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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 3:06:49 PM | | As long as we drive gas -guzzling SUV's/full-sized pick-ups, and refuse to drill oil in our own country and off our shores (where we could be COMPLETELY independent from foreign oil for DECADES to come), we have absolutely no right to complain about $4/gallon+ gas. It's all about supply and demand, folks....conserve and explore for new sources, instead of being held hostage by foreign dictators (Chavez) and Marxist environmentalists. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 6:50:30 PM | Gas continues to go up....as Oil companies continue to make record profits. Easy to figure that out.Check the president of the USA's background and that of his closest friends and associates. Now when did the prices go through the roof?  | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 7:09:11 PM | The President has absolutely nothing to do with gas prices, and the term "record profits" is a bit misleading.
What has driven up the price of gas is the increased demand from China and India, while the supply has remained pretty much the same, thus driving the price up. And the price of gas is directly related to the price of crude oil.
Second is the weakening dollar; it simply takes more dollars to buy each barrel of oil with a weaker dollar.
As for "Big Oil," they only consist of about 2% of the world oil supply, which makes their ability to gouge prices noneexistent. And they operate on a very small profit margin (about 8%). The government makes far more from gas sales than Big Oil, about 500% more, for doing absolutely nothing. They're the real beneficiary.
The oil industry is cyclical. No one wanted to help Big Oil when they were losing billions of dollars back when oil was priced about $10 a barrel in the 1990s. Now that the demand is up, and the price is up, they're making "record profits," which is also partially because the population is larger than ever, with more people driving than ever before.
The oil industry will lose money later on; in the early 1980s, the bottom fell out of the oil industry completely; they struggled again in the 1990s. And it will happen again.
As for profits, a company has a right to make as much profit as it possibly can, as long as they aren't gouging or harming people, which Big Oil isn't. They simply provide a very needed product, in a very risky industry, as you have to find oil, then set up drilling rigs, which may not give the return you are hoping for.
If the oil companies cannot make a profit drilling for and refining oil, then they will stop doing it, and that really would drive the price of gas up. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 7:31:40 PM | I didn't read every post but besides the suply and demand, I blame the whacko eviromentalist.(heavy on the mental)
We could drill and find enough oil to last us forever but we don't have any new refineries.
Without the refineries to process the oil into gas, we're kinda stuck. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 7:56:52 PM |
Not POPULAR , either , lol...but hey , it would save an OCEAN of gas. The hard part is getting people to slow down/leave earlier.
Yes, it would be VERY unpopular, but it would save bunches of gas. Hopefully, reduced consumption will put pressure on to lower prices. I hate the "55" idea myself, I resent that it's necessary, but I can't think of another scheme that would allow the burden to be shared so equally.
Those mature enough to accept the responsibility will restrain the right foot, those too childish can pay the speeding tickets. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 9:07:43 PM |
a company has a right to make as much profit as it possibly can...
No they don't. Not when the product they sell is a prime commodity that drives all other markets. Oil prices have been driven up by price fixing, product manipulation, and unscrupulous market speculation, abetted by governments that exist only for the benefit of the wealthy.
Currently, 2% of the adults own 50% of the world's wealth. Continue to believe the rich have a right to continue, unregulated, and they will soon have the other 50% while your children and grand children will eventually exit only to service their needs. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 9:17:36 PM | | i got a friend thats family is in the oil bis and he says that thay told him thare is no shortage and it is no harder nwo to get thin it has been its a gimick to get more cash, also i read in a book that thares 4000 oil wells worldwide, 400 support 90% of the worlds needs and modern pumps can only reach one third out of each well so you do the math, it will be atleast 100 years befor we have a shortage so people should protest liek thay did in the 70s to get it down | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 9:36:34 PM | No they don't. Not when the product they sell is a prime commodity that drives all other markets.
Yes they do, when they have to take the risks and invest the money to provide that commodity. As long as they aren't doing anything like dumping toxic waste into rivers, or having unsafe working conditions for employees, etc...they can make as much profit as possible.
You don't punish the provider for something that is beyond their control. Now if they had a monopoly on oil, that would be different, because then there is no competition. But this is not the case.
Government should only tax to the degree that is needed to finance their operations (which, unfortunately, as far as the government is concerned is 100% if they could).
Remember, the companies of Big Oil operate on a very small profit margin. It is the government that makes most of the money from oil revenues. They only point the finger at Big Oil because they know people like a scapegoat, and it's easy to blame Big Oil for "greed."
Oil prices have been driven up by price fixing, product manipulation, and unscrupulous market speculation, abetted by governments that exist only for the benefit of the wealthy.
By OPEC and other foreign oil companies, yes, by Big Oil, no. And the term "speculation" is a little mis-leading, because it lends itself to sounding morally wrong. Speculation is just something that all investors do, for all things they invest in. And it is not the primary driver of oil prices.
Currently, 2% of the adults own 50% of the world's wealth. Continue to believe the rich have a right to continue, unregulated, and they will soon have the other 50% while your children and grand children will eventually exit only to service their needs.
That's the standard socialist propaganda that folks like Stalin and Hitler and Mussolini all used to get the people to go along with them and go against the "evil bougeousie."
The reason 2% of the people own 50% of the wealth is because that 2% is willing to take the extra risks to invest capital and creates products and services, and thus jobs, that drive growth in the economy. And they get wealthy doing it.
Trying to regulate the rich is the reason the European economies are so lousy compared to the United States. Because they punish success and wealth creation. So they experience little economic growth. You can't expect people to start businesses, create products and services, and jobs and thus grow the economy if you take away the incentive to do so.
This also inadverdently protects those who are already rich, in particular those who were born into it and did nothing to earn it. Because the businesses and companies they inherit do not have to worry about much competition, if any, because they are well-established big companies and since there is so much regulation to "protect" the little people, all this does is prevent small businesses from being able to start up and challenge those big businesses.
Whereas in a free-market, fortunes can be fickle; if the owners of a business do not keep on top of things, their company can go under. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 10:01:13 PM |
Now if they had a monopoly on oil, that would be different, because then there is no competition. But this is not the case.
By OPEC and other foreign oil companies, yes, by Big Oil, no. And the term "speculation" is a little mis-leading, because it lends itself to sounding morally wrong. Speculation is just something that all investors do, for all things they invest in.
Give me a break.......... ha
I remember when the Hunts Speculated on Silver.... Hedge funds are playing with oil...JUST like ENRON...
Government should only tax to the degree that is needed to finance their operations (which, unfortunately, as far as the government is concerned is 100% if they could).
So taxes are wrong for protection..... Tariffs helped built industry in this country... That was bad???
The reason 2% of the people own 50% of the wealth is because that 2% is willing to take the extra risks to invest capital and creates products and services, and thus jobs, that drive growth in the economy
Emilda Marcos........ Saddam Hussein .... Samosa .... Baby Doc..... Charles Taylor........ Invested Capital???? | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 10:10:53 PM | Msg: 158
That entire post is simply the propaganda of the rich, spoon-fed to the middle-class (who don't realize they are soon to be one of the lower class). I always get a kick out of people that toss around the word "socialist," often followed by "Stalin," "Hitler", and "Mussolini."
To simplify it: Free markets play-out exactly like the game of Monopoly. Eventually, one player has most of the property and the other players slowly go broke paying the rents. It's inevitable. There come a point when the ones not fortunate enough to roll the correct combination of dice (or in real life, to have been born into wealth or opportunity or just cheat the game through the gift of corporate welfare from corrupted governments) and can't accumulate enough wealth of their own (because there is only so much to go around) that they finally bust out of the game. The only way to stop it would be to regulate the earnings of that one winning player. But that's a game and it has to end sometime.
In real life, the game can't be allowed to end. If it does end, then the many losers become servants to the few winners, or they die. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 10:15:19 PM | | It is getting to the point to where you can only drive to make short trips ( which goes against why the automobile was created) I want a Hybryd that is biodesil so I use no gas! If it were at all possible? | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 10:32:21 PM | | The price of gas will continue to rise because many countries who hold our debt are exchanging that debt for oil. Both Japan and China are using our dollar debt instruments as a currency to buy oil with. For some time now the FED has been forced to buy a lot of AAA rated bundled mortgages from overseas banks in return for Treasury debt that gets exchanged at the FED for oil. The FED by buying with credit created out of thin air (computer entry) will continue to buy up that triple AAA rated debt of which most has no value whatsoever because the bundled mortgages contain mostly bundled credit swaps than anything else. As for us consumers who a good many pay with available credit (credit card) instead of available cash, are compounding higher prices by adding interest on the already high prices. We can not continue to cheapen our currency with ever more junk coins and worthless paper and expect cheap oil. OIL wants GOLD. In our constitution, gold and silver = money. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/9/2008 10:47:52 PM |
can't accumulate enough wealth of their own (because there is only so much to go around) that they finally bust out of the game.
That's false. Wealth is created by economic activity.
Here's an example of created wealth: a few years ago, an immigrant from Israel had an idea for a folding sunshade made of cheap corrugated material that could be used inside a car windshield to protect the interior and keep the inside of the car cooler. Cheap to produce, originally sold for about a dollar, the guy made millions in CREATED wealth- by making a product that hadn't existed before. He made lots of money, consumers got an economic benefit (inside of the cat protected from sunlight, also helps keep the car's value) 'way out of proportion to the price of the product.
Wealth isn't a finite quantity. If the middle class and the poorer classes spend less money, the guys at the top also make less, the overall amount of wealth shrinks. We spend more, they make more, amount of wealth expands. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/10/2008 12:15:12 AM | | I really think that if EVERYONE didnt buy gas for just one day they would lower the price, I cant imagine how much money is being made off gas in just one day | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/10/2008 12:50:34 AM |
I really think that if EVERYONE didnt buy gas for just one day they would lower the price, I cant imagine how much money is being made off gas in just one day
No it would not help. Look at Snopes.com and punch in gas boycott. The only way one would work now is if it was acrros the bored one moth and boycotted everything not just oil and gas. but your worlk and shopping too. it would have to be everyone and have to be for a month. The economy would plumit and something would have to be done. However the people it will hurt first are the gas station owners not the big oil mondster. Besides most oil ( gasoline) you buy is owned my multi-nationals that own more then one oil comapnay, you can not just boycot one with out boycotting all. they have an oligopoly(sortogf amonoploy) | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/10/2008 1:00:37 AM | | damn that sucks, I'm tired of pieces of crap getting rich off regular people and people that struggle, at the same time I'm tired of seeing people live off the government and not work for no reason and just get by, that should be used for people that actually need it because it is coming out of our pocket | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/10/2008 1:57:06 AM | | What if it's all about a turf war among the wealthy? Big Oil vs Sickness Industry vs Mortgage Bankers vs Insurance Companies vs Commodities, etc.? Cancun and Hawaii are getting crowded. That means too many people are wealthy. Everything being relative, those at the top of the "food chain" need to figure out who they are "better than." So Big Oil ups the ante and those who can't ante up fall out! | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/10/2008 5:36:35 AM |
Wealth is created by economic activity.
I think a better quote would be: Economic activity creates more wealth for those who control the economy.
Sure, there will always be ingenious individuals who will come up with something new. Often, that something new replaces something old. Either way, the contribution to the economy by these new ideas and products is minimal. There is only so much "stuff."
My opinion is sound. When a small group has acquired a large share of the wealth, it reaches a tipping point where a Free Market system stops working without some sort of intervention. The government intervenes all the time. It adjust the rules often; though usually the new rule favor the rich. The 2005 Cheney energy bill, for example, gave Big Oil a 14 billion dollar tax break, but let a small business owner who is hardly paying the bills miss a quarterly tax payment and the government will crush him.
Free Markets are great: unless, of course, those at the top, abetted by an easily manipulated government entity, control a prime commodity that drives the entire economy. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/10/2008 6:00:16 AM | It's call "supply and demand". As soon as WE the customer stop buying there gas, they "the oil companies" will come down on prices.
A lot of people dispute this fact. EVERY business watches sells and competion. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/10/2008 6:06:41 AM | | Here in the UK i run a 1970 Mach1 Mustang and i have just filled it with petrol and it has cost me about $120! i just wish that our gas was as cheap as yours!! | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/10/2008 6:16:30 AM | I think it is great news hope it reaches $10 a gallon in a year or so. Easier to work out the profits. The more you conserve you sill idiots the less profits the iol business makes. Bush & Co. have worked out that the less you consume the more the price rises, thus making profits profitable.
I say invest in the oil business immediately, join in the bonanza, well a bit of it anyway. An alternative is to buy a bicycle, that will effect the oil companies, a movement they would not like at all, the car manufacturing business.
Its wonderful to realise how wonderful the education program and the media have helped people to concentrate on themselves and how things happen to effect them. That way they worry, complain, and do bugger all but accept they are being ripped off but don't know how. The joke really is that even if they knew they could do nothing! The laws have changes, your constitution has been adjusted in case people object. Do not question your betters, pay up regardless. You have all been taken for a ride, and dumped on!
Your food will cost more as well, why, profits! Does the farmer profit??? NO! Who GAINS?? Who BENEFITS? It ain't you is it?
Work out please if you have been duped, conned by the media, which is controlled by and is really just a front to business. Don't do anything you might with the new amendments to your rights end up in gaol, that's a business too. If you only just knew how everything is joined up, who owns what and who manipulates YOU through a variety of what appear different and unconnected companies.
THe Land of the FREE< what a joke! THe land of increasing costs. Does it cost more to extract the oil....No, not really. But add a sprinkle of speculators and watch the money just grow, at your expense of course! | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/10/2008 6:29:24 AM | | I find it interesting that as the baseline cost of gas goes up, so does the total amount of taxes consumers are paying on that higher-priced gas. If companies feels that they have to increase the cost of gas to induce people to conserve it; perhaps the government should decrease the tax rate on it so that the hardship of the price per gallon remains affordable to the working class. What is ironic is that many of those passing this legislation are the ones who do not have to pay for gas (and its associated taxes) out of their own pocket. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/10/2008 6:29:43 AM | Stop moaning, if you lived in the UK you would know what high fuel prices REALLY meant.
In the UK fuel is approximately £1.20 per LITRE, that converts to $11.20 per gallon.
Now you can have a good moan.... think yourselves LUCKY. | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/10/2008 6:48:21 AM | engineman, there certainly is a monopoly on retailing gas, the large companies have driven out independant station owners, so they not only supply but retail the gas. they control nearly every aspect of it, just a handful of companies.
and when i hear of increases in price...............why is it always due to speculation? | |
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| $4 a gallon gas? WTF? What do you think?
Posted: 5/10/2008 2:19:18 PM | Based upon some of the global strategies used by multi-billion dollar companies during the past few decades, it is my opinion that many wealthy people know something that the average person does not: Namely, that oil--as a financially viable portable energy source--is dying.
The reason petroleum-based fuels are increasing in price so steeply and so rapidly is due to an artificially organized profit taking effort by oil interests around the globe---at least while they still can before oil falls to $20 or $30 dollars a barrel again. Some financial analysts believe this was the "other reason" Saddam Hussein had to be removed: Quite simply, he wasn't playing ball with the global oil fraternity and heeding their repeated urges to restrict production to help drive up price. In fact, Saddam was selling crude far below market price to France, Germany and others--which is why those countries tried so hard to block the international effort to invade Iraq--it would cut off the last supply of inexpensive bulk oil on earth.
Whether this is true or not, it is an absolute financial certainty that the global energy paradigm is about to radically change. New disruptive technologies--such as the ability to cheaply and easily separate Hydrogen from Oxygen in water and the new printable solar "plastic" collectors which could exceed efficiencies greater than 70% as early as 2010--simply negates the need for gasoline. As a short example: If you had the choice to travel from LA to New York for either $50 dollars or $500 dollars--which price would you choose, all other factors being equal? Perhaps this is why many of the Cab companies have begun switching over to hybrid vehicles--gasoline only vehicles are no longer financially viable.
This is so obvious among certain large business circles that even Honda International has purchased the right to produce thin film solar. Why would Honda do this you ask? The unofficially confirmed down-low is that Honda will be offering all electric vehicles WITH charging systems in the near future, thus, making the auto company the energy company as well. Such a move diverts billions of dollars formerly spent on energy to use propel their vehicles (of which Honda saw very little) and places it into Honda's corporate profits.
What does this mean for you and I? Such a move effectively cuts the oil companies out of the global transportation loop altogether--rendering them moot and no longer necessary. I applaud Honda for their savvy strategic move--I will purchase one as soon as they are available. For those of you who are silly enough to state that this cannot happen, it already has. Over a century ago to the Whaling industry--whose multi-millionaire owners all laughed at the nonsense that someone in Pennsylvania claimed he could pull black oil directly from the ground--believed theirs was the only way to have high quality portable energy. Many powerful multi-millionaires went broke shortly thereafter because they were too ignorant, proud or blind to change with the times. Ever heard the phrase "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it?"
The new energy revolution is so impressive and powerful, Germany and Japan started over a decade ago changing their internal energy infrastructure! Germany recently purchased the entire first year production run from a thin film solar plant in California--we Americans get none of our own advanced designs for the first year. Why? The cost to generate electricity from solar went from $3 to $5 dollars per watt down to .30 to .70 cents per watt with the opening of the thin film solar plants world-wide...and that price is expected to drop by another factor of ten within a few years!!! What do you think will happen to gasoline and diesel based transportation systems when improved technologies can offer shipping costs of .01 to .05 cents per mile instead of the current .20 to .40 cents per mile?
As a final word, as an analyst I suggest following my example and purchase quality used vehicles for about half of their original value during the next five to seven years or so until the winning ultra-efficient propulsion technology makes it into production. Why? what do you suppose will happen to all the cars and trucks that get below 50 miles per gallon once 400 miles per gallon technology is massed produced? They will become antiques virtually over night and will drop in price like a rock. What happens if you still owe $30,000.00 on your two year old luxury SUV that gets 12 and 18 miles per gallon? Do you think anyone will want to purchase it? You will be left with an upside-down loan that you must pay off--despite the vehicle dropping in value by more than 80% in one years time. I, for one, prefer to avoid uncomfortable situations such as these and will buy used cars--which I am able to pay off in a few months time--until the new technologies become available. Think of it recycling.
For more information on this, read up on the AutoX Prize. This "mental Olympics" is offering ten million dollars to the person who can invent the most efficient vehicle in 2009. All entries must have a minimum mileage of 100 miles per gallon equivalent energy consumption at highway speeds or better or you can't even enter the contest. There is no upper limit on the efficiency and some teams claim to have already broken the 300 mile per gallon equivalent mark by using water as fuel and by coating thier vehicles with ultra-efficient thin film solar to where the car generates electricity while sitting in the parking lot for free. If one considers that there is one hour approximately of commuting time with nine hours of charging time ( 8 in the parking lot and 1 on the road), this can be accomplished quite easily.
I couldn't be happier than to be alive now! It's similar to being alive when the Wright Brothers and many other teams around the globe successfully perfected powered manned flight. We are just now approaching the horizon of this new era of energy. Frankly, I'm holding out for the 1,000 mile-per-gallon-equivalent, zero to 100 mph-in-ten-seconds model.
For more, see: http://www.progressiveautoxprize.org/
For a look at the technology behind this effort, see: http://www.progressiveautoxprize.org/auto/prize-details/teams | |
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