Quote from: porsche4786 on October 02, 2006, 08:35:42 AM

Quote from: LimaXray on October 02, 2006, 03:38:00 AM
uhhh... oil companies don't set the price of oil, the market does, and when the market wants to pay more for oil, obviously the oil companies are going to make more money because it still costs the same to pull the crap out of the ground.

supply and demand my friend, it's not the oil companies fault you all want your damn oil so badly and are willing to pay so much for it... this is just part of the free market system... if you don't like it, move to China or North Korea, I hear communism works great for them

Yes, but the oil companies are making more profit. Of course they will make more money, but they are making a lot more profit, $15 billion seems a bit greedy to me. They do not need to make that much profit.

They will make as much profit as the market yields. In this day and age that is $15 billion.

Mother Theresa they ain't

Quote from: MarkusN on October 02, 2006, 08:45:31 AM

Quote from: porsche4786 on October 02, 2006, 08:35:42 AM

Quote from: LimaXray on October 02, 2006, 03:38:00 AM
uhhh... oil companies don't set the price of oil, the market does, and when the market wants to pay more for oil, obviously the oil companies are going to make more money because it still costs the same to pull the crap out of the ground.

supply and demand my friend, it's not the oil companies fault you all want your damn oil so badly and are willing to pay so much for it... this is just part of the free market system... if you don't like it, move to China or North Korea, I hear communism works great for them

Yes, but the oil companies are making more profit. Of course they will make more money, but they are making a lot more profit, $15 billion seems a bit greedy to me. They do not need to make that much profit.

They will make as much profit as the market yields. In this day and age that is $15 billion.

Mother Theresa they ain't

And that, my friends, is what happens when you deregulate the energy market and let laissez faire run free on essential products and services.  Yet people want to deregulate the energy market.  I would just loooove for the electricity companies to be able to do what the oil companies have.

The oil companies will continue to make record profits year after year until the government steps in.

The complete opposite of the airlines...  Which will continue to lose record money year after year until the government steps in. 

Quote from: LimaXray on October 02, 2006, 03:38:00 AM
uhhh... oil companies don't set the price of oil, the market does, and when the market wants to pay more for oil, obviously the oil companies are going to make more money because it still costs the same to pull the crap out of the ground.

supply and demand my friend, it's not the oil companies fault you all want your damn oil so badly and are willing to pay so much for it... this is just part of the free market system... if you don't like it, move to China or North Korea, I hear communism works great for them

The "Supply and Demand" argument is horse crap on at least two levels. 

1) There is no supply problem at present.  The price is manipulated at a very high level (can you say monopoly?  - I  thought you could) by the multi-national oil corporations.  In the late 70's  there was a supply problem (artificially created, but a problem nonetheless).  There was not enough gas for people to buy what they wanted at any price.  We had long lines and local rationing.  Now there is no problem.  We can buy all we want, if we meet their price.

2) The market is made up of consumer and seller.  When the sellers are organized and the consumers aren't, the market isn't free anymore.

(SOAPBOX) We do not have free market capitalism.  We have government OF corporations, BY corporations, and FOR corporations.  Someday we will wish that we had asserted control over them when we still could.

If we truly had a free market, there would be no government business bailouts and corporate welfare.  We need a government that stands up to corporations and demands that they act ethically and legally and shuts them down when they do not.  Appropriate government regulation is a wonderful thing.  When I was a young man, airlines were regulated and profitable.  Ticket prices were based on the length of the trip.  Now their prices in many markets are based on how much they can charge because they have been granted monopolies (or near monopolies) in some markets.  So a one hour flight might be $400 or $69.  I'll take government regulation over that ANY DAY.(/SOAPBOX)

The gas shortages in the states in the 70's were not in any way artifitial, the united states peaked as an oil producing province in 1970-1971, not realising it right away, after a few years they were short on supply. As the graph I posted on the previous page would dictate, there indeed is, a supply situation at present.

screw government regulation.  until we have public regulation of the government, it's a bad idea.

Quote from: makenzie71 on October 02, 2006, 03:08:03 PM
screw government regulation.  until we have public regulation of the government, it's a bad idea.

+1

Quote from: makenzie71 on October 02, 2006, 03:08:03 PM
screw government regulation.  until we have public regulation of the government, it's a bad idea.

Until we vote anti-corporate, nothing will change.  Some of the Democrats and most of the Republicans are sold out to the corporate interest.  We can and should vote for change.

do something about it, then.

Quote from: makenzie71 on October 02, 2006, 03:40:09 PM
do something about it, then.

What do you recommend?  I'd start with killing off everyone who thinks Ayn Rand had great ideas, but they'd accuse me of being another Stalin or Mao...  You just can't have a decent revolution in this country these days....

Quote from: makenzie71 on October 02, 2006, 03:40:09 PM
do something about it, then.

I do, almost every day!  I educate people and I vote.  I only get one vote, though, damn it all!

Quit yer bitchin', Americans.  You don't even know when you've got it good.      Most of Europe is paying 6 dollars a gallon for gas.  That's what your Europhile tax & reg schemes will bring you and me the consumer.     

Quote from: Gisser on October 02, 2006, 09:48:23 PM
Quit yer bitchin', Americans.  You don't even know when you've got it good.      Most of Europe is paying 6 dollars a gallon for gas.  That's what your Europhile tax & reg schemes will bring you and me the consumer.     

it's called you have insane taxes, but your actual price of gas without the tax is less than ours.

heres a good read...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15081350/site/newsweek/

I can't believe this thread is still going 

Quote from: Stephen072774 on October 04, 2006, 01:03:55 PMheres a good read...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15081350/site/newsweek/

Here's a good one from about 2 years ago...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4287300/

haha that is an article about a dude that is trying to sell a book... reckon thats a fiction or non-fiction?

I guess that depends on what color your tie is...   

I thought he answered a lot of the common questions pretty well.   

But, I guess my tie is the wrong color.

I don't wear a tie at all...

Sensationalism at its finest... I'm sure the guys rich, too.

Everyone wears a tie...  There's red, blue, purple, white, red...  I could go on.

It's a euphemism.