I was just curious how some of you are dealing with the rising cost of gasoline (petro to our overseas friends) and if you're finding yourselves having to make more changes in the rates you charge just to cover the expense to travel to and from gigs.

I ask this because the other day here in southern West Virginia the gas station next to my house was at $3.20 for regular (YIKES!)

Squeak

3.20 Dollar per Galon? Over here (Netherlands) its 1.51 Euro per Liter!!! My car drives on gasoline and LPG. LPG costs about 1/3 of gasoline.

If you have to drive a long way for a gig you could consider to ask a bit more I would say...

Bert.

I think that, except for special, 'call' gigs, you have to understand that your employers (the clubs and restaurants, at least) are under similar pressures as you. Higher gas costs mean fewer people are driving as far to go eating and dancing. Which means less money for them, and asking more at that particular time might be difficult (if not suicidal!).

The time to ask for more money is when things are going well, not when things start to get tight!

I don't charge travel time or mileage within a 50 mile radius of my office, but I do charge mileage for out of town jobs. The rate I set is .30 cents per mile; less than the deductible allowed for business travel by the IRS. If gas stays above $3.00 per gallon, I'll raise the rate to .35 in a month or so.


Russ

You think that’s bad ($3.20). The price over here in the UK is £4.19 ($8.35) a gallon.

We've raised our prices for this very reason just recently.

We're lucky (and hard working) enough to be quite popular and the clubs are paying our higher fees.

I'm from Australia incidentally, and Gas here is $1.10 per litre (sorry don't know about gallons).

There are roughly 3.78 liters to a US gallon...

[This message has been edited by ricok987 (edited 05-07-2007).]

Hi Squeak,

Thanks for bringing up a very timely topic on rising gas prices. Consider this as the tip of the iceberg signaling a larger global crisis that looms ahead.

With a population of 6.5 billion, and rising by 75 million each year, we are in serious overshoot. We have exceeded the Carrying Capacity of the planet by a factor of three. From the time of Christ to 1800AD, the global population rose very gently from 300 million to 1 billion. Then in the last 200 years, the world population exploded to 6.5 billion.

This sudden burst in population count was possible due to the extra energy we were able to derive from oil. Since the first oil well was drilled in 1859 in Pennsylvania, humans have consumed around 1 Trillion barrels of oil to date. About a Trillion more barrels remain under the ground. We crossed the Peak in Oil Production last year at 85.4 million barrels per day. Since then production has been declining at the rate of 1.5% per annum. The decline in production rate is expected to amplify as we traverse along the down slope of The Hubbert’s Curve.

All life depends on energy, and the Sun is the ultimate source of all energy. We can think of oil as stored solar energy – a product of ancient photosynthesis. It took nature millions of years to create this precious energy source. Mankind has burnt half of it in the last 148 years.

All the wonders of our Industrial Age can be directly related to cheap energy derived from Oil. The miracle of the Green Revolution allowed crop yields to increase by a factor of seven allowing more humans to feed and multiply. This miracle was possible due to industrial agriculture, fossil fuel based chemical fertilizers, pesticides, Genetically Modified crops, and irrigation from deep tube wells and dams – all possible due to discovery of oil.

The long term Carrying Capacity of the planet is estimated at 1 to 2 billion humans.

Our present population of 6.5 billion is expected to climb to 9.2 billion around 2050 followed by an agonizing period of global die-off as the excess population in overshoot withers away from famine, pestilence, warfare, diseases and pandemics.

All our present problems encompassing Peak Oil, Global Warming/Climate Change, deforestation, desertification, lack of drinking water, falling water tables, lack of biodiversity, resource drawdown, declining fish stock, soil erosion, pollution of the air and water bodies, depletion of the ozone layer to daily extinction of plant and animal species can be attributed to human overpopulation.

We have degraded the environment and contaminated the biosphere so badly, we would be lucky to make it through with a billion survivors.

We have to come to grips with the fact that our hyper-consuming way of life is not sustainable. Our socio-economic model is based on perpetual growth – an impossible wish in a finite world with finite resources.

The combined effects of Peak Oil, Housing Market Collapse and the soon to crash Stock Market could trigger the Second Great Depression in US history. This is the classic Perfect Storm scenario unfolding before our very eyes.

Each succeeding year is going to get more tougher as gas prices continue to climb past 4, 5, 6, 7, dollars a gallon.

We need to be very careful how we spend and budget each and every dollar.

On a positive note we must remain thankful and lucky to experience the absolute best of this short lived Industrial Age. The next generation will miss out on all the luxuries we took for granted.

Perhaps we have become too arrogant as a species. We think we are the masters of the universe. Our insatiable greed combined with our short term perspective and instant gratification is leading us to our self destruction. Perhaps a bitch slapping from Mother Nature is overdue to wake us up from our slumber.

Tapas

For additional research I would direct the curious reader to these websites:

The Oil Drum:
http://www.theoildrum.com/

A must read article correlating Peak Oil with Overpopulation:
http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/2516#more

Peak Oil:
http://peakoil.com/forums.html

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/


Climate Change:
http://www.realclimate.org/

Housing Bubble:

http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/

http://patrick.net/wp/

Financial News:
http://www.financialsense.com/

Die-Off.org:

The best summary that ties it all together painting the Big Picture
http://www.dieoff.org/synopsis.htm

Why do you think Governments and Private companies are investing heavily into putting self sufficient bases on the moon?
The answer is that it has plenty of room, vast resources, and is then a small stepping stone to Mars which gives us even more room and resources.
With future technology (Just like the jet plane in the 20th century) future travel to the Moon and Mars will be commonplace by the end of the 21st century. (Or maybe even sooner)
As to the links you posted, I would take them with a pinch of salt, just like the other conclusive reports, as if you check through recent history very few previous reports have been anywhere close to reality.
The Human Race is very resilient and resourceful

Just thought I would ask ... what is the price per gallon of gas at the pump in an oil producing nation .. like Iraq or Saudi Arabia or Nigeria?