This fuzzy picture was taken with my cell phone a mile and a half from my home Sunday evening. That's $1.89 for regular. Another mile from there and it was $1.86.
There's a lot of talk these days about greedy oil companies and high gas prices. Yeah, they took a spike during the Katrina crisis, but they've fallen right back down again. Of course it put a scare into the mind of folks driving big vehicles. I admit I thought briefly that maybe having a 7 passenger van wasn't such a good idea. Then I realized that renting one for the 10-15 days a year we actualy needed the space would cost much more than the gas we'd save driving something smaller for the rest of the year, even at $3 a gallon.
The other folks hollering about 'Big Oil' are the politicians. Of course, they're never one to miss an opportunity to make points with the people. After all, those greedy oil companies made record profits. Well, according to Jeff Jacoby in The Boston Globe as reported in The Week magazine this week, Big Oil's profit margins are actually lower than average, 7.7% compared to 7.9%. Pharmaceutical companies make 18.6% and banks make 19.6%. So while Big Oil made record profits, they also must have made record expenditures to get there.
I know, I know, facts can really ruin a good story.
I finally have recovered enough, from being sick, to think!
On one hand I don't have any trouble with oil companies making money. It's business and a supply/demand thing. After all, if I could make a worly gig for five bucks and couldn't make enough selling them for $300 wouldn't that be fun? And, higher fuel prices help us look for alternatives. We just got a corn furnace that should pay for itself in two years or less.
On the other hand, petro is kind of a social commodity. Our police, fire and EMS crews need it. As well as other services like for food delivery, emergency power for hospitals etc. You could say also it impacts our economy too. So, although it's a supply demand thing it should also have some sort of moral responsibility. And, I don't think it over stepped it's bounds....yet. :)
Glad to hear you're feeling better. Did you get your beans out?
It just bugs me to have folks jumping up and down about record profits when it's a smaller margin than the average industry. And, frankly, if we didn't have an SUV fetish, they wouldn't have made record profits.
I guess I see your point about the public good, but I'm not sure how you deal with that without something that would tend to stifle the natural market forces (supply & demand, etc).
Gas prices are also one of the most visible out there. What else do you buy where you know the price of competing stores while you're still driving down the road?
Good point about price check. I don't like paying more for anything but I understand the supply demand thing. Like you said, if we didn't have SUV's then it'd be different. The higher prices have changed our thinking and were using about 1/3 less fuel than previously. And, we got the corn stove which will free up some 700 gallons of heating oil, (diesel fuel), for somebodies truck. I'm just thinking that with emergency services using it maybe we should come up with alternatives there. Maybe the government could lead the way by helping local officials by energy efficient emergency vehicles or promoting 100% biodiesel burning engines, (most are diesels I would guess).
Anyway, we did get our beans out. The last truck went out Monday. It was really muddy here when we got back so we had to get 105 yards of road rock in and blade it out and it was still tricky for the trucks. Then we had lots of electric motor kicking out problems but it's ok now. Hopefully we'll get the check today and can pay down some bills!
BPshould rot in hell for what they have wrought.