Gas thread? Ok I’m loving gas prices
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Gas thread? Ok I’m loving gas prices
Yes, the old robber barons did die off but that class of people still exists today under a new guise so they really did not disappear entirely. Without unions there never would have been work place reform to begin with.
Yes, certainly the rise of rampant consumerism is part of the problem but then without incubating that trait which is in part how corporations continue to increase profits. You are going to hear a lot of squealing in the future as interest rates rise and consumers are debt loaded to previously unimaginable heights. We got there by encouraging the rampant consumerism through cheap and easy money loans. There are very many pieces to the puzzle of what got us to the present situation.
Bob
Personally, I think it's worse now. The wealthy control this country lock, stock and barrel. They get whatever they want and the degree of control and the way the wealthy have snaked their way into the Economy and beyond is way beyond the late 19th and early 20th century. Whatever gains the greater majority of the population realized have all but melted away.
All this divisiveness in the U.S didn't just happen by serendipity. This has been an orchestrated act by the wealthy. It's the old story. Divide the country and while the masses are duking it out no one is watching the minority taking over. They are the real masters.
Most of these folks are busy buying citizenship in other countries and buying and building fortresses to weather any storm. As soon as things start going downhill they are outa here so fast your head will spin.
Ah yes. The consolidation of power. It has been the cause of more war and strife throughout history than probably any other cause. "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils."
Money in and of itself is not bad but it is really a tangible form and means of power. The love of it boils down to greed and lust for power.
It may be a stretch to say that things are worse now than in the time of the old robber barrons. It was pretty darn bad then and they too had the nation by the short hairs. More than once several of them wrote checks in the millions to bail out the US government. Don't think for one second that they did that out of the kindness of their hearts. I do however agree that there is puppetry going on in government, society and media especially social media. Also, Google is not your friend and I think we all know about their social engineering. A couple of quick synonymous searches on Google and Duck Duck Go on controversial topics can be quite revealing.
What I fear is another but larger version of the Peasant Revolt of 1524.
Oil / Gas is one of the most highly regulated industries across the world..
You can't have complete control of a product through government regulations, and then claim it isn't your fault when the price spikes....
LGB/FJB
Crude no matter where it's from is traded on the open market. The price is determined there. Government Regulations certainly affect the price but in the end not by that much.
I guess, the U.S if it was totally self sufficient could tell the world screw you and we could keep all our production for ourselves but it would take Government Regulation to do that.
On the other hand Saudi Arabia could stop production totally tomorrow and then what?
Then they'd starve to death and we would maybe become self sufficient and self contained again. It would cost us but we could do it. All those other countries we have made rich by our trade may not be so lucky.
Perhaps I am wrong, Tc. In the past high oil prices was a sure sign drilling and jobs were cranked-up and all in the industry benefited.
It seems now, the shutdowns and regulations imposed by this admin have soured the industry.
It's like nobody cares to crank things up just to have them shut down again.
Even as some blame the high prices on drillers not drilling. Irony by design?
Sort of like truckers not trucking.
All have great comments, and agree with most all of them, but....
Nixon deregulated the oil companies.
Clinton sold out the country, with the signing of NAFTA.
Alls been down hill since.
Well here N.M we are going full bore with drilling and production.The state has so much money from royalties it doesn't know what to do with it.
But in the end it all goes on the world wide open market. People don't seem to understand that and cheap politicians try and make hay by making folks think well, you drill more and our prices come down. Totally bogus of course.
Good to hear, Spendur! No reports of that have reached my ears from the media/powers that be.
More of that will help. Yes, the control thing is pretty interesting.
All about money, of course.
Why was gas so cheap when the USA was energy independent ?
US energy independence is a bit of a shell game as the US always imports crude oil and refines it. Some of the imported crude oil is exported as refined oil products and some services the domestic market. It is theoretically possible for the US to become truly energy independent if crude oil production was increased to take more advantage of it's proven oil reserves. It is probably better for the US, in the long run, to continue to import crude oil and keep their proven oil reserves as a back up. Import from countries like Canada which has 111 years of production in reserve as opposed to the US's 11 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...more%20rows%20
Then again what do I know. :shrug:
Bob
When I was a young whippersnapper gas was 26 cents a gallon. Of course that was before Saudi Arabia and the oil Cartels and Venezuela existed as oil producers. That's why gas was cheap then. I keep saying, it's all a worldwide market now and that Globalization thing.
All I can say is that I'm glad I'm retired. My cars sit mostly idle in my garage these days. Otherwise, I'd be beyond concerned, because when I did work, I was on the road 5 days a week, hundreds of miles per day.
I can remember during the Obama administration (Just to give a TIMELINE - I'm not starting political talk here), when gas hit record highs back then, I got stuck in Washington state at the peak of the spike and had to get back to Florida. I remember $4.80 a gallon for premium. At that time I drove a high end German import that required premium gas. You don't even want to know what that cost me to drive that car back home. I could have flown for less than half the cost. That car had a huge tank. something like 25 gallons, I guess the Germans designed it large so you could get on the Autobahn and cruise for hours at 120 mph without having to stop for gas too often. Filling up a 25 gallon tank full of premium gas back then took your breath away. Today? It would render you unconscious! :)
Also…do you notice..that Fuel prices are always high when a Democrat is in office ….
My sister in law is visiting Ireland this week….I asked her the price of gas today…she replied 2.17 liter. Let that sink in.
Yes. Today, if I still had that German import, I'd pay around $150.00 for a fill-up of Premium gas. Ouch! And I'm sure it's going to get worse before it gets better. Back during the Obama administration, my German import was a large sedan with a 4.2 liter V8 that got a top highway of around 22 mpg under optimal conditions and speed (like 55 mph), but more realistically around 18 mpg with wind, hills, payload, and 70 mph speed. Luckily, my cars today are 4 cyl and sip gas by comparison.
A shortage of Kool-Aid now. Spender has drunk it all. :D
Yet their making record profit's during a time like this.
Isn't costing them any more to make it/ refine it. And theirs ample surplus at hand.
I can only imagine what the democratic party is getting out of this BS.
NOTICE... your investments are now worthless with them in office, as well.
Notice over the years how they've slowly removed any wealth from the common American.?
Monarchy comes to mind.
Oil companies reduced refining capacity during the pandemic and it is still not all back on line. That is part of the problem. Another part is that the oil producers also reduced oil output at the same time as there was no point in pumping out oil when there was a greatly reduced demand. Not all of that pumping capacity is back on line either. When you idle oil pumping capacity and oil refining capacity you just don't throw a switch and you are back running. It takes time to bring the idled capacity back on line after a long period of being idle.
There are also plenty of other issues besides those. Virtually every country in the world is in the same boat. I doubt it matters much who is in power when a storm like this hits the world. It's above my pay grade to say what the answer is to all this.
Bob
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=48636
Right you are, Bob.
So it boils down to good ol GREED.!
ITS ALL BEEN ENGINEERED, FORTHRIGHT.
IMHO
Hey, I didn't bring politics into this. I only responded to what someone else brought up.
The fact is this is a worldwide occurrence. There are a bunch of causes and it don't make a darn who the president is or whatever party is in power no different than the current inflation problems which are worldwide too. Many have it worse than us.
But people get frustrated and blame the President like he can wave a magic wand and make it all go away.
If Putin would wind his neck in the prices might start going back down, unlikely in my experience though. When the prices go up they stay up regardless of whether they can come down, they wait us out until we just accept them before jacking them up further as normal price increases.