[L]et the market show people that there are costs to things. This president has never let reality intrude on his conversations with the American public on energy, war, or much else for that matter; so maybe reality will have to speak for itself. Maybe the only way people will stop using SUVs is when they actually have to pay for their ecological destruction and energy inefficiency.
One simple conclusion: conservative government really is dead, isn't it? A
conservative government would simply say: we have no control over global oil prices; consumers reap what they sow; companies should be left alone; and if your wallet is empty because of all that gas in your SUV, you've learned a useful lesson in self-government. If only Margaret Thatcher were around to punctuate that lecture with a swipe of her handbag.
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Well, because gas is a staple, unfortunately. Now, it seems okay to gripe about repercussions on everything from immigrants to the environment, et cetera, (spare no rhetoric there) and see what needs to be one. But now we're not to question the oil companies' "trickle up" which has everything to do with the rest of the economy? How much money will they be making when it all comes to a grinding halt? Let Karma and Murphy rule.>
Given the record profits these guys are all bringing in, it sure looks like price fixing to me.
But if the fix is in, who is doing the fixing? In order for the US oil companies to be doing it, there would have to be a disconnect between the worldwide price of a barrel of oil and the price at the pump, right? But if it's the worldwide price that has gone up, then it can't be the oil companies doing the fixing, right? Perhaps the providers, like OPEC, are doing so. I don't think they are, but at least that would be a rational claim. The claim that Exxon and Texaco are engaging in price fixing is ludicrous.
Bubba is right, there is a preposterous amount of economic ignorance out there. Liberals typically argue that we ought to raise taxes on gas, precisely so that people will drive less, thus polluting the atmosphere less and preserving our worldwide stocks of oil. But if the market conspires to raise prices, suddenly it's a cabal of oil companies doing their evil scheming.
1) If one wants gas prices to go up to reduce consumption, what difference does it make if the government or private companies get the money?
2) If one wants to immediately lower the price of gas, why not remove or drastically cut taxes on it?
3) If you think the price of gas is too high, DON'T BUY THE GAS! Do all those things environmentalists are always telling people to do, like walk, ride a bus, carpool, ride a bike, etc.>
> One thing that bothers me about all of this is that all
> the prices at all of the pumps are virtually the same....
Could this be because gas is a commodity?
I think gajde has a point about the relative high cost of milk. If people drove past a grocery store and saw a HUGE sign:
------ MILK ------
WHOLE - $2.43 / gallon
2 PERCENT - $2.53
PREM. SKIM - $3.84
maybe the outrageous price of milk would be what everyone in the barber shops and bingo halls would complain about. "Those D@&* dairy farmers! I remember when milk only cost....."
It would be interesting to see what would happen to the sales at a single gas station if the owners stopped advertising prices on enormous signs. And if they all canned the signs maybe it would improve the national sensibility on this issue.>
1) If one wants gas prices to go up to reduce consumption, what difference does it make if the government or private companies get the money?
As a liberal, I'll say to Mike that I love the fact that gas prices are going up. It only bothers me a little that oil companies are reaping the profits: I don't in general have a problem with people making big profits providing useful goods/services. I'd love to see that money going to developing alternate energy sources, which governement under a more sensible (Rep or Dem) might make happen. The oil companies might even see the writing on the wall and do it more effectively than gvt ever would, although the research necessary would probably happen more effectively in the open environment of government funded research grants rather than in private labs.>
Didn't Sullivan write ont eh backpage of TIme magazine that we should have a $1 or $2 a gallon tax on gas to curb our consumption of it?>
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