Oil Prices Soar

[Cactus]

wabrams:

No, I’d say it’s pretty accurate w/ the President’s connections to the oil industry and the huge profits of the oil companies in the 3rd Quarter.

As far as suspicious ties to the oil industry you ought to look into the dealings between the family of Al Gore with the Communist-sympathizing Occidental Petroleum (OXY). I don’t think Bush’s ties to the oil industry extend beyond the fact that he onced **worked **as an independent oilman.

 

[MikeWM]

2shelbys:

Come on Mike, you are not that naive. The government is the biggest black hole in history. Look at any “beneficial” program and you will find that on average less than 20¢ of every dollar spent (and often FAR less) actually gets to where it is needed. The rest just goes to feed the machine. When the same type of program is run in the private sector the overwhelming majority of the money gets to the right place.

At least if I detest what the government is doing I can vote against it at the next election. I can’t change the leadership or direction of a private company.

Mike

 

[2shelbys]

MikeWM:

At least if I detest what the government is doing I can vote against it at the next election. I can’t change the leadership or direction of a private company.

Mike

True, and that is how it should be. It is not your business (or mine, or the government’s) to control the operations of any private company as long as they operate within the law. At least not in this country. Maybe in China or in the former Soviet Union but not here. If they are price gouging then that is a crime and something can be done but selling oil at the current market value is not price gouging. Selling gas at a gas station in Louisana for $5.00 per gallon because you think people will be desperate enough to pay that much is. I just think it is silly that politicians of all people want to look into the matter of oil/gasoline prices when they are a major driving force behind those high prices.

 

[Al_Masetti]

Ya know… there is nothing to stop anyone from coming up with a cheaper energy source…

You all are pretty well read, pretty sharp people. Come up with cheaper energy and you can not only serve all of mankind, save everyone a lot of money, cause the price of oil and gas to plummet, cut off the middle east fanatics from their money supply, and get rich in the process.

How about it.

Get together.

Invest your own money.

Come up with a better energy source.

Sell it to the world.

 

[walstan]

2shelbys:

True, and that is how it should be. It is not your business (or mine, or the government’s) to control the operations of any private company as long as they operate within the law. At least not in this country. Maybe in China or in the former Soviet Union but not here. If they are price gouging then that is a crime and something can be done but selling oil at the current market value is not price gouging. Selling gas at a gas station in Louisana for $5.00 per gallon because you think people will be desperate enough to pay that much is. I just think it is silly that politicians of all people want to look into the matter of oil/gasoline prices when they are a major driving force behind those high prices.

This is the insular approach to business, it concentrates solely on the ME and what **I **can afford. There are many people in this world who live and die based on prices set in markets that cater to greed. It is not only the oil industry that has lost its “Social Conscience”, do you enjoy a bar of chocolate? 50% of the worlds chocolate beans are from the Ivory Coast and it has recently been shown that because many companies that use chocolate (Nestl’e in particular) have driven the price of beans down to maximize their own profits to such a degree that over 90% of the growing estates can only survive using SLAVE labour, and CHILD slave labour at that.

progress.org/archive/fold201.htm

What’s this to do with oil? A great deal, with the current costs of oil the farmers using such labour have an even greater disadvantage getting their products to market, hence MORE slave labour.

Some businesses seem to understand the dicotomy of earnings versus social issues, I have just heard that Bill Gates has given $150,000,000 to Smith Kline Beacham to help develop a vaccine for Malaria, wonderful and full marks to Gates but, once developed I wonder how much SKB will charge the third world for such drugs and what their profit levels will be on the back of millions dying from mosquito bites? Will they allow the production of cheap alternatives to be manufactured to be able to save these lives? or; as the HIV story so amply illustrates, will profit come before conscience?

I can’t remember who coined the phrase “The Unaceptable Face of Capitalism” but the more you look around the more you see of it.

 

[2shelbys]

walstan:

This is the insular approach to business, it concentrates solely on the ME and what **I **can afford. There are many people in this world who live and die based on prices set in markets that cater to greed. It is not only the oil industry that has lost its “Social Conscience”, do you enjoy a bar of chocolate? 50% of the worlds chocolate beans are from the Ivory Coast and it has recently been shown that because many companies that use chocolate (Nestl’e in particular) have driven the price of beans down to maximize their own profits to such a degree that over 90% of the growing estates can only survive using SLAVE labour, and CHILD slave labour at that.

progress.org/archive/fold201.htm.

I question the source because of their pretty obvious leftist slant as evdienced by headlines like :

“Should Teenagers Be Forced to notify their parents before they seek an abortion? When did that become the government’s business?”

“You Are Owed a lot of money by polluters, to compensate you for damage done to your atmosphere. Will you ever be paid?”

…I wonder how much SKB will charge the third world for such drugs and what their profit levels will be on the back of millions dying from mosquito bites? Will they allow the production of cheap alternatives to be manufactured to be able to save these lives? or; as the HIV story so amply illustrates, will profit come before conscience?

It is not that simple. If you look at the cost of getting any new drug through government approval (which is no guarantee of safety and is little more than feeding government greed) it is no surprise that they would not allow cheaper substitutes to be made. If your company spent years and millions if not billions of dollars to bring something to market would you grant permission for someone else to take your idea and the results of your efforts and produce a cheaper competing product that would guarantee you would not recap your investment? If so you would not be in business for very long.

I can’t remember who coined the phrase “The Unaceptable Face of Capitalism” but the more you look around the more you see of it.

And exactly which system do you prefer as having a “social conscience”? Communism? Dictatorship?

 

[Al_Masetti]

Al Masetti:

Ya know… there is nothing to stop anyone from coming up with a cheaper energy source…

You all are pretty well read, pretty sharp people. Come up with cheaper energy and you can not only serve all of mankind, save everyone a lot of money, cause the price of oil and gas to plummet, cut off the middle east fanatics from their money supply, and get rich in the process.

How about it.

Get together.

Invest your own money.

Come up with a better energy source.

Sell it to the world.

I was driving today and thought of a couple of responses to my own question:

1. Someone came up with a new flashlight design: you shake it and it lights – no need to buy batteries. And it uses an LED instead of a filament bulb – no need to replace a bulb. This is a radical new application of an old scientific principle.
2. For the most part, no one has figured out what Tesla did. He came up with all sorts of really neat electrical ideas and devices, but many of his advanced ideas were never commercialized.

Hint. Hint.