If you don't mind, I's like to borrow it for one of my stickers:
I'm leaving one on the gas pumps when I fill up.
Posted on 04/07/2008 4:34:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
Let’s face it, most average people do not have the intellectual capacity to really comptemplate the micro and macro-economic forces involved in the issue of the oil industry.
Moreover, the intellectual conservative concepts also tend to be tossed around more readily by those with advanced degrees rather than just high-school diplomas.
Conservative ideology is not about what is in it for me today, but rather what is best for my country and my family in the long-term.
Since most people are naturally me-oriented, the very fact that the poorest American states tend to vote for the more conservative party is due to a innate and gut-understanding that the short-term meism that the left can provide comes at a very high long-term price. That is what “is wrong with Kansas” to quote a book about the subject. It is also perhaps what makes America fundamentally different from other rich industrial countries.
When confronted, however, with the profits of oil companies and high-prices at the pump, this process breaks down a bit. Why do the rich guys get richer while my life gets harder is the question that needs to be answered.
Frankly, I believe Americans would accept higher gas prices if it were couched as part of their contribution in the WOT. But contributing the the profits of Big Oil is something you will not explain away to an average American because macro-economic theory is not one of those things easily explained to someone’s gut.
That’s why I never call and say “Hi, Randi! I’m a progessive Democrat...”
I certainly don't have a problem with the oil companies making huge profits, but I do have a problem with the price of gas and so does our economy. It's a different ball game because without gas our economy is nonexistant. It is the catalyst for everything.
You can't have a US economy without gas! If people can't afford it to get back and forth to work then what do we do?
Let's say oil companies operate on a 7% profit margin after tons of expenses. Is that a reasonable profit? Knowing that the venture capital needed, all the risks involved, research and development, profits to millions of share holders in stock funds, refining and elaborate transportation costs before it gets to your local gas pump, is 7% a reasonable profit per gallon of gas?
This conservative says, yes!
On the other hand, my state and federal government grabs 34% of pure profit off each gallon of gas (diesel fuel a lot more) without lifting a finger and invests NOTHING!
Question should be: "Why does the government make excessive profits off the backs of consumers, workers and investors?
Capitalism works well when the business owners are moral and ethical. The petroleum executives are not. If I were the only wheel chair manufacturer and held all the patents so no one could compete, it doesn’t make it OK to charge $50,000 for wheel chairs because the customers have to have it and will pay what they must. We should maybe change the catch phrase from “Compassionate Conservative” to “Compassionate Capitalist”. Except for the fact that the oil barons have no shame.
I’m skeptical of every person who calls into a radio program describing themselves as “conservative”. If they talk like John, they are not.
Put the blame where it belongs. There’s plenty of oil in Alaska and other places, but the democrats don’t want us to drill because it’s “too messy for the environment”. The republicans should be making a BIG issue of this and put the blame where it belongs—the democrats who are beholden to the left wing nut jobs.
You think oil is a monopoly? Sorry, but here's the news: There are hundreds of companies drilling and supplying oil to the world.
I forget, was McCain against ANWR drilling? If so there is another issue he can’t use.
As long as the oil companies do have plenty of money, maybe they should run some TV ads explaining they are largely not responsible for the high prices. The ads during Rush’s show explaining that plenty of average stock holders make money when oil companies profit are pretty good. Not enough people know the truth though.
As far as high prices at the pump go, this will no longer be an outrage after next Jan 20 if the president has the right name. The media will see to that.
So would it be moral and ethical if it cost them $3 to pump, refine and deliver a gallon of gas to sell it to you for say $2?
“But,” he continued, “we’ve just gotta do something to reign in these excessive profits from the oil companies.”
He might be a Republican, but not a conservative. Or maybe he’s just a social conservative. A Huckabee Republican.
You’re not going to solve the energy crisis by monkeying with the free market system. The reason we have the energy crisis is precisely because the government has monkeyed with the free market system.
Oxymoron - there is no such thing anymore.
As far as oil goes it is simple. We invaded the low cost leader's country and drove the price up through the decline of the dollar and supply jitters caused by the burden of the war. We went from a 2% surplus to financing the war on the cuff in a very few years leaving the economy with no escape hatch. W will be known as that President who inherited a faltering economy,took the right steps and then wrecked it. The modern day Herbert Hoover.
It was when the Republicans were in power that the RINOs blocked drilling in ANWAR and off the coast of Florida.
The Democrats were just being Democrats. The Bush era will be marked as one of missed opportunities (oil, spending, immigration, etc.) that will probably never return.
Unless, as expected, Obama does a Carter and America gets its head on right again. But then we at least had a Reagan waiting in the wings. All we have now are RINOs.
If only $50,000 wheelchairs were available, something else would have been invented to take their place.
Nice work. Bookmarked to do the same when I get back to the States.
Try explaining to someone that the oil companies haven’t changed their profit by one percent and watch their heads explode.
After they calm down you explain to them that 10% profit at $100 barrel is the same percentage profit as 10% on oil at $20 a barrel. The 10% hasn’t changed, neither has the tax percentage on the gas at the pump price either.
You will get that “deer in the headlights” look and they will completely disregard you as nuts.
What is so difficult to understand that oil companies DO NOT set the price of a gallon of gas.... Now more pointedly who in the global economy benefits first with the sale of source point of oil.
Further how much does government from local to the federal profit off a gallon of gas? What exactly do governments do to earn this profit and do they fulfill their promise for what they claim that tax is suppose to do?
How about equating the 'oil' bubble, to the housing bubble wherein it was 'speculators' on all levels that ballooned housing cost to the point of popping. Look who controls the point sources of oil.... around this globe.... everybody is drilling except for our liberal Congress who have made 'oil' in the US their holy sights.
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