The KGB Oracle Forums General Public Discussion (PUBLIC) The Pub Who is your choice for US President?

Ok whats your point. An American company is making a profit. I know big oil is an evil empire trying to take over the world.

I dont get why people get made at oil companies making a profit, its what companies do. Do you get mad when other companies make profits. WalMart, General Electric, General Motors, Home Depot, Berkshire Hathaway, HP, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Kroger, AT&T, Target, Dell, UPS. These are some of the top companies in america all making profits.
Sorry but I find it silly when people get mad at so called big oil. If you look up the biggest oil companies in the world you have to go all the way down to 17ish to even find exxon or any american company.

So who should you be mad at, I say a little organization called OPEC. Or lets say the government for the high taxes they put on gas. Or maybe the decline in avalible crude. Or the fact that a new oil refinery has not been built in 30+ years to help with demand, thanks envirofreaks. Dont forget when crude oil was 70-80 gas prices were 3+. Now its over 100 for crude and gas prices are about the same, WTF is that.

Dont get me wrong Big Oil is evil, so is WalMart, Target, Home Depot and well all the Forbes 500. Welcome to American. Get as much as you can while it last then start all over.

For a short term historic wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_price_increases_of_2004-2006

When I got my first car and bought my first tank of gas it was around 80 cent a gallon and the first thought in my head was how the hell am I gonna pay for gas.

You get mad at them when gas is starting to push $4 / gallon
and the oil companies keep reporting ' record profits ' to
the tune of multi-billion dollars.

Most of the other companies you listed sell what I call
'optional' merchandise. You don't have to purchase any of
it in the event you can't afford it.

Gasoline, on the other hand, is like insurance. It's one
of those things you cannot do without. The oil companies
know this, and price it accordingly. What are you going
to do? Not buy any ? Good luck with that.

The percentage of people who can live without a
gas powered vehicle in the US is laughable.
For probably 95%+ of Americans, no vehicle =
no job = no money = very sh*tty life.

Oil and it's derivatives are critical resources and
should have some serious oversight in just how freely
the price can swing.

However, while the greedy bastages that are Big Oil
rake in billions and the expense of the rest of us, one
of the primary reasons for high priced gasoline is the
falling dollar.

As the dollar continues to plummet vs other world currency,
the price of just about everything is going to go into
orbit. Oil just happens to be in the spotlight atm.

Yeah, nothing wrong with oil companies making a profit, even a recrord profit. The problem is the govt giving subsidies/etc to those oil companies.

Dont like the price of gas? build an electric car. Ride a bike. Take a bus. Not that im happy about the price of gas, I dont like taking a bus any more than the next guy,but it sure shouldnt be the govt regulating the prices.

Govt subsidies for big oil, are a problem though. Govt printing to much money to finance the unnecesarry wars of an egomaniac flake , thereby devaluing our currency is a problem.

Govt is the heart of the problem, and less govt is almost always the solution. Even AT&T wouldnt be selling civil liberties down the pike, if they werent literally charging the feds about 14k$ an hour when they do anything.

If OPEC drops production gas goes up. If OPEC raises production gas goes down.

So tell me how Exxon controls gas prices. If they buy cheap, gas is cheap. If they buy high, gas is high.

I use to sell product for a company, we went by 25% as our profit. If our cost went up our profit went up due to our 25% profit. We didnt drop our prices becaouse the public was mad at the increase, they just paid more. I am assuming most companies work the same. So yes if crude oil is 100 a barrel when it was 80, profit goes up.

Yes everyone needs gas but with inflation it is about the same as the late 70's. It is also a commodity and will go up and down. as with the gas crunch in the 70's it will most likely go back down to a lower price, and the evil big oil profits with it.

So OPEC is who you should be mad at. As in the 70's they made the price rise then.

Government subsidies, not just oil, is another whole crazy problem in itself. Without it bread is 20 buck a loaf but government is smaller and we pay less in taxes. I can see both sides of that argument. Granted I dont see big oil needing it.

Yeah, I know my dad's company used to run like that, I'm pretty sure all distributors/retailers deal like that.

And yeah, prices in the market tends to stabilize over the course of two years or so to re-align with the line of its average growth. So although price may be say, $40 over what it should be at the moment, eventually it might drop to say $20 less, then a bit more, then a bit less, and then it might sky rocket again like it did these past few years.

Well without subsidies agricultural products would nearly be free, but farmers would also be homeless.

I totally agree with Daye. We are a low income family, and while Gas is cheaper in Tennessee compared to the rest of the states, it varies right now from 3.09/gallon to 3.19/gallon.
I don't have to drive anywhere so I stay home a lot and only go back and forth to pick my son up from school. When he use to ride the bus I never went anywhere. I can shove 10$ in my gas tank and last me for a week. He doesn't ride the bus due to issues we were having with his safety on the bus.

But there are alot of people out there like us who just make what we need to get by, with the rising cost of gas prices we minimize what we can so Steve can get back and forth to work, he drives for work but thankfully on a company truck with a company gas card, he has a huge ass truck lol so I know the gas prices are crazy and now a days Diesel is more expensive then Gasoline and it use to be cheaper. With gas prices going up and up all of the paychecks are staying the same. Where we live we don't have the option of public bus system or biking to work. Steve work is over 16 miles from us and it's all country roads along the way. If he was closer to his work he'd totally bike but if he did it now he's likely to be killed on the curvy country roads. They are saying that gas is going up over 4$ a gallon here soon and if that is the case at least us and I am sure most other people will be screwed. We've cut back on a lot of grocery shopping cut down Tv prices etc the higher it gets the more we'll have to cut back it's just ridiculous and something needs to change. Daye and Derid totally said it best

Not necesarrily Helemoto, A couple years or so ago I remember gas prices spiking even though oil was at a low point, due to needs for additives/EPA requirements+ lack of refining capacity.

Its not just an oil issue, there are bottlenecks in many links of this particular supply chain. Especially for regions that have "special needs" regarding mandated additives/refinement/etc.

Dont get me wrong. Of course I want cheap gas. I average 1000 miles a week for work, once I filled my tank 7 times in one week. My wife drives my kids to school 20 miles one way. If we go somewhere we drive to Omaha 28 to 38 miles one way just to get something to do, cause there is not a frickin thing to do in the town I live in.

All I was trying to say was there is more to high gas then the evil oil companies.

Like Derid said, I remember that clearly now.

Without subsities your food would be skyhigh not cheap, because there would be alot less farmers. Well other then evil corporate farmers. Until corn was used for gas additive, the corn and other grain prices were the same price 30 years ago. Try being a farmer when your product sold for the same price 30+ years in a row and food in stores went up every year.

Ya Steve's Gma leases her land during season and the farmers aren't making shit anymore. I am sure you and your wife notice how horrible grocery prices are getting.

Meat is expensive here in Tn worse then it is back home in IL. You can get a 3lb Roast chicken for anything less then 4$ If you want pot roast forget it it's over 12$ just for a shitty meat portion. There are shitloads of cows,goats, farms and chicken farms here but they send everything out but prices here are crazy

Most of the high gas prices are calculated by the cost of
crude oil which, right now, is going at $107 / barrel USD.

That's probably 50% of the total price of gas.

The rest is calculated in the costs to move it from point
to point ( trucks ) state and federal taxes ( about .40 per
gallon ) refinement costs, then finally the little guy at
the gas station gets his cut. ( a very small one at that )

While Big Oil isn't solely the one to blame, it's within
our power to limit their profits to something acceptable if
it will help turn the economy around. I don't mind Big Oil
making a profit, after all, that's what companies do.

Just bring their profits down to a reasonable level ( one
that isn't record setting every !@#$!@#!$ quarter ) and cut
the taxes in half for a while.

It is not, however, within our power to persuade OPEC to
increase supply. Nor would it help much to be honest.

Our biggest problem is the devaluation of the dollar. It's
killing us. We are paying $107 / barrel, whereas
( if my math is right ) Europe is paying about ~69 Euro
for the same oil. Yes Europe pays through the nose for gas
( somewhere in the realm of $12 USD / gallon ) but this is
because their government taxes the living hell out of it.
Like 75% tax I think.

As the dollar keeps dropping, oil will keep climbing.
It will reach a critical point where folks can no longer
afford to even drive to work. Long before we reach that we'll
see consumer spending taper off due to high gas / energy prices
and that will hurt business even moreso.

It is at this point when the economy will officially implode.

Yeah, I could take the bus. Which would connect with
another bus, which would connect with another bus, which
would ultimately get me to my building some two hours later.
That's not gonna happen.

Biking / walking to work is out of the question as it's forty
miles *points* that-a-way.

Can't move INTO Houston as I can't afford the $300,000+ they
want for condos inside the loop.

So, I'm stuck driving. While I drive a Volvo that gets
30mpg, gas is still a very noticeable expense every month.

It isn't going to get any better until / unless the dollar
rebounds and gets some of it's bite back.