Yes, he was serious.
I should know better than to ask this because it simply provides an opportunity for more nutter conspiracy theory nonsense, but I’ll do it anyway:
Why do you think gas prices are up?
Good question. Normally, gas prices start increasing as summer vacations approach, and people start driving more.
We’ve seen a steady increase of about 75¢ in the price of gasoline that’s been going on since midwinter.
There ought to be some explanation that makes sense for such a steep price increase at an unseasonal time. It’s the apparent absence of one that gives one pause.
Ah the nutter conspiracy tact. Calling the people who question the training of the corporations as being in the interest in the public good should be called names. Those who accept the obvious contradictions of the exploitation of the world and the control of the populace are obviously much more in tune. Hope your training and control gives you peace now because the direction we are going in will result in a much different world. One that eventually the people who see the world as a cartoon of us right and good and everyone else as wrong and bad will allow the people in control to get even stronger. Sorry.as nut number one I see real trouble on the horizon. It could have been stopped and perhaps still can ,but too many do not even know what questions to ask. If we continue we are going to be in deep. Some of the neocons and Bushies are being revealed. They are your friendly neighborhood corporation front men. Apparently many can not yet make the connection.
Perhaps if you wrote in English we could make any connection you were trying to make.
If you look over the past few years, gas prices jump dramatically in the spring. It is related to summer driving season, but it’s not directly caused by supply-and-demand. Instead, the government mandates different blends of gasoline be sold during the summer months. As the weather warms, refineries must start producing this gas. They don’t have a large window to do so, and thus that restricts supply as the phase-over happens.
There are logical explanations for rising gas prices, if only people look for them. Instead, most people prefer to be lazy and just think a conspiracy is out there to arbitrarily raise and lower prices.
I was at the pump saturday morning-jyst as the owner bumped up the price (regular 87 octance0 an extra $0.12! yeah, i used to think the conspiracy folks were nuts…till you read that:
-IRAQ now is suspected of reserves approaching Saudi Arabia!
-Venezuela has new oilfield sdiscovered in the orinoco bely
-drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexicao are striking record finds of oil
-plus, the TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION is still limiting output of texas wells (to 505 of capacity)
yeah, there’s plenty of oil-and plent of greed!
Even if all these sources were producing all the oil you say, ralph, it would not affect gas price in the short-term. This oil takes a while to get to market, you know.
Believe a conspiracy if it makes you feel better, but here’s an explanation that has some actual facts behind it: http://reason.com/news/show/119300.html
February =/= spring.
In some places it is.
Regardless, the tendency of gas prices is to go up dramatically in the spring, go down somewhat after Memorial Day, and then go down in the autumn. In the wintter, depending on the severity, prices may stay relatively level or go up if it’s too cold.
The cycle isn’t really a mystery and it’s based on supply and demand as well as a reaction to government regulation. We can’t do much about supply and demand, since most people aren’t going to drive less. However, if you are really concerned about gas prices, start lobbying your federal legislators to get rid of the clean air requirements that drive up the price of gas. Then you can lobby your state legislators to lower the gas tax, which raises price about 20 to 30 cents a gallon.
And when the prices go down, demand will increase, and prices will rise, and we will have dirtier air, a bigger deficit, and expensive gas. The market doesn’t care what causes the price to rise; if the market will pay $3 or $4 for a gallon of gas, it will increase demand until it reaches the level that begins to hurt. We aren’t there yet.
You got a cite for that?
I couldn’t get historical data going back further than last year, except for one obsessive-compulsive’s personal log of what he paid for gas going back a couple of decades.
This year’s price increases started a month earlier than last year’s. So if this is all about refineries’ producing different mixes of gasoline in a fairly tight window prescribed by government regulations, that makes no sense.
And if we trust the obsessive-compulsive guy’s gas price log, the seasonal pattern’s there, but a hell of a lot blurrier than your description. Sometimes prices go up in March, and sometimes they wait until right around Memorial Day.
That’s what I’ve got. If you’ve got better data that backs you up, now would be a good time for it.
I’ve been providing this cite quite a few times on this thread: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/ftparea/wogirs/xls/pswrgvwnus.xls.
It’s the average price of gasoline in this nation going back to 1991. If you look at it, you’ll see that gas prices go up in February almost every year for the past few years (in 2003, they went up in late January).
It has gone up a dollar a gallon. That can not be accounted for by seasonal change. We now get oil from Iraq, which we own now. Plus we allow drilling anywhere the oil companies want.
It can be accounted for, and it has been. What cannot be accounted for is your seeming inability to open your eyes. Not everything can be laid at the feet of Big Business.
And truthfully, even if it can, so what? They’re not in business for your personal welfare. They’re in business to make a buck.
Just like they were at the turn of the last century when the monopolistic practices caused the Federal government to step in. Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
It certainly has not gone up that much where I live. If you live in an area that requires reformulated gasoline, then the government mandate accounts for a large portion of this.
I live in a rural area of Maryland that is not under such a government requirement. In the winter, when there is no government mandate on gasoline for urban areas, the gas prices around Baltimore are a few cents cheaper than here. Now, however, Baltimore’s prices are about thirty or forty cents higher. That difference is due solely to government meddling in the market.
It would be good to learn some history, then, since there was never a real monopoly in this area. Standard Oil was never a monopoly. It only had a 64% market share in 1907 and that was declining when the government brought its antitrust case against it. In fact, there were at least 137 competitors to Standard Oil when the antitrust case was brought against it.
A monopoly does not need to be 100 %. It needs to be powerful enough to control the market.
Er…?
And Standard Oil was never that powerful. They offered a good product at a good price that people wanted to buy. And, in return, they were punished by a government influenced by their competitors who were not as efficient as they.
The history of anti-“monopoly” prosecutions is one where one business tries to use the government to punish its rival who is doing a better job than they are doing. I’d think with your anti-business bent, you’d dislike businesses using the government to try and gain an advantage. Perhaps I’m wrong.
That is not correct. Having a single supplier is the definition of a monopoly. What you are thinking of is an oligopoly, which is not necessarily illegal as long as there is no collusion involved.