I've taken economics classes, and read up on it.
I also know that a lot of economics isn't science, it's opinion.
If you have a point to make about economics, make it.
Otherwise go back to school your own self.
That it has nothing to do with supply and demand, and everything to do with charging whatever the market will bear.
"Supply and demand" and "charging whatever the market will bear" are quite literally the exact same thing! Your statement that they somehow have nothing to do with each other was the most ridiculous thing I've read in quite awhile.
Actually, $3 a gallon is cheap, compared to what we are really paying for our oil. If we truly factored in the costs of the war in Iraq, and possibly Iran next, rather than throwing it off to the next generation, then we'd get a more complete economic picture. Does anyone else find it ironic to see a guy in a two-ton pickup on the news complaining about gas prices, even while he sports a "support our troops" bumper sticker?
You are right about one thing: a lot of what is passed off as "Economics" is nothing but laff-wing propaganda.
BUT, there really are economic laws and they exist quite apart from opinion, either yours or mine.
When you say things like "That it has nothing to do with supply and demand, and everything to do with charging whatever the market will bear," it makes a lot of us wince, because it implies that "what the market will bear" has nothing to do with "supply and demand" and that it is somehow immoral.
Not only that, we know you don't really believe it yourself.
Allow me offer an example: Maybe own something. Hopefully you do. Maybe you have a CD collection of your favorite artists, and maybe you paid an average of $10 each for them. Just say. And now, these used CDs will bring a standard $3 each at a nearby used CD store any day of the week.
If I come along and offer to buy all your used CDs for $1 each and you tell me that you would rather sell them (if at all) for the $3 you can get at the used CD store, should I complain that "supply and demand" has nothing to do with it and accuse you of charging "what the market will bear"?
Of course not. Why not? Because you are not a dummy. You know that after I buy the CDs from you at $1 each, I'll head right over to the same used CD store you know about, sell them for $3 each and pocket the profit. Why let me earn that money when you could keep it for yourself?
Same with gasoline. Anyone that sells gas for below "what the market will bear" would be plain dumb. Just as dumb as you would be to sell me your Cds for a dollar each when there is a ready market at $3. All that would happen is that the seller would be passing on the profit opportunity to the next trader in line. That just doesn't happen ordinarily, and it has nothing to do with greed or any other form of evil.
It has all to do with the function of prices as a mechanism of communication and allocation of scarce resources with alternative uses so that they may be used in a manner that maximizes their utility to the economy as a whole.
It's just that simple.