Oil certificates are an excellent investment right now. Returns of 60% or better aren't uncommon.

Apologist? Hardly. I'm an investor who takes adavantage of any opportunity to maximize my success and profit.

Alright, in your world what is the maximum income that a single individual should be permitted to make?

I love this idea. I mean, the BEST way to achieve energy independence is to tax the hell out of profits made by American companies while barring any oil exploration in our own country, BRILLIANT. Next, let's raise the minimum wage to an uncompetitve global level, spend more on social programs that are demonstrably bankrupting the country, and restrict free trade to cause inflationary economics. IT'S GOT TO WORK!!!


/sarcasm

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"Bring me that horizon".

Hello? Birdzeye? Are you there?

Stumped you again. That's two days straight.

In yer pathetic dreams. I have a life, y'know, and the only thing that I don't know is how this "gotcha" type question has anything to do with what I've said before.

Must be my religious upbringing. I learned some values, like, it's not morally right to profit on the pain of others, but what would you know about that. And that is my answer. Take it or leave it.

So does anyone have anything to say about the stats that I posted, or what?

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

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.

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.

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"Bring me that horizon".

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.

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.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

There isn't a monopoly or trust within the oil industry. It's not even oligopolous if we take Russia, Norway, and Canada into account. Price speculation IS a part of the free market; free markets are characterized by two people seeking to maximize gain while minimizing expenditure, it's idea #1.


There exists a myriad of ways to cut costs to make gasoline more affordable. I cook all of my own food (it's cheaper and better for you), don't have any debt, and drive fuel-efficient vehicles. Cutting consumption is easy, you're just looking for reasons why it can't be done.

I went to high school a little over three miles from home and walked there almost everyday until I turned 16 and bought my first car (parents or brother would drive me on rainey or REALLY cold days), it's not hard. If you've got young'uns, get a more fuel efficient car than your $35k SUV, like a $5k used Civic or older Camry. The only people really economically HURT by rising gas prices are people up to their asses in debt, driving useless cars, and purposely acting irresponsibly. Gas is a commodity to be sold, and when consumption goes up, so does price. If you want the price to come down, tell your Congressman to allow for private drilling in ANWAR.

Nope, the oil industry is not oligopolous. No trust exists within the global market, only within a select few companies with whom the bulk of Americans do business. Don't like it? Buy from somebody else, the little hole in the wall station probably gets its gas from Canada like oh so many others.

They are the producers, and in a free market a combination of producer desire and consumer desire create market price. You're confusing what you WANT oil to cost with what it SHOULD cost, and I'm sorry but the days of getting everything we want for nothing are over. Prices increasing given increased demand for a resource is a NORMAL occurence in the free-market and will be resolved when Americans start discussing what CAN be done instead of sitting around whining about how unfair life can be.

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"Bring me that horizon".

The first person to warn against "merchants" joining together in "cartels" to reduce competition and drive prices upward was Adam Smith, the economist that originated "capitalism."

We absolutely do not have free market capitalism in America. We have government subsidies, tax loopholes, and lease free drilling on public lands. It isn't called capitalism, it is called government prostituting themselves out to billionaire corporations.