QUIT YER WHININ':

Relatively speaking, gas isn't that expensive (Naomi Aoki, June 3, 2004, Boston Globe)

If you're feeling down in the dumps about the soaring price of gas and more than a little blue over the rising price of milk, then strolling through the aisles of retailers from Staples to Shaw's Supermarkets might just be the pick-me-up you need.

You might even come to believe that at $2.13 a gallon -- the price yesterday at a local Citgo -- gas remains one of the nation's last great bargains.

It's cheaper than milk (a gallon jug of Hood was on sale this week at a Boston Shaw's store for $3.29). In fact, when you're buying by the gallon, gas is cheaper than just about everything but bottled water ($1.50 for Poland Spring) and windshield washer fluid ($2 for Krystal Kleer.) [...]

True. Few people drink 10 gallons of milk or juice or soda each week. But in defense of gas prices, Bill Bush, a spokesman for Washington DC-based trade group American Petroleum Institute, said the cost of crude oil and taxes account for 70 percent of the price of gas these days. That doesn't take into account the cost of turning crude oil into gasoline or distributing it to gas stations.

At a profit of less than 7 cents on the dollar during the first three months of the year, the gas industry made less than the nation's average business, according to the group's quarterly research report.