The evil one(s) will figure out some way to do it.
I’m convinced that this is all fixed anyway. Oil is not at it’s record high, and yet gas prices are way higher than ever.
If gas followed oil prices, oil should either be through the roof, or gas should be much cheaper.
That was a very popular argument in 2008 when gas prices went through the roof and consumers were in a tizzy about it. Another one I used to hear was :”I know the station is price gouging because I saw them change the price sign and there was no delivery truck there.” In fact once again Democrats are investigating those prices.
There are a number of things to consider before you accept a simple model like that:
1) Gasoline is not oil, it has to be refined and mixed lots of expensive additives like wasteful ethanol. A worst case example is Iran, they have a flood of oil but gasoline shortages, or 'not a drop to drink'.
2) Gasoline refinement and distribution is completely independent of oil prices. Before ethanol you could pipe gasoline, now it must be trucked long distances.
3) The gas stations will raise their prices to make the most money. That may or may not track their current cost of gasoline and it can include anticipation of future price increases if they are doing good enough business.
4) because of 1-3 any local shortages of gasoline can cause price jumps as happened when ethanol first was mandated, and happens typically before summer.
If a simple rule like the above was valid(gas price=oil price+), we could have a Soviet style centralized economy with Obama setting the prices of gas everyplace.
I appreciate you giving me the opening here :)