http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9837574/

Can anyone explain to me WTF is up with this? Why doesn't congress sack up and start asking some tough questions?

 

Bend over Mr. Consumer

 

It was like I was saying, the high oil prices help the oil industry, their extraction and processing costs are essentially fixed, so as prices rise so do their profits.

It is anything but a free market when it comes to petroleum, in fact that market is a tightly controlled, although shared, monopoly.

Consider how many BOD members from each oil company sit on the boards for other "competing" companies....

 

This really ticks me off!

Even if these companies can use wacky facts and say that prices at the pump aren't the major source of their profits, they could help consumers out by cutting prices. I'm not willing to do the math, but I'd be willing to bet they could drop the consumer price of gasoline by $2 per gallon and still make huge profits overall.

This sure is the age of greed.... and it has permeated our whole society. Do you know freaking roofers want $15k do re-roof an 1500 sq foot home these days??? Craptacular!!!

Make $$ while you can you greedy mf'ers, because your gonna take down the entire economy with that crap!

 

Though I agree it's greedy, and hate paying out of my *** at the pump...


[devils advocate]I'm making a ****-load of money off of those same companies stocks right now! [/devils advocate]

 

The buck pretty much stops at the head of these major oil companies. You can take all arguments on economics, Bush, the war, etc and wipe your *** with all of it. The proof is clearly in the amount of profits these companies are making. It's not just a decent year, it's the best profits in the history of business. Unreal.

We really need to either control all the oil by force (which won't happen) or find another means of readily available fuel and be able to use it much faster. It really has little to do with politics anymore and more to do with when i'll be paying $.98 again for a gallon whatever the **** will make my car go from point A to point B. I don’t care if my car runs on goat urine so long as it can get me up to the speed limit. This is really all I care about anymore. Of course, i'd much rather become far less dependent on Saudi oil.

 

The problem with the logic there is that it is Oil companies here that are recording record profits, not many other buisneses. Add to that that these profits are coming at the expense of the average American and there is a problem.

As far as controling oil, there are a ton of factors we are going to have to deal with in the near future that is going to hamper getting back to $.98 again sadly. The biggest of these factors is China, who is beggining to eat up oil, and this will only get worse. Car sales (see graphs below) in China have been incredible, and are expected to only climb more. We as Americans are going to have to start to find alternatives to Oil, especally foriegn oil. I don't want to give up my petrol vehicle either, but we are going to have to face the fact that this era can't last too much longer. Wheather we start relying on ultra-high efficiancy Diesel, Hydorgen, Solar, Hybrid, whatever, we are going to have to change our ways.

One interesting thing I have been researching recently is bio-diesel. A few friends and I have been discussing investing in a bio-diesel refiner (small, fits in a garage easily) and then buying diesel cars. After doing the math, with three of us driving 12-15k miles per year, and assuming only 35mpg, it works out to (with equipment, and assuming free veggie oil) between $.55 and $.75 per gallon. After the first year the expenses go down even more.
-Jeff

 

That's what I'm talking about! Where does one buy that bio diesel refiner?

Looks like my next car is a Jetta TDI :banana:

 

I'll ask my friend tommorow night when I see him.

I test drove a Golf TDI a few days ago. Very, very tempting, and suprisingly quick. Plus, chipped it puts out 250ft/lbs of torque. I know I'll probably end up losing money if I sell for one, but somehow I'm still tempted. VW engineering is absolutely unbeatable, and doing my part to use less gas (or use resturants stuff that produces gas) feels good. Plus, it has heated seats, a sunroof, and those gauges are beautiful at night

 

I'd watch out for new VWs...they accounted for the 3 least reliable new cars last I heard (new beetle, golf, another I forgot)

 

Yeah I heard about that, but my family has had newer VW's without a hitch, same with some of my friends. I think the biggest problems are with the 1.8t motors which though they are way fun to drive, break a lot.

 

Si Si Si... something must get lost in the translation between German and mexican spanish... they are still hecho in mexico, right?