OT: Gas prices across the United States are at their highest level

[Buck Fiden]

...with shortages predicted in the run up to the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

According to AAA, the national average on Tuesday is about $3.11 per gallon and by this weekend, that figure may rise another nickel.

UPI reports further strains will come when as many as 43.6 million Americans hit the road for Independence Day weekend, which runs from Thursday to Monday, extending a trend that became evident earlier this month as prices ticked upwards.

Biden has things so f***ed up it reminds me of Jimmy Carter's Misery Index.

[Ken]

Gas is not the only thing rising rapidly in price. Check out the cost of meat. Most knew Biden was messed up mentally, but they thought he could do no harm because of it. So much for that theory.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Please explain how Biden is causing meat prices to go up. Is he causing the labor shortage in the meat packing plants? Did he get rid of the truck drivers?

[gfretwell]

Indirectly if they are staying home because they make more on unemployment.

[invalid unparseable]

Inflation has always been defined as too many dollars chasing too few goods.

Where did all that extra money come from?

If Biden's bloated infrastructure bill gets approved, you ain't seen nothin yet.

[Ed Pawlowski]

OK, that may be a factor in part, but what about grain prices?

[Dean Hoffman]

It's a little dryer than normal in Iowa.

[Ken]

Have you not heard of the debt that he is proposing?? Printing money with no regard to how the debt is going to be repaid is causing the dollar to be worth less. If the dollar is worth less, people charge more dollars for their products. Did you attend a public school in a democrat state???

[Ed Pawlowski]

Insults aside, inflation has been going on for a long time. A few items, beef being one, have gone up far more than anything else.

I don't think you want to look at actual reasons, probably not able to see past Trumps lies.

[gfretwell]

That still might be increased production and transportation cost due to lack of labor..

[gfretwell]

Wait a minute, Didn't Bob (or Joyce) say Iowa got plenty of rain and they didn't need irrigation?

[rbowman]

No, that was his boss that let all the middle-eastern Muslims. The South Dakota packers loved the cheap labor until it seemed more susceptible.

[Dean Hoffman]

Usually true. Farmers here can't figure out what the ones farther east do with all of their spare time in the summer. County fairs and tractor pulls probably. The ones here are irrigating. I spent my working years fixing center pivots. There are two within sight of my mailbox. I've probably worked on hundreds within a 50 mile circle of my house here in south central Nebraska. My career spanned the time of conversion from ditch irrigation to pivot irrigation. We're blessed with being over the Ogallala Aquifer in this part of the world. Good water is fairly close to the surface. We're learning how to use it more efficiently. Pivots are a lot less work and do a better job of water use than running water down the rows. I've spent a fair share of time in Illinois. I can point to exactly one pivot in the whole state.

[invalid unparseable]

Don't let TDS cloud logic.

Closing down pipelines and development of ANWR shifts the price of gas being in US hands to OPEC's.

All the stimulus money pumped into the economy causes too many dollars going after too few goods.

Surprisingly a true infrastructure bill will not have as much impact but the bloated bill being proposed will greatly increase inflation.

People hurt by inflation are the middle class, particularly us retirees on fixed income.

[rbowman]

We've got the rivers and you don't find too much farming far from a river. It's mostly wheel lines around here but that beats moving water by hand.

[gfretwell]

You can see the effect of the center pivot irrigation flying over on the plane. There are deserts with green circles dotted around through it. We are doing a pretty good job of sucking water out of the Ogallala faster than nature can put it back.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Key word "might" Grain is also affected by weather, especially drought.

[Dean Hoffman]

Nebraska has set up Natural Resources Districts. Part or their job is to monitor groundwater levels. The groundwater in my immediate area is something like 9 feet above its low point back in the 70s. Water meters are required and I think every farmer has to fill out some sort of form about each well every year. Rationing will be required if the levels drop too much. Some of the worst groundwater drop in Nebraska is in the far southwest corner next to Colorado.

[Tekkie©]

On Wed, 30 Jun 2021 16:34:40 -0400, Ed Pawlowski posted for all of us to digest...

Food for cattle costs more, farmers raise the price. Labor costs go up, they raise their price. Truckers pick more profitable loads and fuel prices have gone up on these industries.

Simply put the gov't under Biden is printing money which causes inflation. Inflation is here and real. Jimmy Carter is a good example.

Also, the border is wide open. Where do the people go? Where do they get their money, health care, housing? You and I will pay for it - because the gov't will provide it.

I presume you are on a fixed income, you will feel it.

[Dean Hoffman]

Farmers don't really set prices in the sense Home Depot does. They have to take what the buyers pay at a given time and at a reasonable distance from their farms. They can hedge using the futures market or sell on contract.