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Getting around Bonaire: Bonaire Gas Prices
Bonaire Talk: Getting around Bonaire: Archives: Archives 1999 - 2006: Archives - 2005-05-23 to 2005-06-10: Bonaire Gas Prices
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tel Aviv (BonaireTalker - Post #47) on Friday, June 24, 2005 - 8:18 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Could someone estimate the price in dollars per gallon of regular unleaded gas in Bonaire? Thanks.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter - NetTech (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5562) on Friday, June 24, 2005 - 8:26 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

See my discourse on this very topic as of a couple of weeks ago:

http://blog.richterscale.org/index.php/weblog/gasoline_prices_on_bonaire/

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Timothy Westfall (BonaireTalker - Post #33) on Saturday, June 25, 2005 - 8:14 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Jake:
Before ranting about the deal we get on gasoline in the states you had better do your homework.
The high price in the vast majority of the places you mention is caused by a carbon tax that is placed on all fuels. If you do a little investigating you will find that if you use the cost of gasoline before tax we in the US are paying more for the actual fuel.
In addition, when a person in Germany for instance buys fuel the are funding their health care system and other social programs. So they don’t have to pay an additional sum every month for those services. Just my health insurance costs me 793.00 per month. That’s without co-pays and many things are not covered.
I use about 80 gallons of gasoline per month at the current price of $2.29 when you add just the insurance cost $793.00/80 = $9.91+$2.29= $12.29 per gallon.
Not such a good deal. I would gladly pay a higher price if the money was ending up in the right hands, not just in a few at the top of the economic food chain.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Brian (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1084) on Saturday, June 25, 2005 - 9:42 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

We will swap - in the UK; currently we are paying 92.9 pence per Litre for Diesel thats $1.77 per litre or $6.68 per US Gallon. On top of that we take out additional health and dental insurance to supplement the National Health Service. My wife and I spend each £390 on Diesel every month ($741) if we ran petrol cars this would be about £585 or $1,111 a month.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Timothy Westfall (BonaireTalker - Post #34) on Saturday, June 25, 2005 - 10:06 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

My point is how much of the fuel price is tax? Here in Wisconsin the tax is only $.46 per gallon. Federal and state combined and we are one of the higher taxed states. What is the tax in the UK? I’m betting it is substantially more than $.46 cents per gallon.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Sue Goodman (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #188) on Saturday, June 25, 2005 - 11:03 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

just some food for thought...the cost of gas/oil/fuel is embedded in every item or service you buy. Your groceries need to get to the store from the distribution center, which was also trucked there from the manufacturing plant, all of which consumes fuel. Almost all products (food, clothing, non-consumables, etc) require energy to produce them or use petro-chemicals in packaging. Taxes add up along this chain and will be passed through to the consumer. Add the higher costs of oil to this equation and you can easily explain why prices on almost everything are going up (also known as inflation).

In general, economists view higher oil prices as a tax to the consumer, as it decreases the amount of funds left for discretionary spending. One reason we haven't seen a huge drop off in spending in the US is explained by consumers viewing these energy prices as temporary.

OK - that's my heavy thinking for a weekend day...off to Dutch Springs to dive in 65 degree water this weekend!!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Brian (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1085) on Saturday, June 25, 2005 - 11:06 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Timothy from every £50 fill up £43 goes to Tony Blair in Tax

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter - NetTech (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5566) on Saturday, June 25, 2005 - 12:12 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Timothy,

There's no doubt that the typically the largest chunk of what one pays at the pump are taxes - they can be direct taxes, or indirect ones that affect import prices, transportation, etc. That applies in the U.S. just as much as it does on Bonaire, the U.K., and elsewhere. How those tax revenues are used varies from region to region - it may be health care, environmental clean up funds, or just lining the pockets of politicians.

That doesn't change the fact that gasoline/petrol/benzine/etc. costs more most anywhere outside the U.S. than it does in the U.S. (with some oil producing countries being the most likely exceptions to those rules, of course). And it doesn't change the fact that Bonaire's residents pay almost 20% more for gasoline than residents of Curacao do.

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dean Botsford (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #349) on Saturday, June 25, 2005 - 8:08 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Tel, last week at Lisa gas the price was 1.89 naf a litre which is about $1.06 a litre US. Which would be roughly $4.25 a gallon.

(check my math, I am living in West Virginia)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Timothy Westfall (BonaireTalker - Post #35) on Sunday, June 26, 2005 - 8:50 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I guess if you call a chicken a duck long enough people will think it is a duck!
Yes when I visit another country I always pay more for gasoline that is a fact and I don’t complain (cost vs. benefits). Now the local population benefits from the additional tax in way’s that differs from the states in the majority of the cases.
Here in Wisconsin the state tax is ear marked for the transportation fund and the few cents per gallon that were designated for the clean up fund were cut in the current budget So when I buy gas @ $2.29 per gallon I get gas and the possibility that some of the tax money may build or fix a road or highway that I use. That’s fair enough we have good roads. Now in the majority of the countries with the high fuel or carbon tax, there are social befits that come back to the purchaser when they spend addition monies much for fuel. Health care (a big one), environmental clean up, college educations at little or no cost, un-employment payments that you can actually live on if needed, and the list goes on.
Example: If I spend $10.00 for a loaf of bread and just get the bread it is very expensive. And someone was taking advantage of the fact that I needed bread. If I spend $10.00 for the bread and in the future I get 2# of cheese and a gallon of milk with out additional expense the bread was fairly inexpensive, and sold at a fair price.
Brian says that 86% of the cost of his petrol is tax. (43/50) That makes the petrol portion of the $6.68 per gallon = to $.9352 per gallon. Our tax is .46 cents per gallon and the gas price is currently $2.29. The petrol portion is $1.83 per gallon. That looks to me to be almost twice the price for the petroleum.
We leave for Bonaire on the 2nd of July and I can’t wait to spend some money on getting from dive site to dive site as well as the semi annual tour of the island.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter - NetTech (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5568) on Sunday, June 26, 2005 - 11:16 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

When you do, you'll be supporting the island of Curacao, as Bonaire doesn't get much if anything from gasoline taxes, sadly.

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Brian (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1086) on Sunday, June 26, 2005 - 1:38 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

We get hit every way we turn with taxes. 17.5% sales tax, 25 to 40% earnings tax and then Poll Tax for local rates. Transport is worse as they tax everything and then invest nothing on the public transport. It is cheaper to fly to Rome than get a train to London. Our roads have not had sufficient investment and they are clogged with heavy goods vehicles and the rail system is falling apart.

Sorry to rant but this corrupt government is fleecing us and the money is going with no sign of improvements. MRSA is rife in our hospitals due to lack of cleaning. If you don't want to work and have lots of kids then you get lots of money -everyone else pays.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dr. Director (BonaireTalker - Post #81) on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 12:21 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Lost in this thread is a statement Jake made in his original blog that the per capita income on Bonaire, after taxes, is $800 per year. (Jake: is this correct or was there a typo?) If it is correct, that amounts to $15.38 per week income (after taxes) per man, woman and child, or just over $61/week for a hypothetical family of 4. At that level, how can the average family on Bonaire afford to eat, let alone drive?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Josh Schrank (BonaireTalker - Post #35) on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 1:36 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Dr, Director.... um, lots of Iguanas?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter - NetTech (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5570) on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 3:15 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Oops. That was meant to be $800/month, not year. I've updated the blog to reflect that.

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jarrad (BonaireTalker - Post #45) on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 4:06 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

The price of gas is pretty cheap if you look at what everyone on this thread pays for water. One 20 oz. bottle of water at the local convenience store sells for appx. $1.29 (.0645 cents per oz. X 128 oz. per gallon = $8.25 per gallon of water) Gas is cheap.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By gregg brewer (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #767) on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 4:20 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

even at $8.25/gal, the water tastes better than gas

 


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