Quote:
Originally Posted by Space_Coyote
Yeah, companies make money, so? "Price gouging" is a hyperbolic phrase used by nanny-staters to turn people against the free market, since "market capitalization" doesn't sound nearly as painful as "gouging". If you want my product insanely bad, I have a right to charge insane prices for it, that's called profitability and it's the cornerstone of sound business.
|
Monopolies and Trusts are not part of the free market since they don't involve competition. Niether is price speculation to drive up the cost and value.
Quote:
Oil companies don't owe us anything other than gasoline that burns well enough to move out cars, period. I don't care if Shell's profit margins are 50%, I'll just buy less gas and if enough people follow suit, Shell will lower prices. I always laugh when I see the soccer-mom part-time activists whining about gas prices as they drive their SUV's filled with two children. Give me a break.
Don't like it? Don't buy it.
|
Don't Buy it is not an option. Oil is a nesseity for the transportation of other needed items for basic survival. We need to have food shipped to us so we can eat. We need to be able to get to work, since work is not always close to where we live.
You can't pick your two kids up on a bike, or on public transportation, and if their school happens to be 3 miles from where you live, driving becomes a requirement (since truency is against the law). You can't just tell people to live closer, since there is no room closer.
Bottom line, we live in a world where oil is not an option, it is a requirement. Raising the price and holding what people require as a hostage unless they pay your demanded price, tagged with forming trusts to remove all competition, is price gouging. Whether or not you like it, "price gouging" is a valid and accurate term to describe what the oil companies are doing, that is increasing the price to greater than what an actual "free market" would have it be.