In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, gas prices have soared at many locations. In Katrina's path of ruins, prices have risen almost a dollar overnight! Posted on 09/01/2005 9:12:07 AM PDT by blueberry12
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, gas prices have soared at many locations. In Katrina's path of ruins, prices have risen almost a dollar overnight!
Recently in Atalnta, one gas station was asking 5.36 for a gallon of regular unleaded! Premium was selling for more than 6 dollars a gallon!!!
They did this, because GAS SHIPMENTS WERE DELAYED and a lot of people wanted gas. Had they sold a gallon for 2.70, they would have run out almost immediately. But because they raised the price, everyone who desperately needs gas will be able to buy a little.
However, people are furious over these prices in Atlanta, and chances are they are going to make a law that prohibits price gouging just like the law here in Florida which prohibits anyone from charging more than 10% during times of desperate need.
Before every major hurricane, long lines are standing at the gas stations, and soon, gas stations close as they run out of fuel one by one throughout the area. As soon as people spot a hurricane or tropical storm coming toward the Gulf of Mexico, they raid the gas stations. And some people who are late, can't get any gas.
I think the Atlanta gas station didn't do any wrong by raising the price; because as a result of higher prices, people did not raid the gas station, thus fuel was sold EXCLUSIVELY to those who needed it the most.
But unfortunately, this sort of logic is not common in America. All I hear from everyone is that this is cheating.
But I think it is not cheating at all. People should have the right to offer their properties and belongings for sale at ANY PRICE. And since we are talking about gas stations, their owners should be allowed to charge whatever amount they want to charge. If they want to charge 10 dollars for a gallon, then they should have the right to do it, because the fuel is their property.
But I have heard bad language and fury even in the radio. They said this gas station owner is cheating -- he is a thief, a crook, etc... Even some of my friends had bad comments. I just cannot understand these people.
They are not realizing that they are building the foundation for communism and tearing down capitalism by calling the gas station owner a theif.
How come a gas station owner has no right to sell his goods for whatever he wants to charge? This is insane.
I wouldn't care if a gas station decided to sell gas for $1000/gallon here in Pensacola. It wouldn't bother my at all. We would travel a mile and buy gas somewhere else! We would even travel 100 miles and buy gas in an another state if we had to. But who loses? Certainly not we. The only one who loses is the gas station that tries to sell gas way above the market value. They would have two options: Lower the price and charge the same what others charge, or keep the high price. If they hold on to the high price, they won't be able to sell the gas, and they will go out of business. So, they only hurt themselves by keeping the high price.
Higher gas prices which we call "price gouging" is really not a dirty business. It is a normal thing that happens in a free market. The advantage of higher prices is long-lasting supply. The disadvantage of price controls and prohibition of price gouging is empty gas stations.
We have felt the disadvantages of price controls first hand when Hurricane Dennis came to Pensacola. We did not buy gas soon enough, and both of our cars were empty when the hurricane hit. We had to make a business trip somewhere, and we had to postpone it, because we didn't have any gas. Back in those days, the price of gas was 2.31, and there were mile-long lines at the gas stations. None of the gas stations had gas in the city.
We wouldn't have been able to leave town even if we wanted to.
There is a category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean which is called Communism. The entire earth is covered with ruins, because of it. This storm never dies, and the news doesn't talk about it. We got used to it, I guess. But it's coming toward the US VERY SLOWLY but steadily.
Baiting is simply childish.......
I don't make claims, I do what I state.....
I certainly do not mix my political views with my business, it would be irresponsible, but the three business are in the following areas....
1. Telecommunications Consulting firm - annual sales $2.3M with 6 direct employees and two partners - a fairly small group
2. Telecommunication Company - last years sales $26M, closing 2Q 2005 $58M and growing, 135 employees, 12 investors
3. Gymnastics Facility $1.5M/annual, 11 employees.
Don't ask how the gymnastics facility got in the mix, that's a long story...
NeverGore
Believe it or not we have a Federal form of gov't. That is, everything is potentially under Federal control and every time somebody volunteers to raise prices in the manner known as gouging he increases the control of the Feds yet another notch by reaction. If everybody were well behaved there wouldn't be much need for FedGov except for emergencies like this, but unfortunately there are always people trying to game the system so FedGov just grows and grows by popular demand. You demand it, you got it. What else do you need today?
Unlikely; what's more likely is "dislocation", where some people who used to make lots of money, suddenly make much less. In my industry, a combination of outsourcing, declining Internet startups, and a glut of IT workers, could easily put me out of this field entirely. So I don't take your statement above as theoretical; in the worst case, I really could be driving a bus in five years. (I doubt it, but it's QUITE possible.)
Then again, I'm not expecting the government to force a bunch of IT workers out of their jobs to secure my future. Instead, I'm paying down debt as aggressively as I can, keeping my skills and resumé up to date, saving and living below my means. Already, my debt picture has improved to the point that I could take a 33% pay cut and survive without having to sell my house or live on cat food. I'd have to cut back in some ways, and wouldn't be able to replace my iPod when it dies, but my family will be OK.
The goal is to get down to where we're living on 40% of my income. We plan to reach that point by roughly 2010. If, by that time, I haven't already been forced out of this industry, I might very well take a voluntary 60% pay cut and go into teaching as a semi-retirement.
'course, if a disaster hits my plans could be disrupted. You might be relieved to know, though, that I don't consider myself entitled to loot your house or your tax bill if that should happen.
We're not discussing profit - we're discussing revenue.
Say, as a gas station owner, I make 10c in profit from every microwaveable burrito I sell and 1c in profit from every gallon of gas I sell.
However, I sell 100 gallons of gas for every microwaveable burrito. And the reason why people even buy my microwaveable burritos is because I sell gas - they wouldn't stop on the highway to get a greasy microwaveable burrito if they could just as easily stop at a Taco Bell for a better-tasting one.
Gas is my hook in order to bring people in for the higher-margin items.
However, I need to make enough in revenue from everything I sell in order to replenish my stock of gas to keep customers coming.
If I say, hey, I won't bother raising the price of gas - I'll just wait until I sell enough high-margin burritos to finance my next shipemnt of gas, well I'll be out of business.
I need that gas revenue to finance the next gas shipment and I need to dynamically adjust the price to smooth my revenue stream and enable me to seamlessly finance each new shipment.
Pres Bush just said, "Don't buy gas if you don't need it."
Interesting. So assuming your statements above are truthful, I note the conspicuous absense of a company grossing $100M. So assuming you're telling the truth, in other words, you've just confessed to lying. What a catch 22! If he's telling the truth, he's lying, and if he's lying, he's lying... so what does that leave?
But either way, you either have to prove that you own said businesses, or else you can't invoke your ownership as an argument. You can't eat your cake and have it too, I'm afraid.
Besides, none of this discussion matters anymore. We were all screwed by the EnvironMentalists (the last stronghold for Commonists) who haven't allowed ANY refineries to be built here for over 360 months!!!
Hahaahahahahaha....
I really liked the part of the helicopter lifting the truck over impassable parts of the road......that was precious.....
With business planning like that, no-one would open any business, the risk will always overcome the rewards....
NeverGore
I wonder how many free traitors call it that?
Funny to think that free traders might want to interfere with the free market setting the price a gas station might ask for gas . . .
Yet telling the poor slobs losing their jobs to free trade globalization to stop complaining and suck it up.
Thanks for this information. Now, if you don't mind, how has a national disaster effected your supply in any of those businesses and what were the effects on your companies and your customers?
Ridiculous, isn't it? That raises the same calculation problem that socialism does: how the crap am I supposed to define "need"? I need to go to work--does that mean I need to use the gas? Or am I obligated to carpool? Is it sufficient to carpool with one other person? Or should I always ride with five others? Is the gas shortage sufficient for me to ride my bike to work? It'll take me about 2.5 hours each way, but I can do it if I must--must I? How do I know?
I'll tell you how I know: at $2.79 a gallon, I'll drive to work. At $5 a gallon, I'll start ride-sharing. At about $10 a gallon, I'll make sure I have a full carpool. At $35 a gallon, I'll give up and ride my bike. I make the decision based on whether I value four hours of commute time more than the cost of the gas or not. It isn't "selfish" of me to drive to work; I do "need" to do that. The question is, how the heck am I supposed to tell whether my "need" is serious enough to justify the use of the fuel?
These fools have never heard of a little thing called equilibrium.
don't go there right now on gas taxes. There might be a time for that, but not now. Cutting gas taxes and/or instituting price caps would be like, well throwing gas on a fire.
Don't analyze the Presidential slogan too closely. He didn't.
"With business planning like that, no-one would open any business, the risk will always overcome the rewards...."
Can you name one business that has opened in downtown New Orleans in the last couple of days?
Your understanding of math seems to be on par with your understanding of economics. ;-) (joking...)
I caught that too.
$3.05 a gallon just five minutes ago.
The price actually went up .16 in less than two minutes.
Note the second quarter closing of $58M on the Telecommunications company....with revenue booked so far this quarter, we are set to surpass $100M....Actually, my CFO thinks we may hit $108M since the sales teams are exceeding their goals....
No lies or overstatments...I'm not running ENRON...
Secondly, if I post the name of my company, my name, telephone numbers and address will be all over this site and others. This is not something I would want nor would you if you were in my position.......
When it was just my Consulting firm and the Gymnastics business I probably wouldn't have cared as much but now I have responsibilities back to investors etc.....
Besides, I secretly believe that "Wideawake" is my CFO....we frequently have arguments like this....
As a euphemism, the difference between what I do and the CFO does is that I build the barn for the horses, the CFO ensures that the barn doors are closed....
BTW, that's the last time I'll tolerate you calling me a liar....I believe you are secretly a Palestinian Muslim Arab trying to support the artificial raising of gas prices :^)
NeverGore
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