioned by the west and driving the costs way up.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

I always find this hilarious. Everyone seems to think we need to take major drastic steps to combat climate change. And fair enough. But if even a 50 cent hike in gas prices is UNACCEPTABLE, then what the #### are you even talking about? Gas needs to be 4 bucks a litre and literally everything else outside of locally produced products needs to go up a similar amount.

Just figure out what you actually want already. Hunt: it can't be "solve the world's problems without inconvenience me personally or affecting my life in any way".

You’re right, it’s definitely not different people with different views and desire fluctuating in their loudness. It’s just all the same people who can’t figure out what they want!

Sarcasm aside, I think even most people who are happy to see gas rise to prices rise to levels that make people think twice about their vehicles realise this isn’t exactly the ideal state. Jacking it up so that it ####s up poor people and makes the rich richer is really never a winning formula for public opinion.

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Without globalization, we’d pay much more for clothing, consumer electronics, manufactured goods, food not grown in Canada, etc, etc.

That’s not what’s being held up as the issue though, it’s the fact that locally made products are as or more expensive locally than they are where they’re being shipped. An iPhone is more expensive in China than the US, for example. It’s a quirk in the system that is actually quite stupid.

[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by Table 5

various corporate propoganda
Why oil/inflation so high?!?? Damn greedy corporations.

Globalization, supply chains that rely on "on demand fulfillment" to maximize profits, are why we're here. Most estimates peg inflation for consumers to be 25% or higher simply because corporations feel they can raise prices and get away with it. Don't take my word for it, they're openly bragging about it on earnings calls.

Corporations are greedy soul sucking vampires. There's never enough money.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

OR - there's a war involving a major oil producing country that is being sanctioned by the west and driving the costs way up.

Don’t tell me your one of those who fell for the “Putin’s Price Hike” crap? The war has exacerbated the issue for sure, but we were on this path long before Ukraine.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Don’t tell me your one of those who fell for the “Putin’s Price Hike” crap? The war has exacerbated the issue for sure, but we were on this path long before Ukraine.

Gas prices would be high.. but not nearly this high. People would be complaining but it wouldn't nearly be this impactful.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Why oil/inflation so high?!?? Damn greedy corporations.

This is a great write up on NDP politics. The Jagmeet Manifesto.

[Hack&Lube]

One unfortunate result of the global nature of oil as a commodity is that the current situation is not benefitting Canadian O&G as much and the WCS to WTI discount/differential is ever growing.

Biden opening up US strategic Petroleum reserves and the ability for unsavory countries to buy super-cheap Russian old has left Canadian Oil back in a +$20 discount over WTI as there is less demand for our sour and pipeline challenged Oil Sands product.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

One unfortunate result of the global nature of oil as a commodity is that the current situation is not benefitting Canadian O&G as much and the WCS to WTI discount/differential is ever growing.

Biden opening up US strategic Petroleum reserves and the ability for unsavory countries to buy super-cheap Russian old has left Canadian Oil back in a +$20 discount over WTI as there is less demand for our sour and pipeline challenged Oil Sands product.

Yeah, but think of the moral reward of not investing in your energy infrastructure. Just spend that.

[PepsiFree]

Can’t tell if people are doing the “thanks NDP!” thing seriously or not.

[calgarygeologist]

Has demand for gasoline increased significantly since 2014? Has the cost of refining fuel increased in that time? Mid 2014 was the last time that oil prices were at the level they are today. Back then the wholesale price of gasoline was around $0.80 per litre while today the wholesale price is over $1.40. In 8 years the wholesale price of gasoline has increased 75%.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

Which is really stupid when you think about it. Someone came up with that, and for some reason we all just bought it.

How else would you price a good?

Is what you are advocating is forcing domestic sales at a lower price than the world market and only export surplus?

If you want to capture more public benefit from the sale increase royalties or taxation on profit.

[Lubicon]

Curious to hear what people are receiving this year for a raise and if employers are recognizing the huge rise in prices that their employees are facing. We finally received our first increase in 8 years. Cost of living increase and it was 3%.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

Gas prices would be high.. but not nearly this high. People would be complaining but it wouldn't nearly be this impactful.

The inflation pain train started long before the war in Ukraine. The war is just the cherry on top.



And just before anyone thinks it, no, it's not all Biden's fault. The way his administration has been managing inflation/energy policy has been terrible...but it's a a culmination of years (decades?) of bad Western policy, mixed with a black swan Covid event that shook how the world does business. Yes, the war has made it worse, but even if the war would end tomorrow, many of the issues are not going away until the issues of supply are fixed.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Curious to hear what people are receiving this year for a raise and if employers are recognizing the huge rise in prices that their employees are facing. We finally received our first increase in 8 years. Cost of living increase and it was 3%.

Same here, 3 per cent.

And yet I expect employers are having to pay considerably more to hire new employees to fill positions. So not only do you need to change employers to secure a raise, now you need to change employers just to keep up with inflation.