Gas Prices are obscene

[GwynnInTheHall]

It's interesting to me that when presented with a graph, showing how inflation-adjusted retail gas prices have consistently FALLEN for nearly 80+ yrs, your response is a one-liner decrying how much those evil oil companies are ****ing you.

The world's largest oil company (Exxon Mobil) had a 6.2% net profit margin in 2009. In 2010, it was 8.6%.

For comparison's sake- Apple's 2010 profit margin? 23.8%. And (perhaps) nearer and dearer to your heart... Qualcomm's 2010 profit margin- 35.0% Maybe if there was an Exxon Mobil stadium somewhere in San Diego you'd be less harsh??

And I'll spare you and others the time- yes I understand the oil industry is different from the software industry, which is different from the chip industry- different capital requirements, different risk/reward levels, different business models. I understand all that. I'm not saying that Exxon making 6% per dollar is inherently right or wrong, any more than Qualcomm making 35% on your dollar is right/wrong. And vice versa.

My only point here is that I always find it ironic/amusing that millions of your ilk will scream at evil Exxon for making their 6 cents on your dollar- while Apple can take 4 times as much of your hard-earned dollar, and somehow they're the "good guys." Where's the outrage for "greedy, evil" Apple lol?

And if you're concerned about getting ****ed at the pump, why don't we look at the real reason.... Uncle Sam. Let's avoid a dissertation on upstream vs downstream profits of the oil industry, simplify things and say that if Exxon gets 6% of each $2 gal of gas in 2009, they made $0.12 a gallon. If they get 8% of the current $3.70/gal, they get $0.29. Here in CA, $0.65 a gallon goes to state/federal taxes. So in 2009, the government took 5 times more than "evil, greedy" Exxon per gallon- so I think we're in agreement that we're being ****ed and the pump, but I think we disagree on who is doing the brunt of the ****ing!

Let's start with-- I want a world where there is NO oil energies used. All Green. Oil companies ruin the environment starting with emissions and continuing on to oil spills. I also think I lumped in the Oil subsidies and speculators, though not the oil industries themselves, contributors to the prices we pay to help destroy the eco-system. As you know, I'm pretty anti corporations period. Yes, even Qualcomm.

BTW, where do those taxes they Govt takes get spent? I have no idea, but if you do maybe you can share?

My posts are all linked in thought so the ****ing was an extension of those I'd posted previously.

[Judge Jude]

Ladies and gentlemen, your elected representatives, pwned again by factcheck.org:

Democrats and Republicans disagree on energy policy, but this they share: Both shade the facts on the complex issue for political advantage.

• Republicans say repealing oil industry tax breaks will drive up costs at the pump. However, nonpartisan congressional analysts and industry experts say higher taxes would have little or no effect on gasoline prices.

• Senate Democratic leaders asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate oil refiners for limiting supply "to keep prices artificially high." But the FTC says the "vast majority" of past investigations found "market factors," not collusion, to be the cause of price spikes.

• President Barack Obama in a weekly address said policies already adopted by the administration "could save families as much as $3,000 at the pump." Maybe so. But that's an administration estimate of cumulative net savings over six years for somebody buying a new car in 2016.

• Sen. Rand Paul claimed that oil companies earn only 7 cents on a gallon of gasoline. Not true. That figure does not include profit from producing and selling crude oil, so it grossly underestimates the amount companies earn on high gasoline prices. One oil analyst calls the figure "disingenuous."

for the details...

http://factcheck.org/2011/05/playing-politics-with-gasoline-prices/

[onejayhawk]

The wheel turns. I just saw gas under $3.50 again.

J

[Gregg]

The wheel turns. I just saw gas under $3.50 again.

J

Ours came down to $3.99 for a day or two and now it is $4.18!

[fuhrdog]

Just filled up this morning 3.69 for ethanol blend, 3.79 for unleaded

[Moonlight J]

$3.59 this morning at my favorite station. That's down .04 from Wednesday.

[davidgrey]

This is what they do. Now we are starting to think that $3.59 is a heck of a deal. When the dust all settles, I can see us paying $3.25 a gallon and thinking about what a good deal we are getting, when we were under $3.00 when this mess all started. Hopefully I am wrong and we get back down below $3.00 again.

[SeaDogStat]

This is what they do. Now we are starting to think that $3.59 is a heck of a deal. When the dust all settles, I can see us paying $3.25 a gallon and thinking about what a good deal we are getting, when we were under $3.00 when this mess all started. Hopefully I am wrong and we get back down below $3.00 again.

+1

Totally agree , David...

[ironfist]

$3.50 is actually an excellent deal, considering what the rest of the world has been paying for years and years. I'm really only concerned with rising gas costs' effects on industry. I mean, if you don't like how much gas costs, well.....walk or take a bus or ride your bike or carpool or any number of alternatives.

not everyone has the luxury of mass transit. For those who don't live in cities, there aren't many options. There is no bus or train that will take me to work and biking is probably not realistic (I am thinking of exploring this option for myself though). I'm lucky enough that I live close to where I work, but for many of those living in the burbs their only real way to get to and from the office is by car. If you can find someone that lives near you that works at the office, maybe you can carpool, but that's not often an option either.

[TranaGreg]

not everyone has the luxury of mass transit. For those who don't live in cities, there aren't many options. There is no bus or train that will take me to work and biking is probably not realistic (I am thinking of exploring this option for myself though). I'm lucky enough that I live close to where I work, but for many of those living in the burbs their only real way to get to and from the office is by car. If you can find someone that lives near you that works at the office, maybe you can carpool, but that's not often an option either.

Leads to an interesting question ... at a macro level at what point do enough people change their lifestyles that it starts to make a significant difference?

Over the past couple of years I took on an assignment where I was commuting 2 hours per day by car with the occassional 3 hour commute due to traffic; when this morphed to a regular 2.5 hours then 3 hours I worked out a change to another assignment where I can take the subway - I got lucky that something was available, but if it wasn't I would have started looking for a job closer to home.

I suspect something similar is already underway driven by gas prices; it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[ironfist]

It's interesting because the housing costs are very high close to where the jobs are and where the housing is low, there are no jobs. So if you want to live in an affordable home, you'd have to commute. The tradeoff is worth something to everyone - gas prices, vehicle maintenance, time spent - so there are sacrifices to be made. If things play out as TranaGreg seems to imply, will we lose the freedom to live in the setting we want? Will those who want to live in suburban or rural areas have to find other careers or will they be forced to move into an urban setting?

I think the answer will, hopefully, be a rise in work-at-home type jobs. I bet for a good percentage of us that work in offices, there is probably very little that we do in the office that we can't do from a computer at home. Companies can save a huge amount of money on overhead, maintaining only smaller offices for meetings and courting clients. I can see a future, maybe even 20 years ahead, where at least 50% of employees work from home.

[davidgrey]

I would use mass transit if I could feasibly. My only option would be to take a bus downtown (Probably 30 minutes) and then wait 30 minutes to an hour for the express bus that goes out to my work area. Then I have a mile from the drop off to my office. So it would take me 1:30-2 hours each way, not counting the mile walk to/from my office.

In Cincinnati it seems more businesses are moving out to the suberbs making mass transit harder to use (While we are spending millions-upon-millions to build a light rail system through one of the worst neighborhoods in the city that likely will be used on a limited basis and never pay for itself. Still trying to find one person that thinks it is a good idea and all the backlash it gets, the city still wants to force it through, even after the state pulled funds).

[TranaGreg]

... will we lose the freedom to live in the setting we want? Will those who want to live in suburban or rural areas have to find other careers or will they be forced to move into an urban setting? ...

at first I thought this was a strange way to phrase this question ... but thinking about it a bit more I think you're right - to an extent the freedom provided by cheap gas (relatively speaking) to live in the setting anyone wants will be limited. It's a freedom that few others enjoy ... the idea of working in an office tower or a factory in a city & living on a patch of green grass somewhere completely different has really only been enjoyed by this last generation ... and only in the west. So I think to a large degree the answer to your question is yes.

[davidgrey]

Well hold a place for you. Anytime it is something I don't like, it is "They".

[SeaDogStat]

Mrs. SDS works from home again and it is great. Not only do we save money on gas for the additional vehicle, but I now drive the car (with double the gas mileage of my pickup) and she gets to do the little things around the house during the week, on her break, that we both used to do on weekends.

So it's win/win for me! Er, uh, I mean us...US!