Pres. Of Shell Says To Lower Gas Prices, Produce More

[CoolBlueSS]

That money goes to fix our roads. Where else is money for our roads going to come from?

Here in texas every registered vehicle has an extra $5-10 (depending on county) fee road and bridge maintainence. Plus property taxes, tolls collected, ect.

[emperor72]

Well, it looks like a group of economists have signed a public letter making it clear that the "gas tax holiday" idea is a bad one.

 

Bloomberg News.

[Black2003SS]

Here in texas every registered vehicle has an extra $5-10 (depending on county) fee road and bridge maintainence. Plus property taxes, tolls collected, ect.

 

Thats fantastic. You are right about that. But what you forget is that the federal government subsidizes every single state with fed funds for roads and bridges. Where do you expect the federal government to get the billions of dollars they give each state every year for road repair, which btw, accounts for more than half of the money required in most states? Social Security fund sound good? didnt think so...

 

Removing the gas tax is like throwing a pebble into the mississippi river to change its course...

 

We cant nationalize or regulate the oil industries because believe it or not, they spend billions in research and digging for oil that would otherwise not be spen. Necessary money of the evil oil.

 

Lastly, I want you to wrap your moind aroudn this. Everyone screams at the $10billion profit made in a quarter. Profit, the money made from revenues after all expenses. We would all agree that if the oil companies were regulated for non profit, we could only lower the prices by of gasoline by $10 billion right? Just cover expenses. Ok. Here we go...if you take the time to do the rough math of exactly how much that would translate into per gallon savings? Its far less than $0.50 per gallon. Wow...$3 gas isntead of $3.50 or $3.40 etc. See my point? big whoppdeedoo.

 

Further more, I can not and will not support the nationalization or institutionalization of ANY commodity or futures, or energy or anything of free commerce like health care. The more we regulate, the more we try to crub free enterprise, the closer to a communistic regime we become. Is that what you want?

 

The reality is that the issues lie within the politics of the middle east and OPEC. None of the fantasy, yes fantasy, remedies of removing the gas tax or eliminating the profits will curb the pain at the pump. Perhaps you wouldnt mind someone walking into your job tomorrow and saying you make too much money, you can live on $30k/yr instead of $50k/yr, you dont need your SSS, or your boat, all you need is food and water and a small apartment. Essentially, we are telling "big" oil they have no right to the american dream. If you dont like it, buy a bicycle.

 

And FYI...if anyone wants to pick a fight with me about this, realize I'm not arm chair quarter backing, I lost my job last month and talk about tight, nobody is hurting worse than anyone else. It costs me $20 in gas just to drive to some interviews.

[emperor72]

We cant nationalize or regulate the oil industries because believe it or not, they spend billions in research and digging for oil that would otherwise not be spen. Necessary money of the evil oil.

 

Further more, I can not and will not support the nationalization or institutionalization of ANY commodity or futures, or energy or anything of free commerce like health care. The more we regulate, the more we try to crub free enterprise, the closer to a communistic regime we become. Is that what you want?

 

Essentially, we are telling "big" oil they have no right to the american dream. If you dont like it, buy a bicycle.

 

And FYI...if anyone wants to pick a fight with me about this, realize I'm not arm chair quarter backing, I lost my job last month and talk about tight, nobody is hurting worse than anyone else.

 

Couple of points, and Im not picking a fight- ;)

 

Sorry to hear about your job loss. I wish you luck in your search.

 

I think you have a misunderstanding of a few key issues related to the oil majors. The "billions" spent on exploration are more like lots of millions (but anyway). This brings me to this point- what do they do with all that oil that they find?

They put it into commodities markets to fetch the highest price. They dont send it right to the refineries, but rather they move it to market.

 

Thats the part that needs to stop. Oil analysts like Matt Simmons have pointed out that aside from Peak Oil (the biggest reason for the price increase) speculators are the reason for the high price. The politics of the OPEC nations are much as they have been for 50 years- aside from the fact that we have a huge intervention force in the Gulf region...

Now if the way to stop price speculation in the markets is through nationalization, than I am all for it.

Myself, I am much more concerned with how much 200 million Americans pay for fuel, than if a company gets its fair shake at putting their commodity on the market. But hey, thats just me.

 

My main point is in regards to your assertion about interference in the market being a bad thing. How do you explain the massive amounts of subsidy that bid oil gets from the federal government? Isnt that interference in the market? Of course it is.

Further, the very idea of a "free market" is almost absurd when you look at it in practice- and not in theory. Our government's primary role is to interfere in the market by subsidizing private corporations. Consider Boeing, Lockheed, Chrysler (1980's), Pfizer, SAIC, Ratheon, GM, etc...

If those companies didnt have MASSIVE government subsidies they wouldnt last for a week. And remember, government subsidy is our tax dollars.

 

My point is that there is no such thing as the free market, as our tax dollars prop up so many corporations that I cant list them all in one post.

Since oil is essentially the lifeblood of the American economy, we should nationalize it and remove speculation and market trading from the equation. Again, for the purposes of actually helping the people of which the government is supposed to be of, by and for...

[Black2003SS]

Subsidizing is a far cry from regulation or nationalization. The government didnt regulate what chrysler could produce or how much they coulld charge for a product in the 80's. They didnt dictate or set pricing for the automobile. Once you move towards nationalization, you lose all competition, customer service, and product initiative. It happened with the phone companies and Bell. It will happen with health care. Its really quite simple. PEOPLE GO INTO BUSINESS TO MAKE MONEY. Thats it. Theres no arguement against that. People hate how natural gas is regulated and feel like they have no other alternative unless they switch their heating source in their homes. Perhaps we should regulate food as well. Tell McDonalds they can only have 15 items on their menu instead of 30 and that they can only charge $1 each and are not allowed to make a profit.

 

Now I agree that the speculation in the market needs to end, but nationalization is not the answer. I hate the fact also that a butterfly can flap its wings in china and they predict an oil ship might sink in the gulf as a result now and the price jumps $2/barrel. Nationalization is not the answer. I refuse to live in a FREE country that nationalizes everything. Perhaps we should just also take all the money in the country, pool it altogether, and then divide it equally amongst everyone in the country and be done with it. Of course not, thats ridiculous.

[CoolBlueSS]

I will agree that nationalization is not the answer, but the speculators are killing us. Like you said, a bird takes a dump on an oil tanker, and the price goes up $5 a barrell. It just seems strange that prices were pretty steady for a long time then over the past 4 years they've been on an up hill climb with no end, or solution, in sight. If it's Middle East politics, then drill for oil here, or find an alternative. Seems pretty simple, don't buy their product, and their price will drop.

[Black2003SS]

I'm still trying to figure out why emporer has a hard on for me.

[emperor72]

I'm still trying to figure out why emporer has a hard on for me.

 

LOL

 

I dont at all. I just happen to know a little bit about the oil industry, the markets, and politics, as that is sort of the business im in.

 

So, I look at the Federal bailout of Chrysler, which is taxpayer funds, and that is exactly nationalizing. See, we pay the debt incurred by these corporations, while getting nothing in return. Further, Chrysler got itself out of that hole by producing parts for the Pentagon, so there was no "market" forces at work- rather, they were given the chance to save their failing business by taking a massive public subsidy and producing military parts in a no bid contract. And you call that the free market...

 

Then you look at the telecommunications industry which since 1996 has had almost no regulation at all, and is a disaster.

And natural gas? Have you not noticed the massive increases in natural gas prices over the last 10 years? It makes our gas price increases look like a cost of living adjustment.

 

If you dont like things nationalized, dont bother going to an airport anytime soon, or taking the subway in NY.

 

So, I dont have a hard on for you, but I have a hard time not correcting blatant falsehoods. I will just stop here. You can continue to believe that we have a free market, and that regulation is bad. Neither is true, and history has proven this but you know otherwise.

 

Cheers.