FTC asked to investigate gas prices for possible gouging

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
OK, it all comes down to one thing.

The Gas companies know that people will buy gas no matter how much it costs cause they have to go to work, and the store, and pick up the kids. So the price(what the are charging) of gas goes up and up, where as the cost of it stays the same. You can't tell me that it costs more to get oil out of the ground than it used to. Oil is a resource that is already there, the companies are taking a free product from the ground and making money off of it. we are the suckers that pay som much for it. We screwed ourselves.

pulling it out of the ground isn't the only cost for oil...

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: glen

he's also missing the point of colusion. persons xyz sit down for a meeting, decide to all raise prices together. as there are no real alternatives, consumer pays xyz's price regardless with xyz laughing all the way to the bank.

Colusion is also illegal, and difficult.
it probably can happen if OPEC stays unified, but in reality, it doesn't happen.
ADM recently got in trouble for it, but for acorbic acid or something only tarded by a Few people in a specialized area.

its illegal, but that doesn't mean its immoral. whatever the market will bear eh? haha

 

[glen]

I would like to see anyone who thinks they should not be charged as much as the market will bear go to their employer and ask to be paid less.

 

[SoylentGreen]

Originally posted by: glen
I would like to see anyone who thinks they should not be charged as much as the market will bear go to their employer and ask to be paid less.

For example video games.

If all people refused to buy them when they first come out for 50 bucks and only bought them at 30 bucks new games in the future would be 30 bucks being that's is what people are willing to pay, the market will bear.

Raising gas prices for absolutely no reason should not be allowed.

 

[glen]

Originally posted by: Kiyup

Originally posted by: glen
I would like to see anyone who thinks they should not be charged as much as the market will bear go to their employer and ask to be paid less.

For example video games.

If all people refused to buy them when they first come out for 50 bucks and only bought them at 30 bucks new games in the future would be 30 bucks being that's is what people are willing to pay, the market will bear.

Raising gas prices for absolutely no reason should not be allowed.

The are raised for a very good reason and the only reason anything is priced: the market will pay it.

 

[amnesiac]

Hey, I'm all for price hikes in gas.

I can afford it and it keeps the stupid illegal immigrants from driving on my streets.

 

[MikeMike]

how bout they investigate them for price fixing? i mean how can 4 gas stations, all change there prices to the same amount at almost exactly the same time, not be price fixing? and i have always believed in gas price gouging cuz there is no way in hell it is this exspensive a gallon.

 

[BooneRebel]

Originally posted by: etech
What part of

"Oil and gasoline are commodities traded on the markets.

Oil companies do not set the price.
"

do you people not understand?

If you think the price of gas is strictly related to the cost per barrel of oil then you are living in a fantasy world. There are 18 different middlemen between the crude pumped out of the ground and the 87 octane you buy at the pump, and each one tacks on his own percentage. Yes, there is a direct relationship between crude and refined gasoline, but there is quite a bit of inflationary activity that takes place at the local level.

Take 9/11 for example. By that afternoon local stations had tripled gas prices from ~$1.40 to $5/gal. The price of crude hadn't tripled in that short period of time. It's simply the retailers taking advantage of an emotional downswing. Right now the prospect of war has driven crude up, but it hasn't gone up 20% a week like gasoline has. In the case of 9/11, authorities cracked down on stations that were charging irrational prices for gas, in some cases shutting them down entirely for a few days.

Just because a supply and demand market will bear a certain price, does not mean that the government is going to permit it. Look at California and the energy crisis there a couple of years ago. Enron and others were selling CA electricity to other states, and then buying it back from themselves at an inflated rate to sell to consumers. As a result they made fortunes, and were hit pretty hard by the regulatory commissions once the authorities caught on.

 

[vi edit]

Ask Casey's how they feel about price gouging gas. They got stung for a couple million bucks on 9/11 when they jacked up gas prices to over $6 a gallon at some places. The FTC slapped them for $50,000 PER incident.

 

[ultimatebob]

Gee, it looks like we need to increase the supply of oil to lower gas prices. It's a good thing that we're planning on invading Iraq and replacing Saddam with a US-friendly puppet government soon, because I'm sick of paying $2 a gallon for Premium! Come on Bush, let's get some of that Iraqi oil flowing this way! 🙂

 

[Dragnov]

Originally posted by: glen
"Price gouging" says that I am immoral for selling something at the price demand allows.

Lets say I have one widget for sale.
3 people want to buy it.
person X will pay $2
person Y will pay $3
person Z will pay $4
Why not sell it for $4?
"Price gouging" suggests that selling to Z is immoral

Bah. Economics.

I think this puts it best...
"In Economics, people don't die and starve to death, they just drop off the demand curve."

 

[glen]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob
Gee, it looks like we need to increase the supply of oil to lower gas prices. It's a good thing that we're planning on invading Iraq and replacing Saddam with a US-friendly puppet government soon, because I'm sick of paying $2 a gallon for Premium! Come on Bush, let's get some of that Iraqi oil flowing this way! 🙂

Canada has just as much oil, and I think it would be less of a pain to get the Germany, France, and the UN behind an attack.

 

[glen]

Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK

Originally posted by: glen
"Price gouging" says that I am immoral for selling something at the price demand allows.

Lets say I have one widget for sale.
3 people want to buy it.
person X will pay $2
person Y will pay $3
person Z will pay $4
Why not sell it for $4?
"Price gouging" suggests that selling to Z is immoral

Bah. Economics.

I think this puts it best...
"In Economics, people don't die and starve to death, they just drop off the demand curve."

Economics is descriptive.
it explains how things work.
hating it is much like hating physics and people who understand physics, and blaming them for plane crashes

 

[SnapIT]

Originally posted by: Kiyup

Originally posted by: glen
"Price gouging" says that I am immoral for selling something at the price demand allows.

Lets say I have one widget for sale.
3 people want to buy it.
person X will pay $2
person Y will pay $3
person Z will pay $4
Why not sell it for $4?
"Price gouging" suggests that selling to Z is immoral

Thanks.

I hate to tell you as much as the government does not think so, gas is a necessity in the modern world.

Go back to school.

You like capitalism? this is how it works, the foundation of capitalism is based on supply and demand...

the FTC is anti-capitalistic, communistic and should be gone ASAP...

 

[SnapIT]

Originally posted by: Kiyup
If the gas companies bumped the price of gas to $5 a gallon, people would still buy it since they need to use their cars.

What you're talking about is free enterprise.

Besides, what does it have to do with medical care and a socialist system.

BWAAAAHAAAAHAAA... no, if it is oil, then it should be controlled, but medicines, who needs them?

Partial socialism works great, doesn't it? at least if it supplies YOUR needs...

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: glen

Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK

Originally posted by: glen
"Price gouging" says that I am immoral for selling something at the price demand allows.

Lets say I have one widget for sale.
3 people want to buy it.
person X will pay $2
person Y will pay $3
person Z will pay $4
Why not sell it for $4?
"Price gouging" suggests that selling to Z is immoral

Bah. Economics.

I think this puts it best...
"In Economics, people don't die and starve to death, they just drop off the demand curve."

Economics is descriptive.
it explains how things work.
hating it is much like hating physics and people who understand physics, and blaming them for plane crashes

"economics" is often a synonym for "current prevalent theory/model used in economics"

 

[glen]

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: glen

Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK

Originally posted by: glen
"Price gouging" says that I am immoral for selling something at the price demand allows.

Lets say I have one widget for sale.
3 people want to buy it.
person X will pay $2
person Y will pay $3
person Z will pay $4
Why not sell it for $4?
"Price gouging" suggests that selling to Z is immoral

Bah. Economics.

I think this puts it best...
"In Economics, people don't die and starve to death, they just drop off the demand curve."

Economics is descriptive.
it explains how things work.
hating it is much like hating physics and people who understand physics, and blaming them for plane crashes

"economics" is often a synonym for "current prevalent theory/model used in economics"

I agree, but then again, the same can be said for "Biology"

 

[glen]

in reality, you can make a better case that Microsoft is price fixing than oil companies

 

[gopunk]

I agree, but then again, the same can be said for "Biology"

prevalent theories in most hard sciences generally work a lot better than the the theories in economics do, which is why you would almost never hear anybody saying "i hate physics" or "i hate biology". if you hear someone saying that, it generally means one of two things... either the person is simply an idiot, or so brilliant and revolutionary that the rest of the community doesn't believe them. you hear a lot more people saying "i hate economics" because there are simply way more exceptions and shortcomings in economic theory. so in addition to those two types of people, you have a much larger group... the group of people that actually have legitimate complaints. of this group, people either go into economics to try and improve things, or shun it.

imo, and based on my conversations with people in the field of economics.

 

[glen]

You make a good point Gopunk.
I would say that Econ theories work quite well.
And, to continue the biology analogy, keynsians are the creationists and only real nay sayers about modern theory.

 

[etech]

Originally posted by: BooneRebel

Originally posted by: etech
What part of

"Oil and gasoline are commodities traded on the markets.

Oil companies do not set the price.
"

do you people not understand?

If you think the price of gas is strictly related to the cost per barrel of oil then you are living in a fantasy world. There are 18 different middlemen between the crude pumped out of the ground and the 87 octane you buy at the pump, and each one tacks on his own percentage. Yes, there is a direct relationship between crude and refined gasoline, but there is quite a bit of inflationary activity that takes place at the local level.

Take 9/11 for example. By that afternoon local stations had tripled gas prices from ~$1.40 to $5/gal. The price of crude hadn't tripled in that short period of time. It's simply the retailers taking advantage of an emotional downswing. Right now the prospect of war has driven crude up, but it hasn't gone up 20% a week like gasoline has. In the case of 9/11, authorities cracked down on stations that were charging irrational prices for gas, in some cases shutting them down entirely for a few days.

Just because a supply and demand market will bear a certain price, does not mean that the government is going to permit it. Look at California and the energy crisis there a couple of years ago. Enron and others were selling CA electricity to other states, and then buying it back from themselves at an inflated rate to sell to consumers. As a result they made fortunes, and were hit pretty hard by the regulatory commissions once the authorities caught on.

Most local stations are not owned by oil companies.

 

[glenn1]

Price gouging my ass. When you compare inflation adjusted (constant dollar) prices of gasoline over the last few decades, you'll see how laughable on its face the idea that "price gouging" is going on. The last time there was a sustained real increase in gasoline prices was the 1970s.

 

[RU482]

HAHAHA...I just filled up with gas..all the local stations dropped prices ~10-15cents this evening

 

[charliebrown]

I hope gas does go to $5 a gallon - maybe it would get some of the huge SUV's and other "tanks" off the road....

 

[BoberFett]

We should eliminate money. Everything should be free. Why should I be limited in what I can own just because my greedy employer won't pay me more?