Gas Prices

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the US. If you are outside the US, I hope you had a good thursday and subsequent friday. I'd go into all the things I'm thankful for, but lets face it: complaining is much more fun. One complaint which I think is universal (other than hating your elected officials) is gas prices. These are exorbitant everywhere. The price of a gallon of gas is extremely high, and all you have to do is drive down the street and look at the local gas station to have a near heart attack. Around here, we chart crude prices on a daily basis. When you have vessels that require millions of gallons of fuel for trips, these things become very very important. Prices outside the US are even worse.

So, if fuel for your car costs $3.18 a gallon (I wish, right?) here's how that get divvied up, courtesy of Maxim, believe it or not- it's not all going to the guy that owns the station.

• 33¢ Distribution and Marketing
• 4¢ Gas Station Credit Card Fees
• 4¢ Gas Station Rent
• 4¢ Gas Station Payroll
• 73¢ Refining Costs
• 53¢ Crude Oil Costs
• 21¢ State Taxes (more in California, actually)
• 20¢ Federal Taxes
• $1.06 Crude Oil Profit (i.e. The money that goes to the big fatty energy companies all of us GSMA kids want to go work for.)

And knowing is half the battle, kids!