Sign Governors' petition to President Bush to lower gas prices!

by FlyingHighNow 99 Replies latest social current

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  upside/down

  Eh, perhaps. But be sure to let me know if you ever have a product you need produced. I'd LOVE to have a client who sees no problem with post-manufactured price increases

  It's all in the "contract". If you're in a commodity driven market and you sign a contract obligating you to a fixed price...You'd better damn well make sure your commodity's are SAFE...somehow. Or you'll be out of business at the first negative market fluctuation...or in theory you could become filthy rich too...

  I just built an almost $1 million dollar salon... during construction Katrina hit...the price and availability of cement went off the charts... our contractor had a problem... a BIG one... prices jumped and availability just wasn't there... We had to renegotiate in order to get what we needed when we needed...it happens.

  Under ordinary circumstances...I'da crucified him for trying to "jack" me. But armed with legitimate information he reasoned with me and I was convinced everything was kosher and I had to pay a little more... oh well.

  I'm just curious...do you ever buy stocks...? or bid on futures?

  Post manufactured price increases...don't take place on a whim...and must be validated. I mean even farmers...try and outsmart the market...they grow a crop at a relatively fixed price...then WAIT to sell...why? Isn't that unfair? They should just sell it for cost plus 10%... instead of being so damn greedy...

  Now...about the government printing more money...let's talk about that!

  u/d
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  ballistic

  I don't really want to get back in on the thread, but I noticed copper, gold and other metals are astronomically high at the moment. Can all the arguments for oil be applied to other commodities? When you need your house re-plumed like I am at the moment, can you ask them not to use so much copper pipe (which is about four times the price it was 2 years ago).
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  upside/down

  ...yes.

  u/d
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  ballistic

  lol, yes you can ask. But you could end up with all the radiators in one room!
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  upside/down

  Now...about the government printing more money...let's talk about that!

  No takers... I thought it was a brilliant idea...

  u/d
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  Madame Quixote

  I'll sign the petition, but I prefer the idea of everyone - (and I do mean everyone) - joining the boycott of Exxon and Mobil (largest suppliers) to force a price war. It would work. Share the idea with ten other people and have them share it with 10 more,and really stop buying from Exxon Mobil, and whammo! Before you know it, price wars, competition among the oil companies forced to lower their prices due to consumer demands/lack of it. . . much better idea than the 1-day boycott of the whole industry cuz we gotta use our cars, ya' know. The chain mail I got about it the other day claims the idea came from a retired Coca Cola executive. Seems like a pretty savvy idea to me. Pass it on. Why not? I think it's worth a try, so I'm doing just that.
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  Madame Quixote

  Danielp - It seems that you understand the entire problem here, but are justifying it as okay when you say that the problem is scarcity,"Whether that scarcity is imagined or real, the perception of scarcity will drive prices higher." Of course, we all know that, (even those of us who've only taken Intro to Econ).
  
  I think the whole point is that scarcity is not truly the issue, but that market manipulation (by the power elite) may be. Pretending that it's okay is reprehensible, especially if such manipulation is costing everyone else in many ways: not being able to care for one's family, get health insurance, go to the doctor, eat right.
  
  Losing out on necessities to pay for fuel to go to work to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, (and to send the middle class into poverty), is simply unacceptable, especially if this scarcity is created artificially by those wealthy and powerful elitists, pontificating about supply and demand from the Ivory Tower.
  
  That is the issue, I think. Note that all of the members of Bush's cabinet are multimillionaires, not people who can relate to middle or working class people, but people who benefit from soaring fuel costs and who suffer no consequences for it.
  
  You can't really have it both ways, as you suggest, contradicting yourself. In any event, it is unhealthy for human beings to think only of the "big picture" without looking at the loss of health and life that results from a top heavy economy as ours has become.
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  roybatty

  I'll sign the petition, but I prefer the idea of everyone - (and I do mean everyone) - joining the boycott of Exxon and Mobil (largest suppliers) to force a price war.

  I'm actually surprised someone hasn't organized this. Where's Ralph Nader when you need him?
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  funkyderek

  Madame Quixote:

  I'll sign the petition, but I prefer the idea of everyone - (and I do mean everyone) - joining the boycott of Exxon and Mobil (largest suppliers) to force a price war. It would work. Share the idea with ten other people and have them share it with 10 more,and really stop buying from Exxon Mobil, and whammo! Before you know it, price wars, competition among the oil companies forced to lower their prices due to consumer demands/lack of it. . . much better idea than the 1-day boycott of the whole industry cuz we gotta use our cars, ya' know. The chain mail I got about it the other day claims the idea came from a retired Coca Cola executive. Seems like a pretty savvy idea to me. Pass it on. Why not? I think it's worth a try, so I'm doing just that.

  Does it not strike you that this would have exactly the opposite effect to that intended? All the smaller suppliers of oil would find that demand for their product had shot up. To cope with the increased demand, they would have to increase their prices, face shortages, or more likely - in a blindingly obvious display of simple economics - purchase some of the extra oil that Exxon and Mobil have lying about. Here's an idea to lower the price of oil. Use less of it. Immediately, that will cut your overall expenditure on oil, and if everyone does it, demand will be reduced and the inexorable law of the free market will cause prices to fall. - Derek of the "walks to work and understands economics" class
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  RubaDub

  Although I drive quite a bit, I would actually like to see the price of gas go higher for a while.

  At least then, there will be a huge incentive to find and develop alternate sources of energy.

  On the other hand, if Bush had any form of balls, he would simply take the lead and mandate an increase in the CAFE standards for fuel mileage in autos. Perhaps an increase of 1 MPG or so per year over the next 20 years. But then, such bold action would take balls so I guess we can scrap such a radical idea.

  Rub a Dub