Why doesn't the media & even our own Democrats tell the truth about these obscene gas prices?

[mtnsnake]

Anyone with half a brain knows damn well that it's the same old same old. In order for Republicans to win the upcoming election, Bush and his cronies need to drop gasoline prices just at the right time, probably sometime around late Spring or early Summer and keep them dropping right through November. Then all the mindless fools will think life is good because gas has dropped by over a dollar per gallon or more. But wait a minute...to drop prices by over a dollar per gallon, first you have raise the price up there to obscene levels first, like what they've done in the past year. Then you kill two birds with one stone. Big Oil makes extra billions during the two years of the obscenely high prices, and then when they drop the price, they still make big money because all they've done is come back to a level where they should've been all along.

Then as soon as the election is over (usually a month to 2 months), the prices go crazy again. It's the same old pathetic cycle during Bush's 8 years, and nobody seems to mind or even talk about it. All you ever hear about anyone doing anything about these artifially fluctuated prices is a sentence or two in Congress and nothing ever gets done. It's obvious as day that Bush, OPEC, and US Big Oil are all in cahoots and all these obscene prices we're seeing is one big charade that's geared toward making sure they have enough room to drop prices of gas drastically, just in time for the elections.

I give Pelosi and Reid a big fat F when it comes to looking out for us, economically, as well as in all the other areas. If they tried, I didn't hear much about it.

[OwnedByFerrets]

1. Well, the repugs I know.....

{and living in red-state hell, I know a ton of them} vote for three things, sex, guns and religion. They don't pull the booth lever because their gas is higher or lower on that day. But, your point is a true one, just not that pertinent in a red state.

[bluedawg12]

28. Nothing outside of G-G-G seems to matter in red world

that'sa the irony of the red state phenom. they vote against their interest out of total self interest.

[bluedawg12]

29. Record profits last 3 years

graph of Exxon earnings went up as pump prices went up.
http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/c/5y/x/xom


ExxonMobil (XOM) reported the largest annual profit in U.S. corporate history Monday, a $36.1 billion jackpot that included a record-setting fourth quarter.
Exxon earned $10.7 billion, or $116 million every 24 hours, in 2005's final quarter, up 27% from the same period one year earlier.

Compounding matters, the company gave its outgoing CEO Lee Raymond a retirement package worth about $350 million around the same time.

According to a new earnings report, Dallas, Texas based Exxon Mobile made $40 billion in profits in 2007.

Why would this man want ethanol


Former CEO Lee Raymond left the company with some $400 million.

[shain from kane]

2. My observation is that gas and energy prices are destroying this economy. The people have a certain

level of fixed costs, and as a variable cost of gas increases, the people are unable to maintain an income level to cover both types. Remember, that most people are only one paycheck from the poorhouse. Therefore, the pressure is put on the fixed costs, including housing, which with the current market, is almost impossible to downgrade in a short time period. The pressure is put on the people to just buy gas for essential activity. The problem is that they did not realize the extent of the gas price increases and their continuation a few years ago, and continued to borrow funds to maintain their lifestyles, including purchases of gas. Of course, at that point, their credit card payment requirements reached another plateau, and the previously semi-variable costs became their new fixed costs for credit maintenance as it reached another level, that also can not be easily avoided.

How do I pay off my credit cards, when I'm using them to pay my gas and maintain my previously established lifestyle, which I can not easily change?

[lonestarnot]

3. "a certain level of fixed costs" bwwwwwwwwwwa hahahaha

:rofl:

[mtnsnake]

4. Why would you respond like a braindead imbecile to someone who posted such a good post?

Grow the fuck up.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mtnsnake]

7. awwww, did I touch a nerve? lmao

[lonestarnot]

8. I think it was the name calling.

Peace biatch. on edit: You avoided the list however.

[TheFarseer]

12. food, rent, utilities

I'm not sure what the joke is :shrug:

[lonestarnot]

17. Tell me what is fixed in the cost of food rent and utilities. No joke!

Food, you been to the store lately? Rent ha! and utilities, I see nothing fixed about any of those water, gas, electricity all up every fucking time I open an envelope with a bill in it and I don't see an end in sight. Maybe we have a different definition of fixed?

[TheFarseer]

19. OK, I see what you're saying

I thought you might be one of those people that doesn't believe in cars, thinks you can grow all your own food, believes people can sew all their own clothes and on down the line. My mistake!

[shain from kane]

22. Here's some additional information. It was just an economic concept applied to every day life.

You are forced to manage your budget in this manner, whether you are aware of it, or not.

------------------------------


The short run is defined as the length of time (period) during which at least one of the firm’s inputs used in production is fixed and cannot be changed in a short period of time.

Inputs such as the size of a factory (“plant size”), the amount of equipment and the production capacity of machinery (capital) cannot be changed in the short run and are known as fixed inputs ( fixed factors). Inputs such as the number of workers (labor) can be changed in the short run and are known as variable inputs (variable factors).

The cost of providing fixed inputs (fixed factors) are called fixed costs. Fixed costs do not vary (change) with the level of output (production): they neither increase nor decrease when the firm changes the quantity of production. Fixed costs are often referred to as overheads and include such costs as rent on the factory, manager’s salaries, insurance payments, and fees for business licenses.

The cost of providing variable inputs (variable factors) are called variable costs. Variable costs are costs that change with the level of output. They tend to increase when the level of output increases and decrease when the level of output decreases.

In the short run, changes in output can only come from changes in the amounts of the variable factor. This means, to increase its output in the short run, the firm must use more variable factors (variable labor) with the same amount of the fixed factor (fixed capital).

---------------------------------------

My original posting was that certain costs for in a factory's as well as in an individual's budget are "fixed", and must be managed in a different manner than "variable" costs.

Of course, I did not mean that they would be "fixed" forever, or never vary. Different people operate at different levels, or plateaus. However, in the short run, they usually don't vary by a substantial margin.

In a factory, these costs continue whether the factory is operating or closed. Unfortunately, most people can not stop production at will, and mothball themselves, but must need a safety net, and a source of income, for even subsistent existence.

[lonestarnot]

23. Ahhh I see. I thought it was something like that. Econ 101/102

way long ago. Thanks for the lesson. :highfive:

[shain from kane]

10. Reducing it to this example, when I wake up in the morning, I know that I have to have a certain

level of income for mere existence. My fixed costs for mere existence are fixed for me. That is my plateau of daily operations. That is not to say that your fixed costs will never increase in dollars, but they are fixed from your standpoint in your world.

The definition that I used depends on economics terminology, which you will probably become acquainted in the coming recession.

[lonestarnot]

11. Well I say there are NO fixed costs period and that you may also learn this from the coming

depression.

[barb162]

26. If most people are one paycheck away from the poorhouse,

explain the number of SUVs, big guzzler cars and pickups on the road. Gas and energy prices aren't destroying the economy YET but in a few years I think a lot of people will be really hurting from the energy prices. But I do hear a lot of whining about how it costs the guzzler people to fill their tanks.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Gas prices are high largely because the dollar is low.

If you bought oil with gold, the price is pretty much the same as it always was.

[Two Americas]

27. great point

People blow right past this. "Prices are higher!" - sure, in dollars. The dollar is worth less, which means we are all experiencing reduced wages. Since most of us are trapped, and are paid in dollars, it represents a hidden way for the few to drain wealth out of the country and out of the hands of the people.

[Medusa]

9. It's not just gas prices

I went to the grocery store a couple of days ago. Only ONE item I brought was less than 2 dollars. And I'm talking about basics here, no filet mignon or alcholic beverages or anything like that-things like bread, milk, cereal, etc.

[TheFarseer]

13. food is getting expensive - yes

and it's mostly related to oil. It costs more to ship it. Ethanol is driving the price of grain higher which affects meat, eggs and milk, bread. Then if you want to say oil is helping to drive inflation in general, there's your triple whammy. (there's many factors but oil is one of them)

[cseper]

14. Get used to it.

Three dollar gas a gallon, is the norm now. Hey, Nader voters still believe there is no difference?

[JackRiddler]

15. You haven't even seen gas prices go up...

Most of the increase in recent years has been due to the decline in the dollar, with euro prices remaining relatively stable.

Now watch what happens to the dollar when the oil producers start pricing in euros. Worse, when we reach the year when global demand exceeds global production capacity.

Instead of complaining about gas prices, Americans should hit the street to demand railroads, real public transport, $200 billion in development of alternative energies, and a rollback of the biggest energy consumer on the planet: the military industrial complex and its wars.

[ReformedChris]

16. The Media loves getting paid to run Big Oil's Enviro-Propaganda ads

So they aren't going to upset the applecart that much. I want more from Congress, but even then there is only so much they can do with so many Repukes on Big Oil's side. I think people won't buy the lower price BS if it dips again, people know its a crock and expect it to fluctuate at peculiar times that benefit people politically.

[BuelahWitch]

18. Gas will probably go down in price about a month before the election

Just like it did in 2006.

[lonestarnot]

21. Nope. Not as long as big oil can still strangle. They will hang on until the last minute.

[WilyWondr]

20. Why isn't gasoline more?

The price of crude oil is normally closely related to the price of gasoline. However, for the past year the price of gasoline has not risen in correlation with the rise in the price of crude oil.

In June of 2005 the price of oil was about $50/barrel and the average price of gasoline in the US was about $2.10. The price of crude oil is now about $100/barrel and the price of gasoline in the US is about $3.00.

I am sure some of the difference is based on the price of processing the oil into gasoline, but when you look at the historical relationship between the price of oil and the price of gasoline; gasoline should be more expensive than it is.

The site http://www.gasbuddy.com has graphs that show it better than I can describe it and that is where I got the information in this post.

[Morning Dew]

30. I've wondered

why, when oil was 60 bucks a barrel, gas was about three dollars a gallon.

Now, with hundred dollar oil, gas is three bucks.

The oil companies insisted they weren't profit taking back then, I think they're liars.

[Rosemary2205]

24. Their profit margin is actually pretty low.

What worries me more than the price of oil is the use of food stuff for energy. As soon as Republicans decided to join the "energy independence" bandwagon I knew they were going to F up the food supply the way they did the stock market, then the lending business.

The truth is, the price of gasoline is only an issue because wages have not gone up for a very long time. More Americans are having more trouble making ends meet. If WAGES kept pace with the dollar value of everything, then prices would be a non issue.

[barb162]

25. Peak oil: these prices aren't obscene. Just wait. n/t