Posted on 05/02/2005 8:41:59 AM PDT by MikeEdwards
Sure. Where did I say I didn't?
If you were an oil baron would you: spend on developing more oil fields to reap more profits, spend on developing new technologies so you have a product or service to extend your going concern, or stash it with the high chance you will need it to comply with future regulatory costs or do nothing?
If I were an oil gouger, with supply fixed and demand inflexible, I would raise the costs of my product to the point where disgruntled consumers started to shoot my board of directors and burn my headquarters to the ground. Then I would lower costs 10 percent and act like I had done some noble thing. And all the time, I would blame the price gouging on "environmentalists" and "regulation" and refinery capacity and a host of other excuses that won't withstand even the most casual scrutiny. If the grumbling gets too loud, I'll throw a few billion at some tacky PR campaign to convince the idiots in Consumerland that I give two hoots about them.
Supply and demand drives prices of any products in a capitilists society and it is the best way to go.
If the government would tell the enviros where to get off then we would all be better off and there would be less price gouging. The oil comapanies are blaming enviros with a good reason, they ARE the biggest reason energy cost so much now.
But those regulations and restrictions have been in place for the last 20 years, and none of them explain why gasoline prices have doubled at the pump in the last year. The biggest reason energy costs so much now is because oil company thieves can charge what they do. If they could charge more and get away with it, they would. And they would blame it all on the environmentalists because people like you would believe them.
Can you name one commodity sold in the world that does not do that?
I agree with you that the oil companies are making enormous profits from this. I say let them. The more they price-gouge, the more incentive there is for an alternative energy source. And when the alternative energy source takes over, you are going to see these companies collapse. And that will be a fine day. I am very tired of high energy costs. The cost of dealing with the Arab nations is too high, and our oil companies are well aware that we can't drive any less than we are right now. They could probably set the price at $10 a gallon and we would still have to buy it. I know it's not entirely their fault, but it will be immensly satifying to see an alternative energy source send oil's price through the floor.
The environmentalist movement is but one of many allied organizations within the "fifth column" that seeks to wreck our economy as a means to destabilize our society and precipitate political change to a Marxist system. We are being mugged on a national scale.
No. That statement alone wasn't meant as an indictment. It was part of a larger catalog of criticisms meant to refute the notion that environmentalism alone was responsbile for higher gas prices.
And oil has the luxury of being one of the world's few commodities that claims an inelastic demand supplied through a virtual monopoly. True supply-and-demand rules don't apply here. If gas cost $5 a gallon, you'd pay it. Because you HAVE to. For one, it costs $5 a gallon everywhere. And for two, your car won't run on iced tea. Oh, you might grouse about it, maybe even trade in the family barge for a blender-powered roller skate. But you'd still buy gas. And you'd pay what the profiteers demanded, regardless of how false the economics.
If the Left were serious in their call for energy conservation, they would put an end for forced busing.
I agree completely. I do not advocate regulation except by the marketplace. The oil companies are thieves and profiteers, but that's the risk you run when you embrace capitalism. You just have to hope that the people running businesses have some kind of conscience. (You might also want to jump out an 8th-story window to see if you can fly.)
And when the alternative energy source takes over, you are going to see these companies collapse.
Sadly, here I have to disagree. By the time they've wrung the last farthing out of the oil-consuming public, the oil companies will have diversified into whatever alternative energy source has been developed. Then they'll proceed to rape us for the next century selling that commodity.
Big Oil knows no allegiance, no borders, and no scruples. It is a virtual nation built on pure greed.
Indeed, I would. I would also drive a lot less, and my next car would be way more efficient than the current one.
How much less can you drive and still get any use out of your car? At what point do you simply concede that it's not cost-effective to even own a vehicle?
and my next car would be way more efficient than the current one.
How efficient can it be? You can only buy the cars the auto industry is selling. And those cars are only so efficient. I just traded an SUV for a small, sportier vehicle that gets twice the mileage. But since the cost of gas has doubled, I now experience zero savings for doubling the efficiency of my vehicle. How do I go about doubling it again when the crooks at the oil companies fire up the gouge machine again?
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