OrganizedChaos
Diamond Member
- Apr 21, 2002
- 4,524
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stupid question about oil prices: how come oil prices and go up and down 10 bucks either way but a quart of 5W-30 always costs the same?
Oh my, someone with common sense. Actually an interesting exercise would be for some of you prissys complaining about oil prices to make a list of which liquids are cheaper per unit than gas and which are more expensive. Once you have that, figure out how much profit is made per gallon on each and get back to me.
Google doesn't charge for anything, douchebag.
In response to the OP - prices rise by the price of the oil. Prices fall by competition. The price of oil can change overnight, necessitating a need to raise prices. Competition on the other hand, is a long term war of attrition between the gas stations, each undercutting each other by pennies until the price of gas stabilizes - assuming the price of oil stabilizes. The greater the drop in the price of oil, the more leeway there is for stations to undercut each other, leading to a faster (but not overnight as with the rise) decline.
Oil is oil, it doesn't matter what they paid for it. Oil is worth what oil is worth. If the price of oil just rised, the value of oil in their tanks just rised - it's not like every gas station gets the gas at the same time, so there is a delayed effect - the only way they the station owners can shield themselves from making a small profit one day to taking a big loss the next day is to price their gas according to the price of oil, not the price they paid for it.
You can see a conspiracy if you want, but thats just paranoia. It's strictly business in the end. They are no different than any other business, trying to maximize profit, I don't know why gas stations are so demonized. Mostly ignorance I suppose. Blame whoever you want, but we are dealing with a commodity that is practically identical at all suppliers, with cutthroat competition between dozens of gas stations in any given area. The stations make very little money as it is, to my understanding. Those stations that undercut the competition are rewarded with more customers, but they must obviously be cautious, or else they'll end up with a large tank of gas they paid a lot for and can't charge as much as they paid for. But we are also dealing with a commodity that is relatively cheap, and geographically limited - all it takes is another cent to undercut the guy a few blocks down, but there is just as many people who either realize that they have to use gas to get to the further gas station, or are just don't care about hunting down the cheapest absolute price, and can deal with paying an extra 50 cents a fill-up.
There is NO WAY there is collusion amongst all gas stations (most of which are independently own) in all places in all of America.
As for the major oil companies getting exhorbiant profits - it is suspicious, and I don't completely understand how it works at that end of the supply chain, but to my understanding, its the futures traders that determine the price of oil at the end of the day, so where does the blame REALLY lie?
In the end, gas is STILL relatively cheap, and economical vehicles are everywhere. Stop bitching about the price of gas. We had a good run with super low gas prices - if you're struggling to get by, its cause youre driving something too big too far.
They don't charge ME anything - if they are profitable and still remain free for the vast majority of googles services, they can't obviously be accused of price gouging US.
I'm aware of that, I mean it only in the sense for the "end-user" that for the vast majority of use for the vast majority of users that think of google, it's free. I've been using google for years, countless services, and I've never given them a cent for anything.
Sure you have. I'm 100% confident that you have bought from a company that advertises on Google. And that means that you HAVE given Google your money in the form of increased product costs.
Mark
They are free to advertise wherever they want, and I'm free to buy wherever I want to buy from. There are just as many (ironically, you can find them on google) companies that don't directly market as much, and thus have lower prices than the google advertising ones.
Its quite a bit different than a global rise in the price of a universal commodity.
This is the internet we are talking about - google doesn't own it, but they have the best name recognition. But one site is as close as the next - just one url away. No one is forced to buy ads from google.
The term gouging is only really applicable when we are talking about something in great demand at a time of low supply, with little choice of supplier by the consumer, giving sellers the opportunity to charge whatever the hell they please. Kind of like snow shovels in a blizzard - you need it, they don't have enough of them for everyone, and considering theres 3 feet of snow on the ground, youre getting it from the closest place, or youre not getting it at all.
We on the other hand, have a rather limited source of oil suppliers, and a rather limited supply of nearby gas stations.
This is so apples to oranges it's not even funny.
We're addressing your quote:
Whereas in fact we just proved to you that you are indeed the douchebag and Google does "charge for anything"...that's how they $7 billion in revenue every year.
Not only does Google charge for advertising, they charge to backfill other websites that have search features, noob.
Then allow me to rephrase it to more accurately match my original intention since people are more concerned with semantics than content:
"Google does not charge the end-user directly for nearly all that they are known for (searching, email, earth, maps, desktop, toolbar etc etc), and you are still a douchebag for trying to draw a comparison with google and an oil company."
So you're saying it's not OK for Exxon to make 11% profit margin because they sell directly to consumers, but it's OK for Google to gouge advertisers and make 24% profit margin because...they don't sell a inelastic commodity that is also a necessity?
Information (in the form of advertising here) is about as universal of a commodity as you can get...
Mark
Mark
His definition of "commodity" is strictly the tangible definition, i.e. metals, oil, gas, etc. He should look up the word before using it.
I'm undecided whether its ok for the oil companies (not the gas stations) to make that profit since I don't fully understand the process by which that money is made.
Google isnt gouging. They are charging what they please, and NO ONE is forced to buy advertising from them. Thats like bitching that ABC is gouging advertisers for prices of commercials during the superbowl - they have something people want to see, and they are going to price it at the price that makes them the most profit, like EVERY OTHER BUSINESS.
Google may very well be horrendously expensive, but they are not GOUGING. Why is that so hard to understand?
I'm well aware theyre both commodities, but theyre DIFFERENT in an important aspect. Every site on the internet is equally close. Every gas station in the world is NOT.
Oh, so being black box, not adequately addressing click fraud, owning 52% of internet search market share, etc, they are not gouging? You think you're so smart yet you know nothing lol. Shady blind bidding system...
As long as there are AMD chips around, and there is no reason that we specifically NEED to use intel, then they are not gouging.
Given MS's near monopoly on the consumer OS market, one could argue that $400 for Vista Ultimate is indeed gouging.
Like I said, they can charge absurd prices, and be total bastards, but you are completely misapplying the concept of gouging to them.
From dictionary.com:
Why is this so damn hard to understand, seriously? 52% is nothing - Yahoo is a click away.
If people pay googles prices, its cause they believe it's worth it to them considering google's market share. Its a business decision on their part. Not I have to advertise with google because there is no other portal or site on the net to advertise with.
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