Consumer culture is what creates the buying awareness of society. Society determines what the value of a particular item is. This is true for aspects of popularity, as well as worth and usefulness. There are certain items that are of relatively high price, that are of little importance to necessity, and then there are those that are low price and are not only necessary but elaborate in construction.
Bottled water, for example, is plain. It is drawn from a spring, purified, and then bottled and drank. High capital is used only in the fields of marketing, a storing. There are no abundant production costs, being as the product already exists. This is a relatively simple business encounter, cost wise.
Gas, on the other hand, has many prices. Scientists are funded to research and then locate the mineral. Manpower is then engaged to not only drill, but to build pipelines to pump the crude oil into a refinery. Then, depending on where the location of the refinery is, the product must be shipped to another refinery, where then it is refined for a second time into consumer's gasoline. From that it is stored and then pumped into gas station being transported by truck. It then sells for just over one dollar per gallon.
Water sells for way over a dollar a gallon. This is the problem. Society has created a price leniency imbalance. No one is upset when a gallon of water rises by twenty cents. However, every automobile owning individual is outraged by that kind of increase. This is wrong. In my personal opinion, gas should be sold for up to five dollars per gallon, based on how many procedures it goes through from crude to gasoline. Society has created this imbalance, and everyone in society abides by it.