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.
“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.
If I was a radio talk show host and someone called up saying they were a conservative republican I would immediately be wary. Just by the fact that this guy wants to “stick it to the oil companies” should be the tipoff this guy is a liberal who can’t admit on the air he’s a liberal.
Liberals don’t want to discuss an issue based on the merrits. They want to decieve. I’ve called some local lib radio shows. I never tried to deceive them by saying I was a liberal but... I argued the conservative/libertarian viewpoint.
When I explain this to my economics students I simply ask who owns "big oil"? As large stock corporations the oil companies are "owned" by pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, state and local governments and even little old ladies in tennis shoes. Many of my older students admitted to having 401k plans that invested in oil stocks hence they are part of "big oil". Remember too that corporate profits are already taxed twice. First they are taxed with a Federal corporate income tax at about 35% and then when dividends are distributed to stockholders we in turn pay taxes on our capital gains.
I want to ‘reign in’ profits too. . .I want to ‘reign in’ the profits that government officials are making off each gallon of gas.
If John McCain can call himself a “conservative,” any fool with socialist ideas has every right to do the same IMO.
Chances are that person wasn’t a Republican or a conservative at all. Liberals love to do that, pretend that they are conservative and then try to wheedle you on one of their pet issues.
I don’t want the government to do anything but fund alternative energy research with grants and remove the barriers to nuclear energy. However, the oil companies need a new PR guy. Because they are doing plenty to get communists elected. When the average person reads about refineries cutting production to maintain the high price of the monopoly product, their blood starts to boil. Oil is a monopoly with inelastic demand, not a “free market” situation.
....I'm really a liberal democrat shill.
In other words their words of "social justice" roust them from their cover of "I'm A Conservative Republican, But......"