$7.00 gallon diesel??

[Builder]

Wonder how much money we oughta back-charge oil-rich Kuwait for saving their hide from ******??

They should ship us a year's supply of oil for what we did for them.

 

[5030]

Bates:

I wonder when some manufacturer will come out with a hybrid farm tractor. I remember years ago, General Electric made an electric lawn tractor called the Electrac. Must have weighed like a tank with the flooded cell lead/acid batteries. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Builder]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Bates:

I wonder when some manufacturer will come out with a hybrid farm tractor. I remember years ago, General Electric made an electric lawn tractor called the Electrac. Must have weighed like a tank with the flooded cell lead/acid batteries. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )</font>

My father had an Elec-Trac!!! It was called an "E-20". It was actually a very nice tractor, super quiet!! However, it wore out too quickly and was replaced with a Kubota garden tractor.

 

[5030]

L39:

Now, if you replaced the flooded cell lead/acid batteries with Nickle Metal Hydrides or Lithium Ion cells and went with a dc regenerative power unit and dynamic braking you might have a new Elec-Trac. Problem is, it wouldn't be even affordable, that is, unless you were in California. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Just think, you could take a Kubota BX, sell the engine, stuff in batteries, recharger and power unit and mow in silence. When you are done, park it in the garage, plug it in and pay the utility dearly for the privilege.

 

[Builder]

Funny 5030! Just remember, it wasn't mine, but my dear ol' dad's! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I think he bought it in ~1977-ish ???

 

[cowboydoc]

<font color="red"> </font>

Again people fail to see the economics of things. If you use this logic then corn should be about $40/bushel. Wheat about $50/bushel and cattle should be selling for $10/lb. TV's should be about $10,000. The reality is that economics do not always mean increased prices. In reality most things adjusted for inflation go down in price as the costs of production go down.

 

[cp1969]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="red"> </font>

Again people fail to see the economics of things. If you use this logic then corn should be about $40/bushel. Wheat about $50/bushel and cattle should be selling for $10/lb. TV's should be about $10,000. The reality is that economics do not always mean increased prices. In reality most things adjusted for inflation go down in price as the costs of production go down. )</font>

Very well put.

It amazes me that people, when confronted with an abberation in historical price trends, tend to think that now there is virtually no upper bound on a given commodity, with the usual justification that 'they're not making any more of it', whatever 'it' is.

Someone wrote an op/ed piece last fall in which he offered to bet anyone $5000 that the real cost of energy would be less in twenty years than it is today. I wish I'd saved it, but not because I would want to take him up on his offer. I think he's probably right.

 

[RFB]

I was driving in the 60's, and I was not paying $.40 for a gallon of gas. I never saw a price higher than 19.9 (and that was for 101 Octane) until the 70's.

As a kid in H.S. (in the 60's) I pumped gas at a few gas stations. Both I and the gas were "teenagers".

 

[Hydraman]

In light of the current friendly discussion, way back in 1964, when I graduated from High School, my first job was for an oilfield service company doing wellsite maintenance,etc. And at less than .30 a gallon for gasoline, I had to work real hard for half of a day to earn enough money to fill the gas tank on my car. And this was manual labor; the only "power tool" we had on the crew was a jackhammer that we used to dig holes in the ground when it was frozen. Today, I earn an average daily wage of about $285, and don't work very hard to do that.So, even at $7.00 a gallon, I still haven't caught up with the same price that I was paying back in "64. And today all I have to do is sit and hold a steering wheel that has in excess of 400 horsepower helping to turn it!!!
Just remember--- Neither Your money, nor your property is safe as long as congress and legislature is in session.

 

[Bates]

Hydraman is right on. When adjusted for inflation, fuel is even cheaper now than it was in the 1960's.

When fuel DOES catch up with inflation, it's going to be a real eye opener. I agree somewhat with the technology comments. That's why a TV doesn't cost $10,000. They get easier to produce, better and cheaper.

Not so with oil. There is tremendous new demand and competiton for it. At the same time, we are past "peak oil" on
the planet.

Most if not all of the cheap, easy to recover oil is gone.
The trucking industry isn't far off with their $7 per gallon predicton.