The price should be somewhere between $1.35 to 1.75 per gallon right now, due to the drop of crude oil.
The price where I live was $1.75 a few months back. Now it’s $2.25. During this time the cost of crude oil has actually droppped a few dollars per barrel.
If crude goes up a few dollars, the cost of gas spikes immediately.
We now know that when the cost of crude goes down, the cost of gas trails far behind, and now even climbs by $0.50 cents per gallon.
I have defended the quick increase in the cost, due to gas station owners having to be able to replace stock.
What I will not defend, it the consumer obviously getting screwed over the oil companies. IMO< what is taking place right now is the corporations trying to continue to show massive profits, so that their stock costs will remain constant.
The average Joe can’t catch a break. Obama may have lopped off some drilling leases, but the public is still getting the shaft.
Some of it is your taxes, for sure.
We are at 1.85 north of Detroit. The lowest we got was 1.75.
You said — “What I will not defend, it the consumer obviously getting screwed over the oil companies. IMO< what is taking place right now is the corporations trying to continue to show massive profits, so that their stock costs will remain constant.”
What I don’t get is why those companies shouldn’t make as much money as they can, no matter what prices they charge. If they can charge double or triple the amount (which they did for a while) and still get people to buy the gasoline, why shouldn’t they continue to do so, under the principle that the “company” is designed solely for “making money” and should not be hampered or fettered with anything to prevent it from making as much money as it can, under a “so-called” free enterprise system (as much as it might or might not be).
I thought the *sole aim* of a company was to make *as much money as possible* for its owners (and but maybe not necessarily for its workers, in many cases..., because they have the choice to work there or not, if they don’t want to work there...).
So, how can people complain about any company making a windfall amount of money doing what they are supposed to be doing? The only other alternative to them not making as much money as they possibly can — is to limit their ability to make as much money as possible by enacting laws and regulations that prevent it or else redistribute the money that they make. And that doesn’t seem to be a popular idea on Free Republic.
I would think that most people on Free Republic would be glad that these companies are making a windfall amount of money, because that fits precisely into the “program” that most people think here — that this is what a company is all about and not about being regulated on what they can or cannot do or in how much money they should be able to make. The idea is that people don’t have to buy from them if they don’t want to (and people can make “alternative products” if the price is so high — thereby “putting them out of business” if they try to make “too much money”...).
That’s the idea, anyway. So, why are people upset about them making so much money?
With so many people believing crap like that it's no wonder Obama got elected.
"We now know that when the cost of crude goes down, the cost of gas trails far behind..."
Reminds me of Twain's quote:
"It's not what you don't know that gets you in trouble, but it's what you do know that isn't so."