The "Gas" Thread

[Gasman]

When X, Y and Z sells fuel to A,B,C,and D. Then X says no more fuel for B,C and D. Than B, C and D now have to buy more fuel from Y and Z to keep up with demand. This makes a shortage and prices go up because Y and Z dont have as much to sell and needs to keep some for themselves so raise to price to keep some.. Now if X was the biggest supplier of fuel... Even if D didnt buy much from X to start with D has to share what they normally buy because B and C need fuel because B and C used to buy a large percentage of fuel from X.

Supply and demand.

[PaulFLUS]

When X, Y and Z sells fuel to A,B,C,and D. Then X says no more fuel for B,C and D. Than B, C and D now have to buy more fuel from Y and Z to keep up with demand. This makes a shortage and prices go up because Y and Z dont have as much to sell and needs to keep some for themselves so raise to price to keep some.. Now if X was the biggest supplier of fuel... Even if D didnt buy much from X to start with D has to share what they normally buy because B and C need fuel because B and C used to buy a large percentage of fuel from X.

Supply and demand.

Word.

No, lets not get back on the Covid kick, but at least have enough common sense to recognise that it did trigger a cascade of events that has created critical and ongoing supply issues. Globalisation has exacerbated that issue and so has just in time delivery of items needed to manufacture things. Throw in a world events like Russia's war in the Ukraine and you have the makings of a perfect crap storm. Let's not forget a good dose of corporate greed that went into creating a global economy in the first place.

The icing on the cake will be the possible shortages of agricultural produce made possible by too wet or too dry conditions during the growing season this year.

Bob

I agree for the most part but I do have to state that I think the term "corporate greed," is an oxymoron. A corporation's sole purpose is to generate a profit. To do that effectively they have to do it at the expense of others. Just like in sports; for one to win another has to lose. "It's not personal. It's just business."

[BobH]

Word.



I agree for the most part but I do have to state that I think the term "corporate greed," is an oxymoron. A corporation's sole purpose is to generate a profit. To do that effectively they have to do it at the expense of others. Just like in sports; for one to win another has to lose. "It's not personal. It's just business."

Well, it is true that corporations must make a profit as that is the sole reason to be in in business. The problem is in the past what constituted a reasonable profit year over year has changed. It has now gotten to the point of quarter over quarter using whatever means possible. In the long run, that is not sustainable or healthy for the consumer, the employees, the environment and other countries they operate in. That is full blown corporate greed. There is good capitalism and bad capitalism with degrees of each in between. Personally, I'd say for the most part we are at the bad stage. I'm not against capitalism, everyone needs to make a decent living, but there has to be some balance in the system.

The no holds barred winner take all approach creates far more losers than winners and leads to an unstable society. Gut the middle class and you have trouble.

Bob

[PaulFLUS]

Well, to quote Will Rogers, "Things ain't what they used to be. Probably never was."

Surely you can't think that the days of the robber barons (Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Chase) were better. And let's not forget the great depression. Honestly I think where we are today is not so bad in comparison.

[BobH]

Well, to quote Will Rodgers, "Things ain't what they used to be. Probably never was."

Surely you can't think that the days of the robber barons (Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Chase) were better. And let's not forget the great depression. Honestly I think where we are today is not so bad in comparison.

I don't think the robber barons ever disappeared completely and there is a whole new batch today. Where we are today is bad compared to the post WWII boom years that carried on until the 1980s or so before the slide backwards to where we are today. You may recall the days when the middle class included a large number of blue collar workers. Not so much today.

Bob

[PaulFLUS]

Well, I'll almost agree with that. I do think that the robber barons disappeared for the most part. The labor unions took credit for it but it was mainly due to workplace reform legislation protecting workers from unfair employment practices.

There was.however a period during the baby boom when it was pretty golden. We could go on and on about what went wrong with that and there is plenty of blame to go around but one big enemy we have in the US at least, really largely the western world as a whole but especially in the US, is consumerism. Entitlement is another one that plagues us but that is a whole other rabbit hole to rant about.

[Bill31521]

It's all.about Saudi Arabia. They're the only country with instant capacity. The current administration is not on good terms with them. The prior administration was. And that has to do with Iran and Yemen.

[BobH]

Well, I'll almost agree with that. I do think that the robber barons disappeared for the most part. The labor unions took credit for it but it was mainly due to workplace reform legislation protecting workers from unfair employment practices.

There was.however a period during the baby boom when it was pretty golden. We could go on and on about what went wrong with that and there is plenty of blame to go around but one big enemy we have in the US at least, really largely the western world as a whole but especially in the US, is consumerism. Entitlement is another one that plagues us but that is a whole other rabbit hole to rant about.

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