Why don't we as motorists fight back against rip-off Britain & the OTT fuel prices?
It's quite clear that we are being conned, so why don't we boycott the big oil companies & buy our fuel from the supermarket suppliers, who are usually a lot cheaper?
The government & the fuel suppliers know we are all inherently selfish & will just pay whatever they charge, so that we can keep driving our big shiny cars.
It's a about time we taught the big boys a lesson & boycotted their ludicrious charges.
When their profits drop, they'll soon be knocking on Alistair Darling's door & demanding that the government drop the rate of fuel duty.
None of us need the overpriced regular or 288 octane fuel that their glossy adverts brainwash us with; good old supermarket fuel is good enough ( & cheap enough) for everday driving.
The fuel crisis of September 2000 was triggered when petrol hit 84p/litre; I wish it was that price now!
The problem with fuel prices is that most people see the car as totally essential to their lives and therefore pay whatever they charge. If we tried to do a mass boycott and say persuade people not to drive for say a week it wouldnt work because people are self centred and would think why should they compromise their lives.
The reaction to fuel and prices / supply is interesting because we moan about it all the time but as soon as a rumour goes round that its getting short people queue like rationing is about to start to selfishly buy as much as they can.
Originally posted by Bamford: Millionaires get child allowance. Crazy.
Billionaires get more in interest, in a week, than most people will earn, for 50 years of hard work. Capitalism has an awful lot to answer for.
I dont think i would want to live in the alternative to capitalism. However, I do agree that benefits should all be means tested. The fact that millionaires can claim the same per child as a single parent struggling in a council flat is shocking.
The problem is that the country survives on high rate tax payers and if they increase that too much they look for solutions to avoid tax thus making the problem worse.
All the very rich people i know, already avoid tax, in every way possible!
BTW. As soon as our wonderful 'English' F1 racer got wealthy, he decided that he now 'lives' abroad!
The ultra-rich should pay FAR more into the national pot than they currently do, without question, especially when so many others in the UK are genuinely hard up. Mainly because they'd not even know it was gone, when they are stockpiling huge amounts of extra wealth via interest, so quickly.
your questioning an extra £5 a month at most; i'm sure you have a decent salary
talk to people from other european cities, south america etc their average wages are a quarter of what they are here yet their fuel costs are similar.
There are reasons why people in these parts of the world dont have a new car every 3 years or the latest plasma TV.
i can also appreciate that my argument maybe the opposite if i didn't have a good wage, car and house but i'm just saying, put it in prospective.
I am also a hater of the climate change theory and have many oppinions on that the oil etc. But 1 thing i do agree with is, if oil was cheap we would use our cars for everything, we would take a lot more trips and use the cheap petrol prices as an excuse to go out more. The cheaper the oil, the more we can afford to buy and use, the quicker it runs out. When the oil runs out or needs to be rationed, countries will get into conflict, people will panic, industry will slow down and the economies will suffer or even collapse. I think i'd rather pay my extra £5 a fillup whilst they build more renewable energy or nuclear power in the hope that what we do now is enough for the future.
I couldn't give a flying.... about climate change because i believe what we contribute is massively insignificant; the earth was going to warm anyway. Just like mars is warming at a higher rate than earth. Green taxes and higher oil prices is probably the right thing to do. Preserve the oil and get more money into alternative fueling.
Whatever controversial view you have and like me i think the gov's view on being greener is hypocritical - the point is, you are better off than millions of other people. I wouldn't complain but i'm not asking you to feel sorry for them, just a bit of realisation.
I agreee, well, in the main, which is precisely why those with absurdly large amounts of wealth should be giving some more of it to people who need it far more than they ever will.
prices will go up & up .... be better if more of the money was channelled to the oil companies to fund quicker development of their alternative power development though
-------------------------------------------- Two junior particle physicists were dismissed today after using the Large Hadron Collider to smash conkers into each other at near-light speed.
Originally posted by Bamford: All the very rich people i know, already avoid tax, in every way possible!
BTW. As soon as our wonderful 'English' F1 racer got wealthy, he decided that he now 'lives' abroad!
And that kind of proves my point. By putting up the tax burden on the rich you solve nothing as they have the ability to go where they feel in their words "appreciated" or have less of a tax burden. Lewis is an example of that.
Originally posted by craigjm: Thats And that kind of proves my point. By putting up the tax burden on the rich you solve nothing as they have the ability to go where they feel in their words "appreciated" or have less of a tax burden. Lewis is an example of that.
Thats quite a bold statement. Of course people on high income or who own multiple companies and assets look for ways of avoiding paying high tax bills. I know people who do this legitmatly.
Yes we do loose about 13billion from tax dodging but its unfair to say we are solving nothing.
Over half of all the tax paid comes from the super rich and that is just 13% of people.
Dont forget the super rich put a lot of money back into the economy in more ways then one and they are much more likely to invest in existing or new business; providing more jobs and oppotunities.
Originally posted by Jimmy_: Get friendly with your local chippy, get a little refinery pump for £2K, have fuel for 15p/litre. Well, so Fith Gear say
I saw that.
That item was enough to make me want to go diesel!
I was a bit confused about it, as the taxman would obviously want his cut; so how would he know how much & how often you were buying the oil, as it's just oil that chip shops were going to throw away anyway?
It took plants 400 million years to suck the carbon out of the air and store it underground, in 250 years we'll have stuck it back up there, for what? So fat blokes from surrey with small tidgers and daddies that didnt love them can have their pathetic lives validated driving cars that have a ridiculous max speed sat in traffic. Folks are still raving about "technology" that does 20mpg. Whopee-doo-yawn.
If u dont like fuel prices, A) try living near where you work B) getting a fuel economic car.
Hmm, I dunno... but however much you get taxed, it would still be much less that £1/litre. Even better if you own the chippy yourself too as you wouldn't have to buy the stuff from someone else, so once you've got the money back that you used to buy the refinery pump, it'd technically be free.
Originally posted by Jimmy_: Hmm, I dunno... but however much you get taxed, it would still be much less that £1/litre. Even better if you own the chippy yourself too as you wouldn't have to buy the stuff from someone else, so once you've got the money back that you used to buy the refinery pump, it'd technically be free.
iv run a big tdi on vegoil from tesco and diesel, home maxde bio if you like..saved a fortune....
thats what i do in the dryer weatehr..cycle to office/gym, around 10-12 miles a day....you get so much fitter and actually enjoy it once you get past the first week!!!
What a disappointingly positive response to my rant! ) It makes you wonder though, 25 years ago not many people were commuting long distances, suddenly now it has become "necessary", why? it steals your time and a proportion of your "real" i.e. disposable wage packet portion.
It makes you wonder though, 25 years ago not many people were commuting long distances, suddenly now it has become "necessary", why? it steals your time and a proportion of your "real" i.e. disposable wage packet portion.
I've always wondered about that too.
In view of the rising fuel prices, I'm half tempted to sell my car in protest (and instant cash, of course!). If I can find an OK paying job in the city centre or on a bus route.
Cars are slowly becoming a luxury over necessity seeing how heavily taxed they are.
Reading books about pre war days I'm not so sure about that - many people walked/cycled long distances to get to work, often walking several hours each way - also commuting by train is very similar to what it used to be when looking at large urban areas - what has changed is that private transport (ie cars) have become much cheaper reletavely speaking and initially people just used them for the commute they were already doing by foot or train and found it quicker.... then they realised that they could live further away in "nicer" area and so moved out - its noticable that there is now a big growth in inner city developments where people want to cut travelling time - a quick look around Brirmingham City Centre proves that...
What surprises me with this thread is no-one has yet mentioned the tax on fuel, which is the REAL culprit for the level of the increases - if they managed to spend it sensibly I could perhaps forgive them, but its all spent on the wrong things or given to wasters - I have every sympathy with Lewis and others and if I were as rich as he is I'd move out as well!
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