If the gas companies made 123 billion last year why are prices still going up? This is our government watching out for it's people. What a shame. http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/2662255/
Paid $3.15/gal this afternoon at BJ's in Garner. Never thought I'd be excited about paying that much for gas . . .
kdc1970 is posting links to articles saying the recession is a myth. Maybe raising gas prices are a myth :mrgreen: What do you expect you have an Oil man as president. Do you really thing he is going to investigate himself and his oil cronies? At one point i was paying 50.00 twice a week to drive my s10 blazer. The blazer has an 18 gallon tank. I parked it and now drive a Mazda 626. When i first got it last year i was paying 32.00 to fill it up. The Mazda has a 14 gallon tank. The other day it cost me 45.00 to fill it up. And instead of filling it up every three days i have to fill it up every 4 days.
Told DH "AS SOON AS I PUT $50 WORTH OF GAS IN MY CAR, THE MAXIMA IS GONE" meanwhile his truck takes more than $100 to fil up $49.98 - 2 more cents and someone would have gotten an 01 (dirty) Nissan Maxima - nice car - lots of miles - but still a great car.
$71.20 to fill up my car. I have to use premium, but this is ridiculous. If recession is a myth.... I'm not even wasting my breath.
It may be a myth I fully believe the gas prices are so high because some people want their pockets fuller than they are. I think this high pricing is not as necessary as they want us to believe. They just want to get richer at everyone elses expense. The gov't sucks IMHO
It's such a joke that Congress today summoned those big oil executives to Capitol Hill to criticize them for making huge profit on oil while millions Americans suffered. Don't make me laugh Congressmen and women. these big executives are the people that contributed to your campaign, remember? At this price and the turbulence on the market the price will keep going up and up. Don't count on the government for help, you help yourself by driving less, trade in your big trucks for more fuel efficient cars. And remember, drive below 70 mph, you will save 30% of gas.
I am definitely not old enough to remember this but have seen it on the History channel. I do not want to live in a 'hooverville" or in this case a "Bushville". And that is exactly where he is sending most of us. I got my drivers license in 1975. That was between the two oil crisis'. When i first started buying gas it was 47 9/10 cents per gallon. When the second one hit in 1977 what i would do to get some money to get gas was to go to the local A&P and pick up a case or two of soda and a case or two of beer. Back then the drinking age was still 18. I would toss them in a cooler with ice and then go get gas. I would walk up and down the line selling soda for 50 cents and beer for 75 cents. DWI laws back then were very lean. Also you figure you are sitting in line for over an hour. This way by the time i got to the front of the line I had earned all my money back plus enough to buy two tanks of gas. By the time the second gas crisis was over gas was up over 65 cents a gallon. I also remember going to a shell station and buying 'gasahol' Today it would be called E15. 15%Ethanol and 85% gas. Does anyone believe that calling the oil company execs to capitol hill this week is really going to lower gas prices?
Ok peeps, I gave my OPINION in another thread.................which is that bad news breeds bad news and causes unnecessary hysteria, which in turn hurts the economy that much more. And that I don't belive we are necessarily in a "recession" , not that we aren't having some economic issues. Let's not put words in my mouth please. Our 2004 Dodge 4X4 w/Hemi has got less than 23,000 miles on it, mainly because it is prohibitively expensive to drive it on a daily basis. 8)
This whole argument shows the utter lack of understanding of basic economics. First, Exxon is in business to make a profit! I know that is a shock but it's true. The shareholders expect it and the company has a fiduciary obligation to make a profit. Retirees and others have money in mutual funds and need these companies to return on their investments. Second, there is a huge difference between gross profit and profit margin. The media is quick to throw gross profit figures at the public who is angry paying $3 per gallon. The true measure of a companies profitabilty is the profit margin. The average profit margin for the oil companies is approximately .10 on the dollar. Here's an example: Company A has 1,000,000 in sales and 800,000 in expenses. Profit is 200K or 20% margin. Next year they sell 2,000,000 and expenses are 1,600,000 leaving profit of 400K or 100% increase. The margin is still 20%. Gross profit figures in the news are there for no other reason than to **** you off. Funny, when a democrat was in the White House we never heard what Exxon made. Third, this whole congressional hearing is nothing more than grandstanding. Just what do you expect congress or any president to do about gas prices? Hmmmm???? Set them? How about milk prices, bread prices or anything else we think is too expensive. This isn't Cuba. You know who is gouging you? Uncle Sam and Uncle Mike. The tax on a gallon of gas is about .45 that's twice the profit margin of Exxon! I don't like spending $3 a gallon. I remember .50 gas, We have large reserves off our coasts and in Alaska. Congress kowtows to the environmentalists and we refuse to tap our own resources. we have no one to blame for this but ourselves. If we would insist on tapping these reserves we could help this situation.
Gas taxes certainly aren't helping. North Carolina Gas Tax = 0.25cpg inspection tax. 17.5 cpg flat rate plus a variable rate of 12.35 cpg wholesale price component Gasoline=48.6 (¢/g) Diesel=54.6 (¢/g) So as the price of crude goes up, NC is upping their tax on us. Let's see Easley help us on that one.
1. After Katrina, OPEC increased their production of crude oil. However, several refineries were destroyed. Therefore we couldn't refine the oil if we wanted to. If we had more plants, we could catch up. 2. Gas companies aren't building the refineries... nothing substantial since the mid 90's. If they did build, their margin of profit would decrease. Why should they put out $$$ to build, if they're still makin' the green? 3. A very large percentage of our oil has been sent overseas to fuel the war. So, less of what we have is accessible to John Q. Public. So, I've purchased a '89 Prelude that will hopefully be running within the next month. I can switch back to unleaded, get 35 mpg, and pay less than $30 to fill-up. Until this country starts treating the source versus symptoms of problems, this downward spiral will continue. We may not technically be in a recession, but if the current pattern continues we are all in for a world of hurt. Heck, we haven't even addressed wheat, dairy, or Dell.
George W. Bush received $2.36 million dollars in contributions from Big Oil and Gas in the 2004 election. Dick Cheney is the former CEO and major share holder of Halliburton Oil, one of the world's largest providers of goods and services to oil and gas institutions. How much help do you think we're going to get out of this white house? That's who they represent, not us. They couldn't care less how much we pay for gas. They're laughing all the way to the bank.
I agree. The share holders of the oil companies are the teachers unions, everyone out theres 401k / mutual funds. The oil companies profit margins are about 10%. Everyone needs to read up on economcis. They may have the highest profits dollar wise, but they also have the highest costs and revenues dollar wise. I don't like paying $3.15/gallon, but it is what it is. I have an idea lets all not but gas from exxon mobil tomorrow and gas will come down to $1/gallon.
