Fuel prices affect everyone
NOVEMBER 13, 2007 (TUESDAY) – I was thinking about gasoline prices and wondering how much tax is included in the price of a gallon. In Texas, it is 38.4 cents. Fifteen states pay less, and 34 states pay more. The highest rate, 62.4 cents, is in California.
The charts I saw can be viewed here.
Aren’t you glad the lawmakers didn’t set a percentage rate per gallon instead of a flat tax per gallon? When gasoline was 87.9 cents per gallon not so long ago, the 38.4 cents tax amounted to 44% of the price. If that same percentage rate prevailed today, the tax included in $2.959 (a recent price) would be $1.30 per gallon, making the total price per gallon, $3.88. (Arithmetic accuracy not guaranteed).
I can almost hear someone saying, “s-h-h-h, don’t give them any ideas!”
Oh, before you look for my profound solutions, let me make clear I don’t have any answers to all this. I’m just observing the situation. That’s the way some of us are – we think a lot but do less. I believe that we will not see the end of the price increases for fuel until they rise to much higher levels. That’s just my opinion. I don’t know why I think that, but neither do I know why the prices have increased as they have. I’m just thinking aloud.
I do know that fuel prices affect everyone, and those hurt the most are the people who quietly try to pay steadily rising prices with very meager fixed and unchanging incomes. Every month they learn to do without something else. They may not even drive automobiles, but everything they buy is affected by higher fuel costs and other inflation factors. The church receives some of its support from people who don’t have enough money to get by. Jesus observed a lady giving her last “penny” to the Temple Offering. He said she gave more than anyone else that day, because she gave sacrificially. As I read this story in the New Testament, the question comes to mind, “Who helped that lady get food on her table, without offending her dignity?” Should we Christians be concerned about such matters in 2007?