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May 25, 2007
Price Gouging at The Pumps ( 3 )
by Jack Lee
Libby X, one of our readers and a frequent contributor at PS was recently noting it's $5 a gallon for gasoline elsewhere in world and says we're being whiners for complaining about the current gas prices. Maybe so, but what she failed to mention in those areas of significantly higher pump prices, (most of Europe) the high cost is due to higher taxes, not producer costs. Take out the high taxes and the average cost of gasoline there is not all that much different from what we pay here... at least in "normal" times.
Did you know, the top 5 most expensive countries in Europe charge roughly 70% of the pump price in taxation? I suppose this is to help pay for their FREE medical care and other FREE safety nets. In England the price is about $6.55 a gallon, this includes taxes of $4.19. Take out their taxes and you have $2.36 per gallon gasoline. Add in our .60 a gallon tax and you have $2.96 a gallon ,which is closer to what we should be paying now, if we were not being gouged.
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"This is a picture of fundamental market failure!" M. Cooper
It's interesting to note that in Europe there are 30 percent fewer cars per person, 30 percent fewer miles traveled per car and cars that use 30 percent less fuel on average. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if we would all cut back a bit. If we drove a little less and a little slower, I bet it would save lives as well as money. In fact, I'll bet it would only take slightly better planning for all our running around to really make a difference. Like combine returning the video AND buying milk at the store, instead of the two trips most people make!
Speaking of our less than thrifty ways, I sure hate seeing all those big empty buses running around Chico. I can only imagine what it's costing taxpayers to fund those fuel hogs that have almost no riders. Considering the passenger load, maybe they should be operating mini-vans or better yet... pedi-cabs?
Speaking to the high cost of gasoline, "This is a picture of fundamental market failure, ...and Congress and the administration have stood by and done nothing to help consumers" said Mark Cooper, research director for the Consumer Federation of America, said prior to a hearing by a House Judiciary Committee antitrust panel in Washington Wednesday. At the hearing, monitored on television in New York, Cooper was just as blunt.
Cooper pointed to the record earnings at oil companies and said in any other industry this would attract new businesses! But he said the domestic refining industry has continued to consolidate, allowing operators to shun building refineries, run existing ones at full throttle and thus cause many of the accidents and outages the nation has experienced over the last few months. (This is exactly what was reported months earlier in Post Scripts!)
"This is just mismanagement," Cooper said. "But they get away with it because there is no competitive discipline." Again, took the words right out of my last story! "There is near unanimity among economists that there is a concentration of power," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who also voiced support for a proposal to sue OPEC for price fixing. It has also been reported by yours truly in the now internationally famous "Post Scripts" blog, (a noted source of reference for breaking news and information and the ultimate reference for Bush's foreign policy), that US oil companies have a near monopoly on their product. Echoing Lee's comments, was Cooper who said the oil companies "have clearly demonstrated that they will abuse it."
Now here's some food for thought how we can lower gas prices from CNN Money.
Posted by Post Scripts at May 25, 2007 11:46 AM
Comments
Not to mention that France and Germany are no longer able to do their back door Oil dealing with Sadaam. Can John Edwards explain to me again why we have lost our world standing, while these countries and the UN are held up as someone we should continue to do business with? Or perhaps Libby can....
Posted by: John F. at May 25, 2007 12:46 PM
"Not to mention that France and Germany are no longer able to do their back door Oil dealing with Sadaam."
Do you honestly think they (or we) would hesitate to do either a front or back door deal with the formerly treasonable, but now Oil Minister Chalabi (never mind the spelling), if they could? But they can't, the security situation being what it is. Them pipelines are getting holes blown in 'em daily ... hourly. And that's the thing, isn't it. Democracy, my Aunt Fanny!
So let us now turn to Mr. Chavez ... he's making us pay.
We, down here on the ground, are just going to have to work around these people. You haul out the bicycle, you live near your work ... and I just bought some of those $6 light bulbs. They're not so bad. We'll see if their low-wattage selves really do last five years.
Posted by: Libby at May 25, 2007 08:02 PM
Hey Libby, I've had those bulbs for almost five years and they work great!
Posted by: Jack at May 25, 2007 09:09 PM
...if we were not being gouged. Jack I love your enthusiasm!
I sure hate seeing all those big empty buses running around Chico. Saw a bus on my way up to Paradise today...two riders.
pedi-cabs Brilliant...a job opportunity for all those bicycle enthusiasts!
near unanimity Sounds like they have consensus.
It's important to remember the politics in all stories and since Jack and I agree on most things and not this I went searching for some information to add to what he's saying...in the interest of information and education. We are all frustrated by things that make life harder and this certainly falls in that category. Watch for my next post.
Posted by: Tina at May 25, 2007 09:24 PM
Them pipelines are getting holes blown in 'em daily...
Your source for this little gem, please?
Posted by: Tina at May 25, 2007 09:26 PM
"Do you honestly think they (or we) would hesitate to do either a front or back door deal with the formerly treasonable, but now Oil Minister Chalabi (never mind the spelling), if they could? But they can't, the security situation being what it is. Them pipelines are getting holes blown in 'em daily ... hourly. And that's the thing, isn't it. Democracy, my Aunt Fanny!"
Well, as far as the record goes, I don't know of America doing a back door deal with Sadaam during the years under the UN sanctions, but it was made pretty clear that France and Germany did. All the while moving closer to recommending the sanctions against Iraq be lifted. Pretend it was Haliburton, instead of France Or Germany, Now Libby, do you see the conflict? "Democracy" Libby, I'm not sure you would recognize "Democracy" if it bit you on your "Aunt Fanny."
"So let us now turn to Mr. Chavez ... he's making us pay.
We, down here on the ground, are just going to have to work around these people. You haul out the bicycle, you live near your work ... and I just bought some of those $6 light bulbs. They're not so bad. We'll see if their low-wattage selves really do last five years."
And I would love to turn our backs on Mr. Chavez. How about drilling for oil in our country? Or has relying on Government for everything made being "Self Reliant" a bad thing?
And I haven't heard that the pipelines are being blown up daily, perhaps you could share your source. Or was that just a Tee Hee?
Posted by: John F. at May 30, 2007 06:37 PM
I don't know of America doing a back door deal with Sadaam during the years under the UN sanctions, but it was made pretty clear that France and Germany did.
And let us not forget to remember the Oil for Food scandal and corruption in the UN that accompanied the back door deals by France and Germany.
And I would love to turn our backs on Mr. Chavez. How about drilling for oil in our country?
YES!!! And as we stand on our own two feet we will also find alternatives that lead to total independance. They will discover what it is to suddenly be without this commodity for income at least from the US. We will no longer be the great polluter either...because we are innovators...we have freedom and a self-reliant attitude that supports innovation and problem solving.
Chavez is sewing the seeds of his own dark demise and distruction for his country but unfortunately his people will pay dearly for his ego driven need to control. They are protesting in earnest though by the thousands and thousands.
The human heart longs to be free..we have a treasure in our republic and we should nurture and treasure it and do all we can to preserve it. The Chavez formula (the Hillary formula...the liberal formula) is a complete failure.
Posted by: Tina at May 31, 2007 09:51 AM