Gas Prices?
Anyone wondering why we are paying such high gas prices since Hurricane Katrina? Well ... the wait is over. Now we know. The answer came today. We are paying high gas prices so that the large oil companies can post the largest quarterly profits in history. They tried to say it was because their operations had been disrupted because of the several hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico this late summer and fall. But now we all now it's a load of so much hooey.
posted by Sonja Andrews at 3:01 PM
6 Comments:
I felt really odd yesterday celbrating that I'd gotten gas for $2.39 as though that was some kind of deal.
What is interesting about it is that their profit margins aren't really increasing, just their overall revenue and profits. If they were gouging us, their margins would be through the roof.
And what's wrong with ExxonMobil making as high of profits as they can? Isn't that how capitalism works? They have us completely over a barrell (pun intended) until we can give up our dependence on oil. We need it, they have it.
Hey. They have kids to feed too, you know. (mocking Mike Tyson)
Argh. I love that they're sticking it to the wasteful American way of life, and hate it at the same time (for the obvious, pocketbook reason).
Ummm ... well ... I might agree with you Schuyler ... IF we had a capitalist system. The problem is that we're about as capitalist as the Soviets were communist. Which is to say ... not so much. We have a controlled market place. Hence the existence of our Federal Reserve System. We (our Congress ... not people, because we are not a democracy, we are a republic) decided back in the halycon days of the Robber Barons that unrestricted capitalism was not really so great for most people ... in fact, it was harmful to the great unwashed. Since they needed the great unwashed to provide the market place, they decided to protect them. So ... all of that is to say ... if we can protect the price of cotton, corn, and cars (not to mention sugar, steel, and coal ... do you really need me to go on??) ... I bet we can protect the price of gas ... unless it's not in the financial interests of our politicians to do so.
There are a lot of great books on this ... but among the best are the autobiographical The Valley of the Moon by Jack London, just about anything by John Steinbeck, but especially The Moon Is Down, and of course, the quintessential reader on the subject, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Yep ... they're all fiction ... but they are informed fiction, with a point to make and they make it well. So they are well worth the read.
And here's what really bugs me about it. The high price of gas is really just an inconvenience for me. It means I'll buy less quilting fabric, my kids will have a few fewer toys. And really ... to be honest ... that's probably a good thing. But what bugs me is this: The high price of fuel oil means that a lot of grandmas and grandpas are going to freeze to death this winter. Literally. This will kill them. Or make their lives very painful. Because while the price of fuel oil will go up, their Social Security check will not. So they will have to choose between heat or food. It will make the cost of getting to and from work out of reach to most people who are making minimum wage. So then what will they do? And this is to make sure that the profits of oil executives are maintained in the face of natural disasters heretofore unseen on our continent? When everyone else in the country is taking a hit to help those in need these fat cats expect us to take it in the wallet too? Yeah ... I have a problem with that. I think they need to suck some of it up too. I don't care if they have what we need ... the point is shared responsibility. They shared in the rewards ... now they can share in the responsibility too. It's all part of the package of this great "free" country we live in.
This is what I forgot to say yesterday. I hope that the oil companies keep making record profits because they will need the money in the near future. I gaurantee that it will be the oil companies that end up developing the technologies that free us from oil. What? You think they will just stand by and let their whole market disappear? Not gonna happen. So I say, make that money, but you damn well better step up and do something...
Post a Comment
<< Home