Gas Price Gouging???

[Grumpy]

Just watched some of the Congressional hearing on the Big Oil Companies "Price Gouging". They make good scapegoats but if anyone thinks that an average of 8.3 cents per gallon of gas is "price gouging", they probably believe that Castro had Kennedy killed and several other myths. There are only two reasons why gasoline is so expensive, first because of supply and demand being minuplated in the market and especially by futures traders and SECOND BECAUSE AMERICANS (AND PEOPLE IN THE REST OF THE WORLD) ARE BUYING GAS IN RECORDS AMOUNTS in spite of the high prices!!!

By the way, according to the Execs, the oil company's profit margin is the lowest it has been in tweny years. Yet Congress wants to take away their tax breaks, etc. to "punish" them into lowering prices. All that will do is make sure they will do less to lower prices. Now think about that, IF THEY GAVE UP ALL OF THEIR PROFITS THE PRICE OF GAS WOULD GO DOWN BY 8 CENTS PER GALLON, hardly what I would call a fix to the problem.

They need incentives (not punishemnet) to FIND AND REFINE oil and they need to be allowed to drill for the oil when and were they find it. That is what will lower prices.

Just my opinion,

Grumpy

[DJD]

I wonder who is telling the truth here? The media says record profits and the oil companies say lowest in years? This confuses my simple mind.....

[Grumpy]

I wonder who is telling the truth here? The media says record profits and the oil companies say lowest in years? This confuses my simple mind.....

They are making record profits in the amount of money in income!! The media wouldn't have any story if they reproted that the gas companies are only making 8.3 cents per gallon, which according to the gas company Execs is the lowest PROFIT MARGIN in twenty years. In other words, in the past they may have been making .16 center per gallon and have given up half of their profits. The media takes the total dollar amount of profits, which is billions of dollars, and makes it sound like the gas companies are responsible for and get about $3.00 profit per gallon of gas sold when in reality they only get an average of 8.3 cents for each gallon sold.

None of the Exuctive denied that they are making billions in total profits but they all said the reason they are making so much money is because the AMMERICAN PEOPLE ARE BUYING GASOLINE IN RECORD AMOUNTS. Everyone seems to forget that the reason these companies are in business is to make a profit for their shareholders. If they can't make a profit there is no sense in being in business.

By the way, all of the states and the Federal goverment are making more profit, per gallon, in gas taxes than the gas companies. Even so, if they all stopped taxing gas and the gas companies gave up all of their profits, the price of gas would only come down about .75 cents average. I didn't actually average it out, but the combined state and federal gasoline taxes come to about .65 cents per gallon.

Grumpy

[Stonewall2002]

Grumpy, we must ahyve been cut from the same cloth. It seems like every time gas prices jump everyone wrings their hands and yessl "PRICE GOUGING". The puiblic school system realy needs to start teaching economics.

Keep on chuckin'

[Grumpy]

I agree, Stonewall, but what we need most is for people to learn how to think for themselves instead of just automatically believing what they see and hear in 30 second soundbites from the Liberal media.

I am forever grateful for the teachers that thought me, at an early age, how to look for and look at both sides (and sometimes several sides) of an issue and form my own opinions. Unfortunatly, today's teachers have to spend so much time trying to control (descipline) the children (and sometimes control how they think) and teach them basics that their parents should have taught them, that the teachers never get around to teaching the kids HOW TO THINK (as opposed to what to think).

What is amazing is that with Google, Yahoo and several other search enginies available today, most people still don't know how to reseach an issue and come to a conclusion for themselves. Or, maybe its that they are just to lazy and would rather accept the pablum that is fed to them by the media.

Grumpy

[mhall]

I totally and completely disagree with you. Big oil profits are at an all time high. Ceo's of those companies are making record salaries and compensation bonus amounts. If you guys really believe the Oil companies are barely getting by as you so imply, I've got some great propetual motion machines for sale. Oh and my humble public school system education taught me this and guess what, ''I ain't a buying whatcha selling''. In fact go ahead give me all your economic lessons you want I don't buy one single word of it. Also there are alot of people with three times the education of probably everyone on this site that don't believe it either. Exxon Mobile and others have been posting record profits for the last three years every quarter, and now under fire they are attemting to camoflage it. You say Tomato I say Tamato.

[mhall]

Grumpy, we must ahyve been cut from the same cloth. It seems like every time gas prices jump everyone wrings their hands and yessl "PRICE GOUGING". The puiblic school system realy needs to start teaching economics.

Keep on chuckin'

Did you go to a private school, if so did they teach you how to spell, or were you just in a hurry? Don't mean to jump on you but I get so tired of people slamming on the public school system, like it's some sort of inferior race or something.

[Grumpy]

MHAL, no one denied that the oil companies are making record profits, not even the oil company execs that were before the congressional committe and no one, especially not me, said or thinks that they are barely scrimping by. But to keep blaming the oil companies, for something that is not their fault just means that the problem will never get fixed, which is usually the case when the "public" (that means you MHALL) decides to find a scapegoat.

I say again, the reason oil companies are making record profits is because the American people are buying gasoline in record high amounts INSPITE OF THE HIGH PRICES!! I will also say again, that the oil companies profit is only 8.3 cents per gallon and that means that if they gave up their whole profit the price of gas would only go down an average of .08 cents per gallon. Lowering the price of gas by .08 cents per gallon is not hardly going to satisfy anyone. THE ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM IS NOT PUNISHING THE OIL COMPANIES, the answer to the problem is to let the oil companies do what they do best, letting them drill for, pump, and refine oil from places that are now off limits to them. When the supply goes up the prices will come down.

In an article yesterday, the Couriour Journal (in a rare instance of trufhfulness) stated that the oil company's profits were .08 cents per gallon, while the drug companies were making an average of .20 cents or more per sale of their drugs. I would be willing to bet that the PROFIT MARGIN for the vast majority of companies in the United States is significantly higher then .08 cents per unit.

Grumpy

[Grumpy]

P.S.:

MHALL, if you are so smart, educated, and at the same time skeptical and unbelieving HOW COME YOU HAVE SO MANY PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINES TO SELL?

[mhall]

P.S.:

MHALL, if you are so smart, educated, and at the same time skeptical and unbelieving HOW COME YOU HAVE SO MANY PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINES TO SELL?

AHHHHHH Grumpy you are sooo funny, lol.

[RoadToad]

Oil companies are going to charge what the market will bear. They'd be foolish to do otherwise. That kind of thing is the price of living in a capitalist society, and I don't have a problem with that. Oil is a profitable industry, and that's life. And it's important to note that many of the tax breaks oil companies get are not specific to their industry, but rather are given across the manufacturing board, to encourage domestic production. That seems perfectly reasonable, even to a tree-hugging liberal like myself. But there are other tax breaks, passed just within the past couple years, that are specific to just oil companies. Oil execs claimed they were needed if they were going to expand domestic oil production. Given the fact that oil profits (not just revenues) were at historic highs even before they got those tax cuts, I find that claim a little hard to believe. All of us are being told we have to "tighten our belts," why shouldn't Big Awl?

[Grumpy]

Yeah, I agree RoadToad, the Oil Companies need to tighten their belts. The Congressmen wanted to know why they are not spending more money (than the hundreds of millions they are spending) on developing alternative fuels, carberation ehnhancement, and fuel refinement and their general answer seemed to be that they were already spending more than the incentives (tax breaks) were designed for and they couldn't justify spending more without increasing their profit margin higher then .08 cents per gallon. Maybe they should tighten their belts and not import so much oil at over $100 a barrel and thus cut the supply further WHICH WOULD RAISE THE PRICE AT THE PUMP HIGHER.

The Oil Company Execs all said that there was plenty of oil in known American oil fields, which if they were allowed to drill for it would bring the price of gasoline down significantly but because of the "tree huggers" (my words) they can't drill for it, much less refine it and bring it to market.

Grumpy