Gas Prices
- Thread starter slik
- Start date
ylexot
Super Genius
Oooo, lookie what I found...from Jan 05:
Exxon Mobil Posts Record Profits
It doesn't say that it was a Wall Street record, but $8.42 Billion in profits! OGM, we must hit them with a windfall tax because no company should make that much money
So, where was the outcry at those profits? I don't remember them.
Exxon Mobil Posts Record Profits
It doesn't say that it was a Wall Street record, but $8.42 Billion in profits! OGM, we must hit them with a windfall tax because no company should make that much money
So, where was the outcry at those profits? I don't remember them.
Toxick
Splat
This is such a bad comparison on so many levels.ylexot said:
Would you like for me to list the reasons why this is a bad comparison? I can.
However, when was the last time you went to a movie and didn't hear someone complain about the price of tickets and the price of soda and popcorn. Everytime I go to the movies, which is rare these days, I cringe at the outrageous price.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
I'm just commenting that, when gas prices go up a couple quarters a gallon, this raises your average visit to the pump by -- what --- ten bucks? And your number of fillups a month is - 4 or 5? If it's more than that, or you're driving more than 25,000 miles a year - you're an outlier. It's hitting you harder, because you're in a situation different from that of most Americans. Gas prices going up as much as 50 cents is hurting Americans to the tune of several hundred dollars - a *year*.
I guarantee that many other areas of your budget are just as susceptible to inflation. It's just that there's this ridiculous image of oil executives twirling their mustaches with glee over screwing the American consumer.
Which of course, is ridiculous - like anything else, the price of gas tends to track for most vendors because it's what the market will bear. Raise them too much, and you will be undercut - drop them too low, and you're screwed.
Which brings me to yet another image - the idea of "big oil" as the enemy - but the recognition of "big oil" as vital to our survival.
Well which is it? See, if oil is vital to our existence as a nation - you're damned skippy that it matters if someone, or some group threatens the world wide supply of it. We wouldn't care one bit how many Arabs and Jews kill each other one bit, if there wasn't any oil over there - just as we don't care how much people kill each other in other parts of the globe that DON'T have oil.
For some reason - it's TERRIBLE that oil execs sit back, collect fat checks, suck on their cigars and laugh at the plight of the poor working schmuck. But should national politics have ANYTHING to do with securing more oil to keep poor average schmuck *ALIVE*, and that is now a *bad* thing.
We went to Iraq, for oil? So, what if we did? We got people complaining if gas goes up a few nickels a gallon. If national policy didn't have anything to do with oil - you'd be paying 5 to ten bucks a gallon, instead. So which is it? Vital to our national interest - and greedy oil capitalists shouldn't profit so heavily off of it - or of no concern to us - and you should pay the same kind of gas price as they do in other countries, where half the population rides around on scooters and bicycles?
I guarantee that many other areas of your budget are just as susceptible to inflation. It's just that there's this ridiculous image of oil executives twirling their mustaches with glee over screwing the American consumer.
Which of course, is ridiculous - like anything else, the price of gas tends to track for most vendors because it's what the market will bear. Raise them too much, and you will be undercut - drop them too low, and you're screwed.
Which brings me to yet another image - the idea of "big oil" as the enemy - but the recognition of "big oil" as vital to our survival.
Well which is it? See, if oil is vital to our existence as a nation - you're damned skippy that it matters if someone, or some group threatens the world wide supply of it. We wouldn't care one bit how many Arabs and Jews kill each other one bit, if there wasn't any oil over there - just as we don't care how much people kill each other in other parts of the globe that DON'T have oil.
For some reason - it's TERRIBLE that oil execs sit back, collect fat checks, suck on their cigars and laugh at the plight of the poor working schmuck. But should national politics have ANYTHING to do with securing more oil to keep poor average schmuck *ALIVE*, and that is now a *bad* thing.
We went to Iraq, for oil? So, what if we did? We got people complaining if gas goes up a few nickels a gallon. If national policy didn't have anything to do with oil - you'd be paying 5 to ten bucks a gallon, instead. So which is it? Vital to our national interest - and greedy oil capitalists shouldn't profit so heavily off of it - or of no concern to us - and you should pay the same kind of gas price as they do in other countries, where half the population rides around on scooters and bicycles?
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Do you ever see someone just go home? Declare "I'm not paying for this"? I'm hardly sympathetic to someone who complains about the high price of something they don't need - but pays for it ANYWAY.Toxick said:
(Actually, they HAVE been doing this the past couple years - movie *revenues* are down, even with higher ticket and concessions, because the volume is down across the board. People have learned with cable, NetFlix, cheap DVD's and widespread availabiity of DVD players - they can watch all the movies they want if they're willing to just wait a couple weeks).
Toxick
Splat
Yeah - my 3 year old daughter will totally understand why Daddy's eyebrows shot up and why we're storming out of the movie theater after promising to take her to see the SpongeBob movie.SamSpade said:
"I understand, dad. It's the pwincipal of the thing... I wouldn't pay for it eifer".
And I wasn't even looking for sympathy. I was responding to a question about why people don't gripe about high movie prices.
My moving-going frequency has decidedly dropped over the past 10-15 years, and it has all but stopped over the last 5 years. The only movies I go out to now are when I'm treating my kids.
Except when I was in Tucson, where the Drive-In is not dead. $10 for a carload of people ain't too shabby. We saw Revenge of the Sith there.
Unfortunately you have to use gas to get there
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Can't sympathize with you. When adjusted for inflation, gas prices have remained amazingly stable. They adjust seasonally, and have their spikes from time to time, but yearly averages when adjusted for inflation just simply have not changed. Take away the fact that it is also heavily taxed, and we have just about the cheapest gas on the planet.Toxick said:
What's funny to me is, in the late 60's and 70's, the constant CONSTANT joke was the high cost of - remember? - *beef*. It was *GROCERIES* people joked about. Johnny Carson would do a schtick about some poor consumer shelling out his entire paycheck just to buy a single pot roast. They made fun of that even in movies of the time - anyone who could afford pot roast wasn't "suffering" (what movie was that?). This was because the price of beef spiked pretty quick back then - you could get a pound of ground beef for pocket change.
I'd like to complain about - the cost of sporting events. But - I can't. I don't go because it's too expensive already. I hate the high cost of housing - I'm glad I bought one when I did. Damned real estate folks. You don't see THEM suffering from the high cost of new houses do you? I think my electric bill is outrageous. And why do most automobiles cost about a fourth of what I make in a year? When did that happen? Ever pay a plumber for something recently?
How come it costs 8 bucks to buy a *hamburger* in a sit-down restaurant? Eight bucks! It costs about a quarter to buy the damned burger meat. And they charge me 2 bucks for fizzy water flavored like Coke - which I can buy TWO LITERS of the crap right next door at the supermarket for half of that. Why does cable TV cost more, and they don't give me any new channels? How much more can it cost to transmit the same crap? Same with the local phone service.
How come cigarettes cost so damned much? And beer. I remember when you could buy a pack of cigs in the 80's for pocket change from a machine. A machine. No point nowadays - too much change. Beer used to cost about what soda costs now. And don't mention liquor. I used to buy a fifth of bourbon every day after class sophomore year of college for a few bucks. As if. I could buy a slice of pizza for change. Now it costs the same as a burger at a fast food place, and it's just cheese and bread.
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It just seems to me - you can pick what you want to complain about, as far as prices go. Everything costs more. You did nail it earlier - it's *VISIBLE*. Gas is about the only thing where the price is constantly advertised. If the price of disposable diapers was on display every day, people would complain about that. If daycare places advertised their rates outside their doors, people would complain.
I just don't see the need to blame people getting rich off of oil. Used to be, the "bad guys" were the major retailers, the banks and the insurance companies. They're getting rich at Microsoft, at the mortgage company, the cable company, the cell phone network.
But for some reason - it's big oil that is the bad guys.
