Let's complain about gas prices!

[Savaric]

Guh I wish I hadn't tossed out my sources when I finished that paper. I'll look for them. Actually Ari it takes quite a bit longer to start making your money back from buying a hybrid, something like 5-7 years. I don't think it's twice the mpg, but I do know for a fact that car manufacturers can make far more fuel efficient vehicles than they are putting out.

The tax break for people under a certain income bracket is news to me (I didn't know about it). I thought it was a subsidy.

But either way I'd love a hybrid just cause I think it's cool and I would feel better by... err, helping the environment (runs outside to hug a tree). Well I'm not a tree hugging environmentalist but I do feel this planet is heading for ruin.

What worries me about hybrids is its new technology status. Maybe not new but you know, getting it fixed might be some mechanics excuse to charge out the ass. And probably have to bring it to the dealer which is automatically gonna cost you... less you have a warranty.... Nevermind.

[Jyn]

This issue is pissing me off lately. Regardless of all that breakdown that has been posted of a gas company's cost/profit information, the fact is still that Exxon posted an $8.4 billion profit for this quarter. That's one fourth of a business year, people. Eight billion 400 million dollars. Hell, the $400 million alone makes me shit my pants, let alone that amount 21 times over.

I may be wrong here, but if they post an $8.4 billion profit, that is the money they get, right? That's after they pay taxes and wages and overhead, etc. Right? That's pure profit? If that's the case, then why the fuck can't they just lower the damn gas prices? $8.4 billion *profit* in 3 months?!

Everyone's complaining about Bush and his administration doing nothing to lower gas prices.... like it's his place to do anything about it, let alone his responsibility. It's not. It's the consumer's.

What sucks is that no one has been able to come up with an effective way to boycott something that is almost required in their every day lives. Sure, back in the day when England threw a Tea Tax on Colonial tea, a few people on the cargo ships tossed it all overboard. Tea was something that people can obviously make it through the day without and would do without until the tax was dropped.

Gasoline, however, isn't something that most people are willing to do without as long as they can financially handle it. I wouldn't be surprised if the gasoline budget in many households becomes as important as paying the mortgage. Even if a massive boycott was somehow successfully arranged, no public transportation system in the U.S. would be able to handle it. They have us by the balls and they know it.

To lower gas prices, all you have to do is get the guy in the big Exxon building to hit that button that lowers gas prices by $1.50/gallon. I very much doubt that would cause them to go out of business. Unforuntately, it may require threatening to blow the guy's head off with a shotgun to get him to do it.

[Dorain]

Originally posted by Savaric
The price of soda doesn't have an impact on the economy. You forget that when the price of gas goes up everything under the sun goes with it.

Huge no brainer bud. But even with the enormous increases, Americans are still paying less (or getting a better bargain) for energy than they were 25+ years ago. To the tune of 1$ for every 10-11$ earned to 1$ for every 16$ earned to pay for energy needs. Unlike 'Big Soda' the oil companies do not set the price of oil on the market. Easy math: if the cost of making a product to get to market costs you 1bil. your 10% profit earns you 100 mil., then your costs to get the same product doubles to 2 bil. common sense would tell you you've earned 200 mil.

Originally posted by Sebboe
...I'm curious if you know the actual profit margin for Coca-Cola. I found a lot of data but I'm having a hard time coming up with a profit margin number that I feel I've calculated accurately.

Net operating revenues were $5,226 million in the first quarter of 2006, compared to $5,206 million in the first quarter of 2005, an increase of $20 million. Absolutely disgusting.
Gross profit margin increased to 67.0 percent in the first quarter of 2006 from 65.1 percent in the first quarter of 2005.

[Aristotle]

I think all attempts to over-simplify this issue do nothing but result in erroneous conclusions. There are so many aspects to why we are getting raped at the pump right now.

1) No new oil refineries. We haven't built one in 30 years. Guess what, our gasoline needs have increased massively, not stayed the same. We need refineries. Environmentalists poop their drawers any time someone considers building one.

2) There are hundreds of different requirements for how oil is blended into gasoline. This needs to stop. There should be one standard for the entire country. This would make the product a lot more fungible, and would reduce the frequency of local shortages that cause price increases.

3) We need to kick Iran's ass. Everytime the tin pot dictator over there runs his mouth about wiping Israel off the map, or making nukes, the price of a barrel of oil skyrockets.

4) The Press needs to be more honest about its reporting on Iraq. Hey Media, I know you hate Dubya, but the job is done. His presidency is going to go down in history as average at best. Most people think he stinks. Mission Accomplished, ok? Now stop supressing good news and only reporting bad news. The continued emphasis on only the bad also causes the price of a barrel of oil to skyrocket on the markets.

5) We use too much gas. Period. Cars should be getting 50-100 mpg. We need to require automakers to produce cars that are this efficient.

6) We don't use alternative fuels. Why is it that Brazil is humiliating us by doing a better job at converting to alternative fuels? Pathetic.

7) Exxon and Mobil should never have been allowed to merge. The entire concept of antitrust law was basically created in the breakup of Standard Oil in the early 1900s. Now we are letting companies from that breakup re-merge? Idiotic. No matter what, less competition almost always results in higher prices.

8) We need to make use of our own oil resources. That means offshore drilling even when a local politician is worried about his "view" being spoiled (Ted Kennedy is one of those). When the rigs are built many miles offshore, nobody is going to see them anyway. The same goes for ANWR. There's nothing there. Lets use it. But lets not use ANWR unless we do some of the things above. I see no reason to waste our own oil reserves until we have newer, more efficient refineries, and cars getting 50-100+ mpg.

9) There probably IS some profiteering going on by the oil companies - or at least by the local gas stations. But is this a shock? With all the hysteria, with the increased demand, with the stable or declining supply, is this really a surprise? Of course sellers will try to up the price.

There are probably some other reasons as well, but those are some of the big ones. They all work together to cause the problem. Focusing in on just one cause (like the media and politicians love to do in their 15 second soundbites between commercials) and trying to heap all the blame on that one cause is not going to help resolve the overall problem.