My point exactly.
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Posted on 08/27/2005 5:43:39 AM PDT by kellynla
And regarding news media, begin here: They should not subtract from the public's understanding. Yet subtract they nowadays do with endless headlines and talk about "record" oil and gasoline prices. For example, a recent headline in the Financial Times proclaimed: "New York investors take flight after price of oil hits record high." But the story's fifth paragraph read: "West Texas Intermediate for September delivery settled $1.83 higher at $64.90 a barrel—a new nominal record ..." The real meAnd regarding news media, begin here: They should not subtract from the public's understanding. Yet subtract they nowadays do with endless headlines and talk about "record" oil and gasoline prices. For example, a recent headline in the Financial Times proclaimed: "New York investors take flight after price of oil hits record high." But the story's fifth paragraph read: "West Texas Intermediate for September delivery settled $1.83 higher at $64.90 a barrel—a new nominal record ..." The real meaning of the word "nominal" is: "The headline you just read is rubbish." As was the next day's page-one headline—"Oil price hits $66 for a fourth record of the week"—which was nullified by the story's first words: "Oil prices yesterday broke their fourth consecutive nominal record for the week ..."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
The first thing anyone should do with oil prices is to ask, "HOW MUCH ARE THE TAXES?" and subtract that. The second thing one should do is to ask, "WHY ISN'T ANYONE TALKING ABOUT REPEALING THOSE TAXES?" if oil prices are "too high." It's the one measure we can take to immediately bring pump prices down by 20-25%.
if you're talking about "today's dollars" compared to "constant dollars" it would be interesting to figure out how much of that inflation was due to energy cost, above or below its share in the economy.
My family can afford as much gas as we could twenty years ago - it just hurts to put money in the Arabs' pockets so we are definitely trying to conserve.
The second is "Why are we drilling and refining more here?" After all, the prices are claimed high due to unrest in the middle east, Nigeria and Venezuela. We don't handle refining at the capacity that is needed.
IMHO - The energy bill should have contained two(2)items. Authorization for a dramatic increase of US oil drilling and authorization to allow a dozen new US based refineries. The more I hear about the actual bill it's just more feel good tripe that doesn't address the issue.
A second bill would address alternative energies. Not one dollar would be spend developing an energy that couldn't be used by a very large number of people. What good is an alternative fuel if it can be used by only 50 people? Alternative energies, for transportation purposes, need to be national or at a minimum regional. Without a distribution infrastructure and product to use it even a great fuel is simply a folly.
Actually, the US puts proportionately more into Hugo Chavez's pocket, but there's no material difference between the two sets of brutal thuggery and jackassery gone amok.
When can we drill in Alaska?
More importantly, when can we let oil refineries be profitable again? The spike related to the explosion of the refinery that represented a loss of 30% of the US consumption. While speculation swirls around foul play, the reality is that nowhere is the US doing anything to undo the harm of the intolerance of the overregulators and envirocrats.
Arent the prices we hear about, futures prices?
And how far out is that contract?
Taxes--now there's a sore spot for Oklahomans. They're wanting to add five cents a gallon to what we're already paying, to fund road and bridge work.
That's bad enough, but here's the rub: we've passed bills like this before and are paying through the nose (tax-wise--note our gas prices are lower than the national average), yet very little of the money we pay actually goes to roads and bridges. The state legislature manages to get their hands into the till, and the money goes almost anywhere BUT roads and bridges.
This latest hike is advertised as being impervious to till-robbing, but excuse me if I don't quite trust these thieves. For one thing, they keep using the term "lockbox," which brings up all kinds of Gore-y memories...
I image each state is using gasoline sales to help line their pockets. It's no bloody wonder the price of gas is so high.
you're having a euphoric dream, stop it now....
"My family can afford as much gas as we could twenty years ago - it just hurts to put money in the Arabs' pockets so we are definitely trying to conserve."
well we can blame the "envirowackos" and the clowns in DC for that...
we could be energy self sufficient if some the regs on nuclear, oil drilling and refining were lifted.
But there hasn't been a new refinery built since 1976.
Especially hard, considering the fact that ever time we gas up, we fund a terrorist organization.
Isn't it odd? When the guvvament has to pay more, they can't be responsible to cut costs to absorb the increased bills. But when we change our behavior to be able to pay our own bills because of increased overhead, the guvvament just can't stand it and has to demand more money that it didn't earn and that it is not competent or willing to spent fruitfully.
"Question not compassionate. Hand over paycheck."
The craziest part is that the more that they do, the more that revenues long term will drop. There's more political capital in going through the motions of helping even though the net effect is to flush the golden goose down the toilet and to wonder why there are no more golden eggs, and for pete's sake, can someone please call a plumber?
"Arent the prices we hear about, futures prices?
And how far out is that contract?"
I don't trade crude futures but the current crude prices usually hit the gas stations within a month.
Gas station owners pay COD on deliveies, so when they have to pay more today then the increase is passed on to you today.
But gas stations only make a dime a gallon.
What I have done is cut down on my driving, checked out http://www.gasbuddy.com for the cheapest priced gas and bought oil stocks(might as well profit from the high prices. LOL)
BTW, take heart, the prices historically decline the Tuesday after the Labor Day holiday weekend...but how much they will decline is anybody's guess.
"The whole idea of our government is this: If enough people get together and act in concert, they can take something and not pay for it." -- P.J. O'Rourke - A Parliament of Whores
"Giving government money and power is like giving car keys and whiskey to a teenage boy" - P.J. O'Rourke
As their influence has waned, they more frequently revert to rigged poll questions that jive with their pre-determined agenda.
I don't trust anything they report. Zero. nada. nothing.
Wouldn't it be nice if the Dodgers gave Vinnie the chance to call just one more championship season before he goes?
(...good luck with that...)
"Giving government money and power is like giving car keys and whiskey to a teenage boy" - P.J. O'Rourke
Nuff said...
"Wouldn't it be nice if the Dodgers gave Vinnie the chance to call just one more championship season before he goes?"
Well it won't happen this year and we were verrrrry lucky in '88! LOL
Spoken from a guy who bleeds "Dodger Blue!"
Semper Fi,
Kelly
[sigh...]
Democrats want your dollars in their(arabs) pockets because Democrats don't believe in drilling for oil in America.
I remember hearing Vince doing the Dodgers when Wally Moon was hitting them over the Chinese Pagoda, and Kofax stringing together no hitters.
I remember lazy warm afternoons in my room scoring games to the Midwestern twang on my second hand radio.
When is Vince Scully's 50th anniversary with the Dodgers? How old is he anyway?
My point exactly.
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"This quote introduced Dodgers fans in Brooklyn to "Vince" Scully in the 1950 Dodger Yearbook:
"Third and youngest member of the Dodger airlanes trio (with Red Barber & Connie Desmond) is Vince Scully, a 1949 Fordham University graduate who in his closing college days covered Ram football, basketball and baseball games over the school station after lettering for two years as an outfielder on the diamond. Vince is 23, single, makes his home in New York."
So Vin has been doing the Dodger thing for 55 years. And he's 78 years old now.
I was making minimum wage which in 1953 and 1954 was 50 cents an hour. Gasoline was 29.9 cents a gallon.
A gallon of gasoline cost 58.9 percent of an hours wages. In other words at minimum wage I had to work about 36 minutes to earn a gallon of gasoline.
Today minimum wage is $5.15 and gasoline is #2.56. At minimum wage todays worker has to work 30 minutes to pay for a gallon of gasoline.
Gasoline is cheaper today than it was in 1953 and 1954.
No one thought gasoline was overpriced at 30 cents a gallon. Back then my 1948 Mercury got 16 miles to the gallon. Today my Lincoln Town car gets 22.5 miles to the gallon.
The fifties were boom years. There were plenty of good jobs and plenty of goodies to buy.. We thought gasoline was cheap.
if you're talking about "today's dollars" compared to "constant dollars" it would be interesting to figure out how much of that inflation was due to energy cost, above or below its share in the economy.
My Town Car gets 23 to 25 mpg depending on the kind of driving I'm doing. When I get passed by an "eco friendly" hybrid, screaming its' guts out on an uphill grade while my old Lincoln is just loping along, I like to reflect that I'm using less fuel, being more environmentally responsible, and riding in luxury at the same time.
Alternatives are fine, but no one every got anywhere with the feds backing a technology: when the tech is ready, we won't have to "fund" alternative fuels, anymore than the government had to fund John D. Rockefeller's kerosene, which drove whaling out of business.
Here in Ohio we refer to the little ornage cones as the "State Flower of Ohio," because they bloom every spring and stay all year. Nothing ever seems to get fixed.
However, I'm still a fan of the "flat" tax: a) we already have the infrastructure; b) it's very simple, and c) businesses aren't put in the position of being tax collectors (even more than they are now).
As for gas taxes, I've always advocated user fees---you drive, you get a bill. Toll roads are fine. We are getting to the point where bar codes could indeed result in you getting a bill each month for your total highway use, and if the bill isn't paid, a device inside the car shuts it down until the government turns it on again. (I know, lots of problems, but you get my drift: it's unfair for non-users to pay anything but a tiny nominal tax---to cover ambulances, fire trucks, and so on) to use roads they don't drive on).
It is utterly irrelevant whether they have "increased" or not. The fact that they were EVER 1/3 of a gallon of gas is outrageous.
I repeat, the quickest way to adjust prices, nationwide, is to eliminate taxes. Sure, prices in the Gulf Coast today will---and should---go way up. That's called supply and demand, not "greedy oil barons." Your anger is misdirected, and smacks of liberal class envy.
Well, I certainly agree with that. But I always go to the source---and the quickest way to reduce any price is to eliminate the taxes.
Uh huh. Keep on hating "big oil." Just what we need.
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