When I say that I am bewildered as to why gasoline prices are so high, yet corporate profits for Exxon are shooting for a fourth year of world wide record profits, I mean that sincerely. There doesn't seem to be any logic on why the oil giants are making unheard of profits yet them blame the high price of crude oil, which is currently somewhere around $95 per barrel.
I would be guessing that these companies don't want to spend millions on trying to convince us why gas goes up, like they have in the past. Perhaps, they are just tired of lying so they can increase there profits even more. I don't know. I would really like to hear a logical explanation to this puzzlement of mine. And even if someone could, it really wouldn't persuade people because every one I talked to is so sick and tired of this and our gut feelings tells us that uncontrollable greed is the only motivating factor.
For me it would be logical and sound business practices, that if the costs of goods used for my products goes up, I can either raise my prices to have the same profit margin, or I can keep my prices the same and lower my profit margin. The oil companies are raising their prices and their profits, which have reached record levels like never heard of before. Exxon made over $39 Billion profit last year, the third straight year of record profit. I understand that a company has the right to make a profit, but this to me is criminal, especially when it is killing our economy and hurting millions of people. It doesn't surprise me that they can get away with it under this current Republican Administration. Greed...Greed...Greed.
I have been around long enough to know that the oil companies have lied to the American public before. In the so called oil crisis of the 1970's, when there was a "shortage" of oil production, large fleets of oil tankers parked their ships off the coast in the Atlantic waiting for the price of oil to go up before making port. That was during another Republican Administration, I wonder if there is a connection there?
If anyone is to blame it should be all of us. First, by allowing our complacency to look the other way all these years, second, for not seeking out alternative sources of renewable energy, and supporting the effort (Reagan's first act of his presidency, was to take down the solar panels that President Carter installed on top of the White House as a signal to the oil companies), and third,
by not using the one power we do have over business, and that is our purchasing power. The fact that we are in this predicament is just a further testiment that all of our lives have become so "self-centered" that we forgot what America was suppose to stand for, at least, a long, long time ago, perhaps in a far away galaxy?
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Naturally, it is easy to blame the Exxon and Mobile etc. for the current problem with gas prices but surely it is more than that. The U.S. is not especially popular thanks to our actions as of late, and since OPEC knows that we MUST have oil and they are the ones to sell it, they can charge whatever they want and we'll pay it. We have certianly demonstrated that. It may just be a question of who needs whom more? I think that we use more oil than any other country(?), and when surveyed, most Americans say that they would pay $4/gallon before they would use alternatives such as public transportation. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if we will pay whatever they charge us, why would they not set the bar so high, especially since oil-producing countries hate us?
I believe that the companies such as exxon and the others are mostly responsible for the price of oil. However, Americans will pay high $ so that they will not have to make a change in their life styles. So is to be held responsible? The profiting company or the stubborn american? Prices are only going to get higher and demand for the decreasing amount of oil is going to rise.
Buy a motorcycle. :)
I don't have a "bluemeanie" in my gradebook, so I can't give you credit for these posts unless you go back to each individual post an add your name.
>Naturally, it is easy to blame the Exxon and Mobile etc. for the current problem with gas prices but surely it is more than that. The U.S. is not especially popular thanks to our actions as of late, and since OPEC knows that we MUST have oil and they are the ones to sell it, they can charge whatever they want and we'll pay it.
This theory ignores the first part of Alyn's post. It isn't OPEC that is making record profits right now -- and when I say record, I mean the highest profits in the history of profits -- it is oil companies. While it is true that OPEC is a big supplier of our oil, we get more oil from the U.S. than we get from all OPEC countries combined. We get more oil from Canada than from any individual OPEC member. OPEC is a factor, but it isn't the biggest one.
When people say Americans will pay anything for gas, they are being a bit disingenuous. Americans don't have any other option in most of the country. We have terrible or no public transportation in most of the country that either requires us to compromise our safety or add hours to our daily commute. For most people walking or riding a bike to work just isn't realistic, particularly in places like Florida, where heat, rain and other factors make it impossible for many people.
It may be true that people don't want to give up their cars, but we don't know, we haven't tried it any other way. It is important to note that in cities (like N.Y. or Chicago) where public transportation is used, it is used very frequently by lots and lots of people.
Public transportation is used already so obviously it can't help too much. It isn't personalized neither is it convenient. The time wasted waiting for public transportation can equal big bucks for quite a bit of Americans. The only way public transportation can help is to upgrade it. Those magna-trains sound like a good idea they're pretty fast. They carry loads of people also. Saying people aren't using a service is incorrect, just the service provided isn't what they need. Therefore, upgrade the service to meet the everyday needs of society.
I used to live in NYC. Except for a brief period of time, I never had a car in NYC. I used public transportation. If Tallahassee had better transportation, I would without doubt use it. I live in the Killearn section of town. The closest bus station to me is 4 miles away. Even if I got there it would take me an hour and half to get to work. It only takes me twenty minutes without any major traffic delay.
Why is public transportation so bad? Except in places like NYC.
Daniel, in most of the U.S., public transportation as it currently exists hasn't been tried on any significant scale. There are places -- like Alyn says mostly in big cities -- where it works quite well.
There is a significant problem with the cost/benefit ratio. In rural areas, the cost of putting reliable public transportation in place is more expensive than the benefit the few users in the area would get from it. In urban areas, current technology is not only adequate, it works very well.
I've lived in New York City and Bradenton, Florida (about 40 minutes south of Tampa). Both have public transportation except Bradenton didn't have any subways. I rarely used the public transportation in either cases. Traffic was a killer, but you could bet my dad was driving his car.
Naturally, it is easy to blame the Exxon and Mobile etc. for the current problem with gas prices but surely it is more than that. The U.S. is not especially popular thanks to our actions as of late, and since OPEC knows that we MUST have oil and they are the ones to sell it, they can charge whatever they want and we'll pay it. We have certianly demonstrated that. It may just be a question of who needs whom more? I think that we use more oil than any other country(?), and when surveyed, most Americans say that they would pay $4/gallon before they would use alternatives such as public transportation. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if we will pay whatever they charge us, why would they not set the bar so high, especially since oil-producing countries hate us?
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