Limited production capacity "by design". Have you noticed that most of the major oil companies in the US have merged? Literally 1/2 the competition has been eliminated. With less competition there is less incentive to keep the prices low. Many of the refineries have been closed down as a result of the mergers and then there is the greater need of more "designer gasoline reformulations".
Yeah. Like Big Pharma.
Max
Good example.
Sure, get greedy and set the price and $200 each and see what happens? Some other person makes them and sells them $150, then a little price war continues and eventually you sell them for $70 each just to stay in business.
Or would you prefer the choice where somebody (the government) sets the price? Maybe they set the price at $60 each but they cost $70 each and of course to make up for it they sell gas at $11 a gallon. Wonderful option!
I'm in The Soviet Socialist Republic of New Jersey. Along with a bevy of new state taxes, our new governor has promised a new additional fuel tax of at least 15 cents/gal to come. Diesel a few years ago was about
10 or so cents lower than the cost of regular gas. Now it is higher than high-test in many places, and yet it is the cheapest fuel to manufacture and has the lowest tax rate applied. Makes ya wonder...The truck drivers and railroads have no choice to buy diesel, so the price of all our goods are going up. And oil would have to go well over $100/barrel to justify the present cost of fuel at the pumps. This is usury, pure and simple. There is a federal law on the books, the Windfall Profits Act, that was passed to punish and fine the oil companies for doing just this. No fed prosecutor has ever had the balls to use it.
How do you force a person to pay anything? Can't he just decide to not buy it, buy something else, or go somewhere else? Gees, I don't believe I was ever forced to buy anything. Have to pay lots of taxes if I want to own and live in my house though.
Snip John McCoy wrote: >$2.97 sounds like New England somewhere, or perhaps Cal. Here >abouts (S Fla) it's $2.70 something.
Actually, the same station where I saw that diesel price (about 20 miles from home) had gas priced at $2.69/gal, but that is generally a bit higher than in my neighborhood.
Snipped from article
I'm not sure any of this helps Ted Haberkorn. But this might: I asked a friend who is in the petroleum industry why they charge so much for diesel.
"Because we can," he said.
That, I understand.
Sailaway wrote: snipsnip
Correct. Tom
Well that all depends on what your threshold is as to what you consider being forced is. If you drive an internal combustion powered vehicle you are probably being forced to pay more for the fuel than you did 2 years ago. Its all relative.
From the above two posts, George, you're obviously a believer in the classic theories of capitalism. Unfortunately, corporations have found ways around those theories.
I'm sorry I brought this topic up. Apparently there will always be those who ardently defend the people responsible for grinding their faces in the economic dirt. I've had my say - the rest of you can continue the topic or drop it as you wish.
Maybe it is just semantics, but people seem to get the idea that "have to do" something. So they don't even consider not doing it.
You get out on a long stretch of road with a nearly empty tank (stupid you) and the only gas station charges twice the going rate for gas. You still don't "have to" buy the gas. But it is probably the cheapest and best option. When people realize all things are an option, sometimes the desires change and may change for the better.
Classical capitalism has nothing to do with the "force" comment; no one forces you to do anything in a relatively free society, you just make choices.
You are right about what screws up capitalism. High entry cost may be important but there are plenty of people with lots of money that would like to compete. The main force that screws up capitalism is government. A little screwing around by government can change the system (or a section of the system) from capitalism to something else. Once the government introduces incentives (they are always "beneficial" don't you know) you have derailed capitalism to some extent.
Exactly,
Leon wrote: >Well that all depends on what your threshold is as to what you consider >being forced is. If you drive an internal combustion powered vehicle >you >are probably being forced to pay more for the fuel than you did 2 years >ago. >Its all relative.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that weather you think about fuel this way or not, the fact remains that it has become more than *just* a commodity - it is an otherwise unavailable, absolutely necessary (at this time) utility similar to electricity in respects. Our utility companies are heavily regulated and, at least in this state, have to ask the state regulators permission to raise prices. We the sheeple have no alternative to obtain electricity (other than those few who can do it with wind, etc) and we have no alternative to obtain fuel for our cars and trucks if we want to work. The difference is that the oil companies in concert with commodities investors, are the ones who set the price - and they want it as high as possible - as any profit-driven company would. We *have* to buy it at whatever price they set, and no way are the sheeple in this country are gonna band together and force (through boycotting, pressure on congress, etc) the price lower. And for those ethanol enthusiasts, the price of that I am led to believe is up somewhere over $3.00/gal and has its own problems, so that doesn't help. And as for the idiots across the big pond, they just accept, like we do here, whatever price is set by the oil companies. They just have a much higher tolerance for self-inflicted pain.
One thing you miss here is the fact that "across the pond" the main contributor is not the price "the oil companies set", but the "price in taxes the government decrees". Taxes can make up to 75% of the cost of a gallon of gas in those countries.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+Mark & Juanita wrote: One thing you miss here is the fact that "across the pond" the main contributor is not the price "the oil companies set", but the "price in taxes the government decrees". Taxes can make up to 75% of the cost of a gallon of gas in those countries.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+Yes! I did miss that, and agree, although the point remains, the sheeple on that side of the pond seem happy as pigs in slop with their level of pain, and like us show no signs of revolt (at least about the price of gas). In fact, many of them just piss and moan about the U.S. not paying "a fair price" for fuel. Stupidity and timidity seem to be spreading...
I am convinced that if this had happened to an earlier generation here, and unless there was one hell of a good excuse, there would have been some hell to pay.
They are also recipients of the benefits for which those taxes were intended.
er
We don't have to buy it at all, it is just a choice.
A recent news programs indicated that Brazil would be free of petroleum dependency within one year using their engineered sugar cane to produce alcohol (they have been working on it for years). Cars can be switched from an alcohol/gas mixture (currently required for cars) to straight alcohol. They said their alcohol could compete economically at any gasoline price over $2.50 per gallon.
You need to read up on a seventy-year experiment in command economy in a country with natural resources of all sorts so abundant they still haven't been properly cataloged - which couldn't heat water for a shower, if there _were_ a shower, for the "sheeple".
Be careful of what you wish for.
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