Price-gouging businesses cry ‘socialism’ after KY drivers flock to city-run gas station

[octoberlib]

Businesses in a small Kentucky town are crying “socialism” after the mayor got tired of constant price gouging and opened a city-owned gas station.

According to The Associated Press, the Somerset Fuel Center was a hit with consumers when it opened on Saturday. It served 75 customers in the first three hours, and has been averaging about 300 fill-ups per day ever since.

Mayor Eddie Girdler said that residents of Somerset, which is a tourist destination, had complained for years about high gas prices, which the town estimated were 20 to 30 cents higher per gallon than surrounding cities.


So for less the $75,000, the city was able to open the fueling center, with 10 pumps and no frills. The station doesn’t sell snacks or do repairs.While the mayor expected to break even on the operation, he said that the goal was to lower the overall price of gas in Somerset. And it seems to be working. Nearby stations had already cut prices by 10 cents.


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/24/price-gouging-businesses-cry-socialism-after-ky-drivers-flock-to-city-run-gas-station/

[Skink]

1. they could install electric charging stations

San Antonio is doing that on city land.

[toddwv]

10. No no no!

Then you're moving from socialism to anti-Christian abortion-loving homosexual accepting oil-hating communism!!

[zeemike]

13. You forgot late drinking.

Yes it is important.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

28. morning drinking...

Even worse.

[HubertHeaver]

69. I like morning drinking....

[MynameisBlarney]

77. You can't drink all day...

If you don't start in the morning.

[valerief]

55. Bwahahaha! My favorite ism! nt

[TexasTowelie]

2. Good news.

I posted an article about this in the Socialist Progressives group about a month ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10245054

[octoberlib]

7. Thanks for the link! Goes into more detail.

[snooper2]

3. here is the actual story "raw story" plagerized from

---


Kentucky town opens filling station to the public .

http://www.whas11.com/news/Kentucky-town-opens-filling-station-to-the-public-268045911.html

[CBGLuthier]

15. Uhhm, including attributions means it is not plagiarized.

According to The Associated Press, the Somerset Fuel Center was a hit with consumers when it opened on Saturday. It served 75 customers in the first three hours, and has been averaging about 300 fill-ups per day ever since.


They even made a link to the original article so where's the beef?

you got a dull ax or something?

[snooper2]

16. yeah, "raw story" is a joke...a pretend news outlet...an aggregator..a fake

somebody has to call them out LOL

might as well be me!

[Android3.14]

20. Good for you

Raw Story annoys the hell out of me with the way they essentially lift stories from other sources, and they especially annoy me when they pass on editorial commentary as news.

[Bandit]

40. Except you made a false accusation, they did not plagiarize

so your other accusations don't carry much weight.

[snooper2]

43. sure they do...they can sue me LOL...They are a pretend news outlet lifting others work

But, but, they provided a link!

blah blah-

I wonder if the "raw story" dude hopes he can grow up some day and work for VICE

[Mnemosyne]

65. It was run by a DUer. She gave a damn. nt

[Bartlet]

52. But obviously

not a plagiarizer huh.

[eridani]

33. Definition of a footnote

The difference between plagiarism and research. Could apply as easily to cited URLs.

[stupidicus]

56. well, they spell better than you do

as well

The Raw Story has been reported and featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, LA Weekly, the New York Post, the Toronto Star, The Hill, Rolling Stone, The Advocate, Roll Call, Hustler,[1] and Mother Jones.[2] Boasting an average 2.5 million readers per month (2013),[3] the site is described by Newsweek as, "Muck, raked: If you're looking for alleged GOP malfeasance, the folks at rawstory.com are frequently scooping the mainstream media."[4] It was referred to as a "liberal blog" by Howard Kurtz in 2005.[5]

On August 4, 2008 the Online News Association announced that RawStory.com was a finalist in the 2008 Online Journalism awards in the "Liberal, Small Site" category[6] for the story "The permanent Republican majority",[7] about improper partisan influence in the prosecution of former Governor Don Siegelman of Alabama.

The Raw Story's original reporting has also been referenced by MSNBC's Ed Schultz and Lawrence O'Donnell,[8] The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Real Time with Bill Maher and Countdown with Keith Olbermann. It was also referenced in 2011 by The Telegraph newspaper, as being the news website that first revealed a contract had been awarded to Ntrepid by United States Central Command as part of 'Operation Earnest Voice' intended to deploy operatives to create fake online personas abroad.[9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raw_Story

your critique, while devastating, likely won't compel them to close up shop any time soon

[7962]

81. Dont understand why so many here go off the deep end over WHERE a story comes from!

Is the story correct? Is it backed up with facts and other links? If it TRUE, it doesnt MATTER where it came from. Jeeze.

[rhett o rick]

82. It's about power. The power to decide what other people can read and/or discuss.

A while ago an OP was hidden because it's source was considered a right wing website. I wasn't familiar with the site but the OP article from the site was clearly anti-right wing. But the jury hid it because of it's source. And a certain lock&hider was strutting around like it was a victory for the good guys. I think it takes less brain cells to just lock/hide based on source and not bother one's head trying to figure out if the article is true or lies.

[7962]

83. You're right. The other day, the story about the Dr. with a gun stopping the shooting was locked;

simply because the "locker" didnt want the gun nuts to salivate over it. Didnt matter if the story was accurate or not.

[rhett o rick]

84. That lock is a particularly touchy subject. nm

[stupidicus]

89. indeed

I've been through this with about as many lefties as I have righties.

It's always a cop out or sloth imo. There's nothing wrong with being skeptical of the source, but to just summarily dismiss the facts as alleged is simply a sign of weakness of some sort.

If it's a rightwing source as often as not if they're lying it will be by way of omission.

[Brickbat]

73. It drives me up the wall when people post Raw Story links.

Why read spun stories when you can read the actual reporting? What's "raw" about aggregating?

[Ed Suspicious]

87. Sometimes framing matters. Contextualization provided by Raw Story is not always unwelcome.

[Owl]

4. Excellent! Now add charging stations!

[leftyohiolib]

5. hopefully others will catch on

[kelliekat44]

6. Good news...now more municipalities ought to do the same thing. It's called democracy! Free to buy

gasoline wherever.

[SoCalDem]

49. Young folks often do not know that this sort of thing used to be the norm

Towns used to OWN the water/gas/electricity/ delivery facilities. They built them, maintained them (through TAXES). paid people who worked there (and provided pensions).

We all used MaBell phones (for about $9 a month rent)

Localities owned cable tv systems as well (paid about $10 a month)

Our TAXES supported those vital systems, but then the 80's showed up, and taxes started getting sliced & diced and as government help to states dried up, the states could no longer help communities financially, so these entities started getting sold to the highest bidder (privatization)...and we all know how well that's working out..

[lunasun]

54. +1

[Dopers_Greed]

8. You know it's a good idea when...

Businesses complain something being "socialism"

[ballyhoo]

9. This excellent news.

[CanonRay]

11. I give it a week

before the Kentucky state legislature passes a bill forbidding municipalities from opening gas stations.

[packman]

24. Give it less than a week

before those other gas stations file a suit, something like constraint of trade or whatever.

[DemocraticWing]

67. Hopefully our Democratic House and Democratic Governor wouldn't do that.

Nobody likes the price gougers anywhere though, in fact it's one of those hot button issues that normal people on both sides of the asile talk about a lot. I would say gas prices are one of, if not the, largest sources of complaints from Kentuckians to our local officials. Any bill to protect the gas stations would be a political third rail.

[Sheepshank]

74. Easily solved

City could simply sell to a like minded operator, contractual agreements and all...could go on for evah.

[onehandle]

12. Businesses would die without American socialism.

Get your product off of my collective of people funded highways, dumbfucks.

[WillyT]

14. Huge K & R !!!

[B Calm]

17. We could do the same with healthcare too!

[BrotherIvan]

21. Shhhhh!

Insurance companies need profits too! They love capitalism, but they hate competition!

[BumRushDaShow]

18. This is what is claimed that competition is supposed to do

as opposed to encouraging high-end price-fixing like the gougers have adopted.

[Red State Rebel]

44. It is supposed to be illegal for businesses to conspire to drive up prices

but it is usually ignored. It sounds like this is a perfect example and good for them for solving the problem!

[BumRushDaShow]

45. Yup!

[Curmudgeoness]

19. It's called capitalism....competition

for a market share. You know, it keeps the prices lower to have competition. So, where is the socialism? Oh, I see, because it is the government competing.

[BrotherIvan]

22. Because the city run store breaks even

And doesn't pay their employees slave wages and gouge the customers in illegal price fixing to make obscene profits it's Soshulism!!!!!!!

[Curmudgeoness]

23. Oh, got it. That makes sense.

[benld74]

25. Key words in story - tourist destination -

gouge the tourists, and the locals are gouged also

[Stuart G]

26. Here is the guts of the issue from the AP story.

George Wilson, the town's economic development business coordinator, said gas prices in Somerset are often 20 to 30 cents a gallon higher than in neighboring towns. Many lake visitors fuel up elsewhere, costing Somerset millions of dollars in retail sales, Girdler said.

[Sherman A1]

27. Excellent!

Perhaps a bit more of this is in order across the country.

[blackspade]

29. I wish this would come to Louisville.

Gas here is 30-50 cents higher than the rest of the state.
It's apparently because of 'additives' But I think it's bullshit.
Southern cities like Charleston and Columbia have super cheap gas and they have smog just like us.

[jmowreader]

31. No, no, it is because of additives

They add fifty cents a gallon because they know it'd cost you more to drive 80 miles round-trip to Elizabethtown than to buy the shit locally.

[blackspade]

37. Isn't that the truth.

Or to Shelbyville, it's a little closer.

[jmowreader]

39. I was thinking, "well maybe the Pilot in Simpsonville"...

...but the prices are just as outrageous as Louisville, and you'd have to drive 50 miles r/t to enjoy them. Of course, if you DO drive to Simpsonville you can hit the Shelby County Flea Market while you're there, and that is kinda cool...

[blackspade]

41. True that.

The Shell at US52 was 35 cents cheaper two days ago though.....

[DemocraticWing]

68. My family did that about 15 years ago...

Although gas was cheap enough back then that it wasn't a major hassle to drive just about anywhere.

[cynzke]

85. The "additive".....

IS the bullshit!

[msongs]

30. if democrats didn't love and support privatization so much we could see more of this nt

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

47. Yep! If Democrats would stop supporting all kinds of RW BS we'd be so much better off!

The RW has done a great job of moving the center so far to that right that even Ronald Reagan would be primaried by a frothing-at-the-mouth teabagger candidate.

[dirtydickcheney]

32. There goes that dreaded, dreaded "Socialism".....

....saving the public money again and again.

[jmowreader]

34. Mayor Girdler really needs to fuck these price-gouging assholes up

Add five diesel pumps and a row of vending machines.

[Orsino]

35. Imagine nationalizing Big Oil...

...and saving all those subsidies and corporate profiteering.

[lark]

36. Whoohoo, this is what I call a true market remedy.

Of course the entitled oil companies will freak, how dare they take away their profits, that's all America is for anyway. Just ask anyone in the ?Repug party, they'll tell you.

I know this isn't needed, but in case anyone questions it -

[Roy Serohz]

38. Awwwwwww!

[Phlem]

42. This should be in every state.

[TheKentuckian]

46. I loves me some sanity in the Commonwealth, needs to spread far and wide.

Hell, I'd love to have KentuckGo's (or insert state run nonprofit name) all over.

[demigoddess]

48. YES

[Bartlet]

50. Isn't this the free market

That right wing assholes are always crying about?

[grahamhgreen]

58. Exactly! A truly free market always has a public option!

[bhikkhu]

90. And the right has brainwashed people into thinking that makes things more expensive

...because "government bureaucracies" can't possibly do anything right or operate as efficiently as for-profit. I imagine the clock is ticking on this one - they can't afford to let a counter-example exist.

[randys1]

51. When idiot rightwingers are shown why socializing energy saves them money, they will like it

[Spitfire of ATJ]

53. They oughta call it "Obamagas" and then watch all the right wingers fill up.

[blkmusclmachine]

57. Free markets! Just what the Republicans (claim to) love! Except when they DON'T!

Hypocrites.

[Cha]

59. Wow.. can Do Mayor.. mahalo octoberlib!

[americannightmare]

60. In the immortal words of Nelson Muntz...

[Skidmore]

61. Don't those goobers recognize the hand of the free market at play here?

Fillin' a niche in the market.

[nikto]

62. Practical American Social-eezum at work

[DonCoquixote]

63. Fuel up the wahhhhmubance

OK, we spent several thousand lives and billions defending oil company interest, let them soil the gulf, and they have the nerve to be angry?

[IronLionZion]

64. private businesses are so efficient but socialism is cheaper?

Maybe the socialist gas must be a lower quality or have long waits!

See what happens in Obama's economy!?!?!

[brewens]

66. Need some cameras on this to get cars with bagger bumper stickers goin' sohshulist!

Love it! Maybe a TV crew to interview some of them. "Maam, I couldn't help seeing the bumper stickers. I would expect you might be retired, are you on social security? How can you spend your socialist program income at a socialist gas station, saving you socialist money and still call yourself a teabagger?" LOL

[Enthusiast]

70. We could use more of

this kind of socialism.

[NaturalHigh]

71. A little socialism can go a long way.

No, I'm not a socialist at all, but vulture capitalism hasn't really paid off for most people.

[PatrickforO]

72. It's funny that every time anyone talks about doing something that will actually help people,

conservatives say it's (gasp) socialism (shudder).

I guess I'm still trying to figure out what's wrong with a socialist approach to some things. Like expanding Social Security, or providing Medicare for all Americans. I've never been able to figure that out.

Good for this mayor!

[KamaAina]

75. Well, they could always fuel this up. I doubt it gets very good mileage.

[dembotoz]

76. price gouging in tourist areas is nothing new

we have a seasonal campsite in a tourist area.
generally a good idea to buy your stuff before you get into the town.
groceries, fast food, sit down rest. , gas, hardware, drug store stuff.
pretty much everything
My parents have had the spot for like 25 years now
has always been that way
will always be that way

[underthematrix]

78. This is how we, the American consumer can get

these price gouging mother phuckers to recognize WE are the JOB CREATORS!!

[mark67]

79. Color me cynical...

If this idea catches on at all big oil will come in and crush this...and they'll do it with some type of technicality...wait for it...

[area51]

80. Now why don't we do the same w/health insurance

Our fed govt. needs to start offering a public option. And for those people who don't want a public option, their private insurance rates will go down due to competition.

[father founding]

86. think about it

socialism is low wages for hazardous work and long hours.Remember the pictures of the russian workers in the fifties and sixties. That worker is us now.

[BuelahWitch]

88. This is a beautiful operation

Now repeat with internet, utilities, phone and healthcare! Hire locals to do the work, add jobs to the economy. Win/win all the way!