Here's what they could do about the high cost of gas......

We are seeing the culmination of the choices we have made as a people of America.
1. We have and continue to vote in unscrupulous politicians.
2. We continue to support industries and companies that bring no vested intrerest to thier communities or this country.
3. We have CEO's and industry who took complete advantage of the work force and their communities and customers.
4. We got greedy with our union power and took too much from the industries that supported us.


What if the we in America got their act together and we didn't want so many lawyers and judges and prisons and police and politicans and community service people on the back of the people?

What if we didn't want such a big government to take care of us?

What if we said I'm going to help this community instead of just take from it?

If we didn't have to support those who tear it down or are not really productive we would not be in this mess.



Bottom line is we allowed it and continue to allow it and blame everyone but ourselves. It is the fault of politicians, judges, big business, teachers, liberals and foriegners.

We are waiting for "OUR LEADERS" to fix this? They are completely self serving and are never going to work for thier communities and country, they have proven that for decades now.

Evidently it is not bad enough yet for "we the people" to do something but it will be.

Mikey

 

Right! I believe WInston Churchill said it best:

 

PLEASE - STOP WITH THE LATTE AND BOTTLED WATER COMPARISONS!!!!!!!!!

I don't need to buy those commodities, but I do need to drive to work and heat my house.

That comparison is totally idiotic.

 

Explain pleaseo No:

What I meant was there are people who so quickly whine about gas prices, yet are so willing to blow money on expensive coffee and lattes. To insinuate that this comparison is idiotic is just plain, well, idiotic.

What is assinine is willingly spending disposable income on frivilous expenses, such as those bottled water, and lattes, and then complaining about higher gas prices.

BTW, have you increased your homes insulation to reduce your heating expense?? If not, then look in your mirror while making such statements.:grin:

 

One is a luxury and one is a necessity.

I could live the rest of my life without a latte', but won't get far without fuel for the house and car.

So, I really care about home heating oil, and especially for my mother who is 80, and lives on a fixed income. She may have to make the choice between heating and eating......:spank:

 

It could be argued that gas and heating oil are not necessities, but I won't go there.:laugh: :laugh: Personally, I will not pay that kind of money for a coffee. In fact, I gag when having to fork over $1.50 or more for a lousy tea bag at any convenience store or truckstop. I often use my own at about 10 cents apiece.:grin:

Anyway, I do feel for those on fixed incomes, since my mother and stepfather are also on that list. Fortunately for them, they don't have to make a choice between a warm home, or eating............yet.

 

Here is just my take:

1. Supply vs. Demand. They limit the supply that they could conceivably increase if they so chose. Domestic taps anyone? The demand continues to increase. India will begin producing an affordable gas powered automobile next year. The citizens of India, up to now have limited automobiles, will be by in large purchasing said vehicles. This country happens to be one of the most populous in the world, so the demand is only going to increase, meaning we aren't even close to what the price of gas will be in the coming years.

2. Greed - Record profits by Big Oil. This probably is leading to record kick backs to politicians via Lobbyists. This leads to the lack of regulation of the Oil industry pricing that we currently see today.

3. Big 3 - The Big 3 depends on current gas based technology to survive. They are already losing traction in the marketplace as the Japanese and Korean makers become more and more efficient and more and more accepted. Is it a coincidence that all the energy think tanks such as Cal-Berkley are being funded by the Big 3? As efficient as the foreign makers are, do you really believe that the Big 3 would be able to compete on an even playing field starting from scratch? Not. The foreign workforce works up to 16 hour work days for a fraction of what we make, would we change to work double the hours for the same price? Not.

4. Gov't - Oil prices went up after the invasion of Iraq yet we as a country have never consumed oil from Iraq and their taps have been relatively unused by other countries. Why is this? Hurrican Katrina shakes up the Gulf and most refineries came out unhurt yet the price increased again. Why is this? Because they were excuses that were being thrown around for other legitimate things and the American people were already susceptible to believing this excuse. Once we believed it and still paid top dollar for oil\gas, they had us by the balls. We proved their suspicions all along. Increase the cost and we will still go about our ways.

5. General Costs\Global Marketplace - Gov't has managed to give major tax breaks to companies pushing competitive jobs overseas in an effort to open up the global marketplace in order to provide cheaper expensed goods to our people. One problem. That backfired. This only works if those companies decreased the price of their goods to be inline with their cost savings on the production of said goods. This didn't happen. They continue to outsource to foreign competitors, sometimes overseas and a large part of the time to H1B visa candidates who come from overseas. I have worked with many. Mostly, good people looking to make a living and looking to better their families. That was how America was founded. The problem comes from most of these individuals are sending good portions of this income back overseas to their families and are not putting that portion back into our economy. Corporate greed is killing our economy as well. How many industries does GE have under its belt? Most of us could say growing up that GE was the great American company. The company that all other companies was compared, the Gold Standard. Well GE has managed to expand its industry base via mergers\acquisitions. What does this mean to our economy? Well, in order for GE to compete in said industry, it goes out and buys 3-5 of the same type company. Non of which are the biggest in the industry, but all of which have something slightly different than the other with a marketshare all their own. It than merges said companies over a 3-5 year period. Cutting costs and becoming a singular entity with broad reaching marketshare and marketibility. Cut the systems and combine into one system, cut the workforce and combine into one workforce, sometimes outsourcing, sometimes just purely eliminating jobs. That means, more and more Americans out of jobs. The same laid off people now find themselves willing to work for less than what they worked their tails off to get just to feed their families. This means less money from those individuals coming back into the marketplace.

6. Ignorance - When was the last time we got a 60% turnout for an election? When was the last time that we got 100% of the turnout to vote for the person they best felt fit for the job based on personal investigation\analysis? We, by in large, complain about the status quo, but never take the time to do our part. Whether it be pressure from our company about coming to work late or leaving early to vote, not wanting to be bothered by waiting in line, general dismay by the voting process and gov't in general.



There are many causes for our current crisis, gov't, corporate greed, frivolous spending(could you live without your Buick?), personal ignorance.

It is time to stop blaming things you can't control directly, lattes, SUV's, blah, blah, blah. Fix the things that are in your control. Research your politicians, than vote for them, than get involved with them whether it be time or simply submitting your issues and solutions. Just like anything, nobody wants to hear a complainer, but most will listen to someone with a prospective solution.

The solution starts November 4. Get your lazy asses off the computer and get out the vote. Encourage those around you to vote. Your point of view is a point of view. No different than a point of view coming from the blowhards on national TV. If people vote based on the analysis by a paid blowhard, give them an opportunity to vote based on a respected neighbors opinion that by in large has more understanding of the issues that affect them than the pundits on TV.

 

I don't believe in either of the blow hards running for Presidency.

Now what?

It seems to me that it will work its self out when none of us have jobs or careers & have to back to basics of growing your own food to barter with @ the market.


That might make a good X box game huh?

We could name it " Depression III"


Don't get me wrong I agree with most of what y'all say but Katrina was a excuse to raise the price of fuel & get the hybrids into the market.

Not everyone can afford to over insulate their house to save some fuel .


Its time for the people who get paid to do nothing leave & let the Blue Collar's run its self.

http://www.tednugent.com/hunting/news/2008/default.aspx?PostID=587524



SR:TU:

 

But they can afford to continually feed the heater every winter.o No:

I recently moved out of a poorly insulated home, which I could have renovated, but the area it was in just didn't justify the cost. That house was cheap to buy, cheap to live in because it was in a less desirable part of town.

When I decided to build brand new, it was a no brainer to spec the most efficient home I could. I expect my [natural gas] heating bills to average around $70.00 per month for a 1260 sq ft bungalow. My old house was almost twice that, for 760 sq ft.

Adding insulation will definitely pay for itself, both in reduced heating bills, and ultimately when the markets rebound, in resale value. Yes, I do expect that home values will eventually rise again, probably sooner than later.

 

How much have gas prices dropped since the last post in this thread?? Maybe 30 to 50%?? What happened??

 

We are in the throes of a depression/recession. The credit money dried up so the commodities people can't "buy" like they used to. Credit has dried up all over.The banks are hoarding the money from the bailouts that the citizens have to pay for and won't loan it out for some reason. Demand for oil is down ,too. You can't get blood from turnips. Everyone is tapped out. the corporations,banks and the big government has turned the USA into a destitute land. People are getting laid off or their job has been permanantly terminated along with multitudes of businesses folding under. Out of work,out of business,out of credit,out of money. The party is over. Like always,the rich will be richer and the poor/middle class will be poorer. The next round will be all taxes getting a big hike to pay for the bailouts. Someone in a thread not long ago-this past summer-said the bottom will drop out on oil. They were right.

 

All you guys hacking on the oil companies for being "greedy" know and understand that they only make around 10% return on invested capital? You know that, right? Exxon made $40 billion because it spent $400 billion. And this is AFTER they paid $35 billion in taxes. $35 BILLION!!! Further soaking the oil companies, who already pay nearly 50% of their profits in taxes, is barking up the wrong tree. The key to bringing gas prices down is to STOP USING SO DAMN MUCH OF IT! I've seen in numerous places that if we reduced demand by 3-5%, gas prices would crash. Well guess what, demand is down 6% this year, and what happened to gas prices?

 

So the answer to high gas prices is a recession or depresson?

 

Yeah,I guess you could say that. The quadrupling of energy costs drove the cost of everything else up.Along with the rampant outsourcing of jobs/manufacturing but no pay raises to match, you are going to end up with economic doom. If I remember correctly,energy costs didn't skyrocket until Herr Bush stirred up the middle east oil countries. He caused a lot of instability in the world. At least he might be on the way out.

 

$2.29 here in lawrence, ks :eek2:

 

Though how long will it last as OPEC now starts to cut supply to price fix things. Though you know the folks on the news will still blame driver for using to much when it goes back up. Ignoring we got plenty.

Most big oil profits are a larf as they don't use any oil they drill. They sell all their oil on the open market, then must buy oil on the open market to refine.
Makes the books look better that way. When it could be near pure profit if they used their own supply.

For national security id make it illegal to sell any oil drilled inthe US out side of the US, make them use it all here. Then only buy whats needed above that from else where. As 90% of our oil is not used here. Why we must import so much.

 

The LAST thing we need is more government regulation. Sounds good, but usually has terrible unexpected consequences. OPEC is loosing their ability to control prices. It is hard to prop the price up for an item that there is weak demand for, so as far as I am concerned they can't prop up jack! Proof: Oil fell Friday after the OPEC meeting cutting 1.5 million barrels. :laugh:

 

Problem is we could end up in a gas shortage if they keep cutting to try and stop the price drop.They said if it stops at 50 we should be ok but if it goes lower then 50, they will cut like crazy and we will end up short.

If they stopped the exporting of US oil, oil corps would stop looking for instant profits by selling on the open market. They would then be forced to really drill for more as their only way to the same big profits would be on selling gas. And high priced gas would not work for that, they would have to sell allot and cheap to keep the train going.

Same big profits for them, plenty of oil and cheap gas for us.
No down sides there to gov regulation. Would also get the big oil in the US back under the control of US comapnies. When Europe is still paying $5 a gallon cause they get oil on the open market, BP and others will sell to go drill at home.

 

Yes but that works both ways....if they don't sell oil then that means no money in their pockets.

 

No! They just would stop producing US oil and go elsewhere in the world if they couldn't sell at the world price. Duh! No one can force the oil companies to make oil here. If you reduce the appeal for oil companies at home you then can say goodbye to more revenue in the US economy and more US jobs. This is why the windfall profits tax will FAIL! You want to send jobs and money to other places in the world? then go ahead and ban the sale of oil at the world price in the US.:spank:

Bottom line: if you allow the free market to work, there will never be a shortage. :beer