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Old 13-06-2008, 17:23   #28
bullseyebarb
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Re: The Price Of Oil !

Quote:
Originally Posted by LancYorkYankee View Post
Just a bit of clarification. First off, the price of a gallon of gas in the US stands at $4 a gallon which is "only" about 2 pounds per gallon. It's just the most current thing Americans have chosen to whinge about.

Also, I believe the average American drives about 15,000 to 20,000 miles a year which is quite a big difference from most Englishmen right? Instead of any desire to cut back on miles driven, the huge size of vehicles desired (many for merely status symbols), all kinds of fancy doodads and high over-use of their airconditioning (IMO), the lefteze wish to "go after" the big bad oil companys.

IMO, it's all about supply and demand over here. If the average American cut back just a little, we'd see our prices go down quite a bit. But again, we whinge with the whoa is me mantra and try to blame anybody but ourselves.

Brian
My local gas station currently has gas for $3.79 per gallon. We haven't yet gone to $4. Our governor also signed off on some tax abatement recently. Every little bit helps.

Put me in the category of, "drill here, drill now, pay less." We have tremendous resources in the U.S......oil, natural gas, coal, shale. Unfortunately, we also have a Congress seemingly determined not to allow its citizens to utilize said resources. Talk about insanity. Yes, we do need to diversify - but this world still runs primarily on oil and we need to be pursuing that full tilt because it's going to be quite a long time before we can switch over to something else. Right now, about 95% of the world's oil is controlled by governments - most of whom are dictatorships. So we need to be as independent as possible.

As for oil company profits.....there's a difference between profit and profit margin. Their profit margin is around 8%. So even though the total profit rises due to current market prices, the profit margin stays the same. Lower than banks, insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, etc., And certainly lower than the government takes in taxes. I am against subsidies. None of the above mentioned entities need them. They are perfectly capable of competing in the free market. The IMD Business School in Switzerland has ranked the American economy as the world's most competitive for the 15th straight year.

This is a supply and demand issue. There has also been quite a lot of speculation in the market. The bubble will burst eventually.

Last edited by bullseyebarb; 13-06-2008 at 17:25.
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