Why High Fuel Prices are GOOD!...... | Forums

[LEBillfish]

Someone punch this guy...

Granted, I get the tongue in cheek, devils advocate, look on the bright side, hardship promotes change, blah, blah, blah, yadda yadda....Yet there is little wonder why the author of this used a screen-name.

If I understand him....It would be great if fuel went to $5.00+ a gallon so oil companies already reaping their highest profits ever while causing major massive environmental disasters, naturally while not maintaining their own equipment, ensuring even higher prices and profits so it would be impossible for many to even keep their jobs, shop cheaply, or live much past shut ins as it would help clean up the air.

I have an easier idea.....First off this guy needs to stop breathing as he is sucking up all our air, and secondly though the thought of communistic control over goods and services is something I myself loathe, I say let the government TAKE...not buy....TAKE over the oil companies and equipment calling it payoff for all the subsidies they've received, and then at least we might have some control over the oil companies antics via either voting them out of office or revolution if need be.

Call me an uncooperative biotch, yet the big wigs at big oil don't need our support and sunny outlooks to their screwing us right up the tailpipe...

K2

[LEBillfish]

Someone punch this guy...

Granted, I get the tongue in cheek, devils advocate, look on the bright side, hardship promotes change, blah, blah, blah, yadda yadda....Yet there is little wonder why the author of this used a screen-name.

If I understand him....It would be great if fuel went to $5.00+ a gallon so oil companies already reaping their highest profits ever while causing major massive environmental disasters, naturally while not maintaining their own equipment, ensuring even higher prices and profits so it would be impossible for many to even keep their jobs, shop cheaply, or live much past shut ins as it would help clean up the air.

I have an easier idea.....First off this guy needs to stop breathing as he is sucking up all our air, and secondly though the thought of communistic control over goods and services is something I myself loathe, I say let the government TAKE...not buy....TAKE over the oil companies and equipment calling it payoff for all the subsidies they've received, and then at least we might have some control over the oil companies antics via either voting them out of office or revolution if need be.

Call me an uncooperative biotch, yet the big wigs at big oil don't need our support and sunny outlooks to their screwing us right up the tailpipe...

K2

[Bremspropeller]

Gas = 5$/gal?

Those were the days, baby!

[LEBillfish]

Those that pay more in other countries should consider 'why?' they are......
....Oh that's right, they chose to

K2

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by LEBillfish:
Those that pay more in other countries should consider 'why?' they are......
....Oh that's right, they chose to

K2 </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

That, and we got The Bomb! /Dennis Leary reference...

[horseback]

Every time I hear someone bellyaching about fuel costs and demanding that the government DO something, I get a headache. Let's ignore the reality that there are literally millions more drivers in the far east and the former East Bloc countries whose currency is chasing the same barrel of oil as my dollar is, and look at what's going on locally.

As I recall, a large chunk of what we in America pay at the pump goes directly to federal, state, and local taxes, and in the case of the state sales tax, being illegally levied on the taxes imposed (including the sales tax itself!) rather than the ‘retail’ price of the fuel—these guys aren’t entirely stupid; they know that adding the taxes after you see the retail price would have you screaming at them instead of the poor schlub who owns the gas station, or better yet 'Big Oil.'

However, they are stupid enough to believe that raising the taxes on oil and oil by products is actually punishing the oil companies when the increased tax costs are merely passed on to you and me, the consumers.

They’re also stupid enough to believe that we believe that the money raised from those taxes is going to improving and maintaining the highway and road system while they’re really ****ing it away on Light Rail, HOV lanes and other fantasies that favor the minority who can drive in carpools and $40,000 'green' cars and penalize the vast majority of us stuck in single passenger commutes in 5 to 10 year old internal combustion powered autos and trucks.

And that’s a small part of the cost government adds to your fuel costs: regulations covering every jot and tittle of fuel refining and production have increased exponentially since the first major fuel crises in late 1973, raising production costs accordingly, and oh by the way, resulting in far less refinery capacity in the United States while the number of vehicles on the road and gallons consumed have gone up almost every year. There’s also the matter of certain geographic areas requiring a different mix of fuel and additives in different seasons of the year; this means that if I buy a tank of gas in Los Angeles, where the fuel is refined, it costs me more than it would if I buy a tank of gas in Phoenix 500 miles from where it was refined (think about it—the Arizona fuel mix is so much cheaper that even the cost of getting it across 500 miles of mountains and desert still doesn’t raise the price higher than the mix of fuel that one has to buy less than 20 miles from the refinery).

The European driver pays far more in taxes than we do, but they are good boys and girls who really believe that their government is run by their Betters, who deserve to take a big cut out of the sweat of their tax pounds, francs or euros because they have such great responsibilities…

cheers

horseback

[Ba5tard5word]

Modern oil companies are the most profitable businesses in the history of mankind. There's no reason for taxpayers to reward their profits with billions in massive subsidies, but oil companies control Congress. Other industries don't get them.

[Bremspropeller]

Well, I could be asking if spending all that tax-money on the military instead of infrastructure, educaton and healthcare is all that much of a good idea, but hey - I won't!

[WTE_Galway]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by LEBillfish:
Someone punch this guy...


I have an easier idea.....First off this guy needs to stop breathing as he is sucking up all our air, and secondly though the thought of communistic control over goods and services is something I myself loathe, I say let the government TAKE...not buy....TAKE over the oil companies and equipment calling it payoff for all the subsidies they've received, and then at least we might have some control over the oil companies antics via either voting them out of office or revolution if need be.

K2 </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I am all for nationalising essential services like say roads, utilities, education, the oil companies and maybe Microsoft

However the problem is who do you then put in charge ? Politicians ? Career public servants? Or the wishy-washy middle achieving non risk taking corporate types who tend to gravitate to government run corps?


By the way fuel over here is $USD6.90 per US gallon at the moment Lucky my Royal Enfield does 80-100 MPG.

[horseback]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ba5tard5word:
Modern oil companies are the most profitable businesses in the history of mankind. There's no reason for taxpayers to reward their profits with billions in massive subsidies, but oil companies control Congress. Other industries don't get them. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>They are profitable solely on the basis of volume. Few businesses could be successful operating on the margins that oil companies have to if they were not enormously huge. Big Oil makes pennies in profit on every gallon they sell at the pump (think about it--that works out to around 3-4%at most, a figure that few businesses can afford to make and survive). If we had a bunch of small oil companies, they might be more ecologically responsible and caring but gas would cost a lot more.

Any business that costs a lot to operate and is constantly being regulated, inspected and taxed that does not spend a ton of money lobbying, making political donations and generally trying to influence government is going to be destroyed quickly. You may remember that Micro$oft originally disdained all that lobbying and influence stuff until its many rivals used their lobbyists and campaign donations to go after them, and for a while there it looked like they might be dismembered on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Now they spend tons on trying to influence the government OUT OF SELF DEFENSE. Until nobody can do it, everybody must do it in order to survive. I'm the first to agree that it sucks, but I haven't come up with a reasonable and workable alternative myself. Maybe you could apply your talents to it and save me some sleep.

We should also remember that we NEED oil, and it is extremely risky financially and physically to find and extract it. If we don't reward people who take big risks for the things we need, they will seek rewards by getting those things for someone else.

cheers

horseback