Consider this: 1 US gallon = 128 US fluid ounces
Here on Maui, a gallon of regular gasoline sells for about $2.599 while 16 Oz’s of Starbucks coffee goes for roughly $1.75. I’m sure you’ve seen others do the math, but bear with me. Using these figures, a gallon of Starbucks coffee will cost you more than $37. Imagine if instead of burning gas, your car required coffee? What’s my point? STOP YOUR FUCKING WHINING ABOUT THE PRICE OF GASOLINE! You want to whine about something, whine about how much I spend on coffee every fucking day of my adult life! Sending two pygmy orphans from darkest Africa to Disneyland for a week would cost less.
I hear people fuming about the price of gasoline (the cost of milk, bread, fruit, etc) all the time here on Maui, mostly from tourists who I meet in my wanderings. I try to be polite, really I do, but sometimes I just have to push back a little. I gently explain to them that all things considered, a gallon of gasoline is one of the cheaper gallons of anything you can buy these days. A tourist will have absolutely no qualm dropping a deuce and change for a cup of Joe, but balks when faced with paying the same for a whole gallon of gas! Sometimes they need more than gentle prodding to admit that their perceptions are warped and that my friends and neighbors is when things get ugly.
I’ve had more than my fair share of arguments standing in line at Starbucks. I’ve been called numerous names and have responded in kind on every occasion. I could just walk away, true. But where’s the fun in that? Today a woman called me a stupid beach bum when I tried to explain how the cup of coffee she clutched in her gnarled fingers was 21 times more expensive by the ounce than a gallon of gas. I won’t repeat what I said in response, but will say she left red faced and humiliated. I don’t think she’ll count me among the friendly natives when she thinks back on this vacation.
Here in my neck of the woods in New Brunswick Canada $2.599 for a gallon of gas would be cheap right now. We are presently paying $3.57 +/- for a gallon so they want something to complain about send them here.
ResPed sent me your way – great blog 🙂
Wow, and I thought the price of gas AND coffee was bad here in Maryland!! I think I get a Venti latte at Starbucks for like $3.70 – gas is at about $2 now.
Damn.
Anyway.
You’re the redhead today, Ed 🙂 I’m sending you as much traffic as I can muster!
Did you ever check out Cockeyed.com?
He did a price per gallon of everything.
Turns out, bottled water, much like your starbucks, is more expensive than a gallon of gas.
I ain’t bitching about the price, I’m bitching about the cost: long term enviromental cost, that is.
xoa
Umm, maybe I missed the point here but whats the price of pygmy orphans again?
yeah, i hear you, but (1) why the hell are you drinking starbucks if it’s so damn overpriced, your avg person who is worried about their fuel consumption for environmental reasons isn’t really down with paying $3 for a cup of coffee anyway, and (2) you live on maui. a freaking box of kellogg’s there is twice the price of what it is on the mainland. so of course gas is going to be expensive there. EVERYTHING is expensive there. (3) maui is not a major metropolitan area. you i’m sure get much MUCH better mpg than somebody who commutes to a city all the time. if you live in a large densely populated area w/ a lot of traffic and no public transportation then the price of gas becomes a much more significant part of your budget. oh and (4) another reason the price of gas irritates me: historically when it rises in real terms it signals impending recession. so. that certainly is not good. and (5)$55.67/barrel just seems artificially inflated for crude oil, which would render the price of gas artificially high, which is just retarded. anyway. im sleepy, so i cant think properly, but thats my rationale.