How do you force a company/corporation/industry to lower its prices?

[drinkmorejava]

Buy an electric car. Won't be too much longer, perhaps 30-50 years ?, until the oil supply has diminished further to the point it becomes too expensive for consumers to afford. Eventually everyone will be electric out of necessity and gasoline powered cards will become a niche for car enthusiasts.

When a tank of gas costs $500 you won't see many people driving gas powered cars.

Of course going electric now will slow down the process of eradicating the world's oil reserves, so get a big SUV and hasten the process!

Look up coal liquefaction. That along with other synthetic/biofuel technology will prevent $500/tank from ever becoming a reality. Of course, governments could make it happen, but the technology is there to keep things going for a long time.

 

[GrumpyMan]

I'm for spoiler tags even if it's been broadcast - not everyone watches shows immediately, and don't need them ruined - but didn't really much spoiler there. The one thing that would be a real spoiler in it, the show has said the opposite of what you claim, so it seems more like guessing, not a spoiler.

But for example, I haven't seen Homeland yet, and don't need to see the spoilers from even the first season - spoiler tags are good.

Point taken.....I won't tell you how Breaking Bad ends then...

 

[Train]

The Federal govt can do this:

Pick a price point for a barrel of oil. When market price is above it, sell oil from strategic oil reserve. When it falls more than 5-10% below it, buy oil at market price to restock. This could smooth out spikes and have a calming effect on the market, causing some speculators to look for profits elsewhere.

This of course is dependent on always having some in stock, which at long enough of a high price will eventually cease to be true. But the USA could sell 1 million barrels a day (~5% of US consumption) and have enough to last 691 Days. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve_(United_States) )

 

[ThinClient]

Easy. You stop buying their products.

Supply and demand.

 

[skimple]

Why do you think oil/gas is overpriced? Because people with a specific political ax to grind tell you so? I think that if you looked at the other countries that are so much more "environmentally conscious", you would find that their gas prices are much, much higher.

It has nothing to do with free market or crony capitalism. Other countries tax the bejeesus out of it. And I think you'll find that there is not great wave of electric cars taking over because of high taxes on oil.

Other alternatives will take over as people find them to be a better value.

 

[pete6032]

Why do you think oil/gas is overpriced? Because people with a specific political ax to grind tell you so? I think that if you looked at the other countries that are so much more "environmentally conscious", you would find that their gas prices are much, much higher.

It has nothing to do with free market or crony capitalism. Other countries tax the bejeesus out of it. And I think you'll find that there is not great wave of electric cars taking over because of high taxes on oil.

Other alternatives will take over as people find them to be a better value.

Are electric cars more popular in Europe?

 

[OverVolt]

If its not a monopoly, simply stop buying their products.

If its a monopoly... regulation is better than no regulation but is still worse then a competitive marketplace.

 

[sdifox]

delist refined oil products. Or make delivery mandatory.