Anyone can invest in these companies, therefore you'd be paying yourself every time you fill up. Sort of a commercial communism if you will.
So what's the 'effen problem? Oh, I get it, lefty reporter for lefty rag interviews non investing lefty with proper lefty $$40k import SUV and feels that, sniff sniff, it's...not ....fair.
Templet non news.
What the hell is Frist doing???????
"If there are those who abuse the free enterprise system to advantage themselves and their businesses at the expense of all Americans," he said, "they ought to be exposed, and they ought to be ashamed."
I've nver been a fan of Frist, but there was a time when I considered him a decent candidate--someone I could support given mediocre choices. Never again--populism of this sort is one of the worst possible signs.
And the "wannabe" penny ante capitalists here on FR will be along to insist it was "supply and demand" at work.
Unless they formed a cartel on a cornered market they didn't abuse anything. They made money supplying a product in a competitive environment - they had supply-side problems and - more importantly - demand remained inelastic. There was no gouging, just a high demand/supply ratio.
If America doesn't like Big Oil, it should open the gates to Small Oil: allow other players and more competition in, and stop all the environazi law-suits and legislation.
Odd that the pure profit, in return for zero productive input, that was made by state and federal governments on those sales is not noted.
Adam Smith said that a group of merchants could hardly have a chance meeting on the street without concocting a scheme to fleece the public. Price gouging/collusion is just a fact of human nature/business among a few players in an industry with a high cost of entrance. Supply/Demand equilibration is just one aspect of it. The market is what it is.
No new refineries in 30 years?
Limited oil exploration and drilling?
40+ different types of boutique fuels tying up refinery production?
So, perhaps, the way to get revenge on the oil companies is to do the following:
Build new refineries.
Expand oil exploration and drilling.
Nationalize the fuel standards and eliminate "boutique fuels."
Were they singing the praises of an entire industry which kept providing esential commodities despite doing so at a loss?
In a word, NO.
Most of the people here who gripe about "BIG" anything assume some monolithic evil is behind the controls bagging up the dough, their dough, and that they have made (somehow) no investments, placed no capital at risk, etc.
Yet these same people would not balk at selling their house for more than they paid for it--the more the better. No one carps at getting too BIG of a raise.
Well folks, oil companies do not print money. They earn it. They earn it by taking investment capital and converting it into infrastructure, producing oil wells, refineries, and distribution networks.
The SMALL oil company I have been doing geology for, has invested in just this neck of the woods, 120 million+ in drilling wells, running feeder pipelines, etc. in just the past year.
This with no guarantee that the price of oil will not collapse again (as it periodically does), or that people just like most of you, who thoroughly ignorant of the industry, will scream bloody blue murder because they almost had to pay as much for a gallon of gasoline as they do for milk, and maybe get the congress to TAX the oil companies (How that ADDITIONAL TAX translates to YOU PAYING LESS is beyond me!).
Maybe "BIG MILK" is next on the radar.
After all, all the caterwalling of the people who feel ripped off when someone else makes a return on their investment gets the CONgress to put a cap on how much profit an oil company can make, maybe a cap on how much you can make on your house or stock portfolio is next. You do not even have to replace diminishing reserves with new production, regardless of price. You do not have to fight the selfsame MSM to try to put in a refinery for the umpteenth time only to be stymied because years ago someone couldn't drive the effin boat!
NO, and now that the years of waiting and investment have begun to pay off with capital that can keep things going or expand the production of oil and petroleum products so an ungrateful consumer can get the same product cheaper, the selfsame consumers go on the attack like a bunch of spoiled children.
The same people who crow about bringing down Dan Rather are soooo willing to march in lockstep against the 'BIG' enemies of their wallet, the evil CAPITALISTIC OIL COMPAINES, who might want to show a profit for their investors.
As for the percentages, just for the entertainment of the innumerate, in 1980 the region I work in had 212 drilling rigs operating. In July 1986 there were two. That's right, two. When things picked up a mite toward the end of the year, one of the papers ran the headline "Oil Activity Doubles in the State". Number of rigs drilling? Four. Down 5300% from 1980. Doubled from the month before.
Don't be suckers and fall for the MSM BS.
The DNC dreamed of Ministry of Commercial Fairness shall equalize things even if it must nationalize our economy like Hillary Care planned for only 1/7th of our economy.
Inelasticity of demand and gross ignorance with political pandering is what's wrong. Ignorance and foolishness is dangerous.
"Forcing the oil companies to invest in new refineries" LOL, the leftie that wrote this is a bit confused about his own position.
The problem is that once a business gets so big or powerful, they have the ability to rig the game so that free enterprise is not really that.
That is why there were laws against restraint of free trade etc.
If the price of their raw material goes up then typically their profits should go down, at least for the short term. Instead they went way up.
No doubt they were gouging.
No problems with companies making profits but why is it that oil companies seem to be the only business that when threatened by natural or man made disasters to their commodity make enormous profits in the wake?
Why aren't they reinvesting some of their billions in new research like drug companies do? Why aren't they using those dollars to vigorously fight off the envirowhackos so they can build new refineries? Their pockets are obviously deeper with billions in profit, they should be able to squash the greenies like the stink bugs that they are.
I pay the price, but I don't like the effect the speculators have/had on the market. I'm a capitalist and believe in the freemarket system as well, just feel there are some areas of improvement that can be made to help keep the supply of gas even with demand, not short, not long. I'm all for keeping oil company profits at a reasonable rate and providing affordable fuel for the masses. And no, I'm not talking about price controls or forced production.
For all the true capitalists out there, spare me, I know about supply and demand, yadda yadda, etc, etc. I'm just posting some questions for thought.
Cheers!
That would be an impressive statement if not for the fact you, Chucky Schumer and the rest of the Senate are doing nothing against those businesses who hire illegal aliens "at the expense of all Americans." Aren't they abusing the free enterprise system as well? This sounds like nothing but political posturing coming from both parties.
Exxon Mobil has a resposibility as a publicly traded
company to make as much profit as they can for their
shareholders. It seems to me they did a pretty good job of
that. No one seems to feel too sorry for the oil companies
when they pay out the wazoo for environmental compliance
and for litigating suits from the green whackjob
organizations.
Don't like high gas prices? Quit whining and buy a
bike.
If anyone would like the petroleum industry to keep developing and discovering more oil and natural gas, they should let the petroleum industry keep its profit and let the profit be reinvested in development and discovery, which is what the petroleum companies do along with research and development of alternative energy such as solar cells. Petroleum companies are the major manufacturer of solar cells. Taking the profits to give away to something other than petroleum discovery and development would result in less development and discovery, a bad idea when demand for development and discovery is rapidly increasing world-wide.