upvote
That's a fascinating article! I live in Viet Nam, and it seems a bit like the section about us is overblown though.

There are some short fuel queues these last few months (about a 2-5 minute wait), and a couple of the sketchier petrol stations did some price speculation then shut down. It's more or less business as usual over here though.

My weekly fuel costs went from 50k VND (about 2$) to 60k VND (about 2.50$). My commute is pretty typical for Ho Chi Minh City. A lot (not all) of our taxis and gig workers also switched to electric vehicles some time ago.

Shipping costs, and the price of imported or fresh produce did go up noticeably though. Or the quality went down.

reply
It's just an odd choice on a page that's only about USA fuel prices. I wouldn't describe a 26% increase in any price as a ____ crisis. RAM and storage prices, now that's a crisis.

I believe OP's earnest statement that he's not trying to be political. I just think that propagandizing - if that was the motivation - would be dishonest by most definitions:

If one were just trying to boost Dems in the midterms by the classic "gas prices high -> loss for party in control" method, but they were saying "Inflation isn't that bad and gas prices are fine" during the 76% gas price spike in 2022, that's extreme bad faith.

And if one is implying "Fuel prices are higher now, therefore conflict with Iran is bad" I'd argue that's a shitty, cowardly, and selfish metric to base policy decisions on. Surely some battles are worth fighting because an enemy's behavior is too intolerable to allow, and gas prices being temporarily high is annoying, but not reason to capitulate.

reply
> It's just an odd choice on a page that's only about USA fuel prices

I don't see why. There is a global fuel crisis. It is affecting prices in much of the world. This particular page is about those prices in the US. The page's title, "Tracking Costco Gas Prices During a Global Fuel Crisis", describes exactly and accurately what it is doing.

reply
26% increase on something that is priced into the price of everything else is huge. In comparison the RAM price surge is a big deal in the consumer market but not nearly as bad as the chip shortages a few years back for industrial use. Fuel consumption is not really elastic either. Most people don't really need a new PC, but if you can't afford gas you will end up jobless real quick.

It can also get a lot worse very quickly when countries' strategic reserves run dry.

reply
Sounds like you're the one making this political.
reply