"Vital" is just another way of saying "really valuable."
You go ahead and try and make it through a day, week, month, or year without purchasing that which is required to either move people, goods, or services and see what happens. Everything would come to a standstill without petroleum, and the oil companies know this.
Yeah, that's what makes it so valuable.
They know that despite whatever artificially inflated price they come up with consumers will HAVE TO BUY fuel.
So why don't they charge 10 billion dollars a barrel? Why only $100?
The oil companies also are pretty savy in the artificial price hikes. They raise them to a point just shy of where consumers will begin to revolt, and then drop them a bit for a while.
How exactly would consumers "revolt" if they "HAVE TO BUY" fuel?
The oil companies also are pretty savy in the artificial price hikes. They raise them to a point just shy of where consumers will begin to revolt, and then drop them a bit for a while. Then, start the process all over again. They've been doing this since the late 1990's as they've factored into their profit margins that consumers will cry, but not do anything different as long as they engage in this practice at a slow pace. It's like placing a frog into a boiling pot of water versus putting a frog into a pot of cold water and slowly raising the temperature. The frog dropped into the boiling water will attempt to get out. The frog in the water that is slowly raised to a boil will do nothing and eventually be boiled to death.
Sorry, but that's a load of crap. We buy gasoline for $3 per gallon because the gallon of gasoline is worth more to us than the $3 in our pocket. As the price of oil rises, people gradually reduce their usage, through buying more fuel-efficient cars, using less electricity, traveling less, carpooling, etc. Also, as the price rises, oil companies start to have enough incentive to go get oil that's more expensive to extract.
It still amazes me how people who supposedly believe in freedom just go nuts when it comes to oil, as if oil is some kind of singularity. It's not.
Do you think this comment should have even been written? talk about a load.
No, we're paying more than $3.00 per gallon for fuel because that's the price at the pump. People have to work, have to drive their children to school, have to shop for groceries, have to make trips to the doctor's office. People no longer live within a short trip to these places, and are REQUIRED to purchase that which their vehicles need to run. The oil industry, and the refineries, and the people on Wall St. know this. I'd be willing to bet that people are cutting back on other things to some degree (some more than others) due to the price of fuel. This trend will continue, and the effect will be a free fall into a recession.