An energyDigger Editorial By: Bert Sloan
Saturday, September 03, 2011
OK I'm gonna break it down one more time for everybody about GAS (gasoline) prices.
The "billions" of dollars of profit made by the "oil companies" is split up between millions of stockholders. I know because I am one. The return is modest and the profit margins are less than shoes, textiles, video games and many other items sold today. So listen up! You do NOT have the "right" to buy gasoline at any particular price. NO oil company has the obligation to "offer gas at a reasonable price" to the public. The oil companies are NOT monopolies "conspiring together to fix gas prices". (Oil company communications and marketing information is some of the most scrutinized information on the planet).
The following IS TRUE:
Oil companies (like every other company) have the right, duty and obligation to MAXIMIZE their company's profit on behalf of the shareholders BY CHARGING THE ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM THAT THE MARKET WILL BEAR FOR THEIR PRODUCTS. . . PERIOD. If the directors of ExxonMobil reduce the price of gas even a penny below the maximum they can squeeze out of the public. . .I will come together with other stockholders at the next stockholder's meeting and fire them.
Question: Who sets the price of gasoline?
Answer: You do!!
If the public quits buying gas; I absolutely guarantee that the price will come down. "But wait a minute" you say. "We must have gasoline or we can't get to work. . .everybody needs it."
I say SO WHAT? You must have clothes, shoes, food, shelter and a lot of other things to survive. Are we gonna control all of it? If we are, then welcome to communism. How's that worked out so far? Oh by the way that also means that the government can control what YOU sell. . .your labor. . . (governmnt controlled wages).
The free market, (your buying habits), supply and demand will set the price of gas.
If you want the price to come down, you can do the following:
Don't buy so much. (decrease demand) VOTE for those who will get the government out of the energy business. Drill HERE, drill NOW, and reduce government interference. (increase supply) Increase tax breaks and give additional incentives to oil companies to drill more. (increase supply) Fast track permits for 20 new refineries to be built with substantial tax breaks in the US within the next 10 years. (increase supply) Fast track permits for 20 new generation nuclear power plants to be built with extended tax breaks within the next 12 years to increase power generation and replace older less safe nuclear power plants. (decrease demand for oil in general) VOTE for those who will legislate land grants under eminent domain to PRIVATE companies to parallel our interstate highway system with UHSER (ultra high speed electric rail) lines to compete with airlines. (reduce demand, jet fuel and gas)
Don't expect me, an oil company stockholder, to subsidize your driving habits. By the way, my personal commute to work is 1,400 miles one way (that's right 2,800 miles round trip) every 28 days. That's 140 miles for every week day of the year. I'm not complaining.
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