Gas Price crisis

Re: Gas Price crisis

Reply #30 – August 25, 2005, 05:47:42 PM

Quote from: CougarSE

Have you seen fahrenheit 911?

No. I've been meaning to. Michael Moore doesn't exactly give "the straight dope" when it comes to his movies.

Re: Gas Price crisis

Reply #31 – August 25, 2005, 10:13:05 PM

Quote from: CougarSE

Have you seen fahrenheit 911?

I have, and as much as I believed Bowling For Columbine was an excellent dospoogeentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 went to far. Keep in mind i'm not a "fan" of Bush, but even I realized that it was simply a Bush bashing tactic. I've even experienced seeing Michael Moore live when he came to Kent State University on his pre-election campus tour. He was definately waging an all out war on Bush jr. However, Fahrenheit did have a fair amount of facts that have been verified (i.e.: the Bush families relation to big oil). But even with what fact were presented, the fact that it was so blatently biased simply ruined it's effectiveness.
In the end though, I would still suggest it to those who want to learn a little bit about Iraqi culture, and some Bush family history.

Re: Gas Price crisis

Reply #32 – August 26, 2005, 12:15:29 PM

Michael Moore has an incredible talent for taking facts and truth and piecing them together in a way that pushes his agenda. He's as much of a politician as anyone in Washington.

Re: Gas Price crisis

Reply #33 – August 26, 2005, 12:23:00 PM

Quote from: jkirchman

Michael Moore has an incredible talent for taking facts and truth and piecing them together in a way that pushes his agenda. He's as much of a politician as anyone in Washington.

Sounds like plenty of reason not to trust him.

Re: Gas Price crisis

Reply #34 – August 26, 2005, 12:38:47 PM

There was alot of Bush bashing in the movie but that is what people relate this war too. So why not?

Re: Gas Price crisis

Reply #35 – August 26, 2005, 07:06:31 PM

WE BETTER START BREWING MOON SHINE TO USE FOR GAS

OR EVEN BUILD A CAR THAT RUN'S ON TRASH-OR HOWA BOUT A COUGAR THAT RUN'S ON PROPANE..OK ILL STOP

MAN I FEEL STUPID

BEAR LOSE'S COOL POINT'S ON THIS POST

Re: Gas Price crisis

Reply #36 – August 26, 2005, 08:42:45 PM

I have always considered myself to be a left-leaning person. Not quite a liberal, but closer to liberal than conservative. I like Dunesbury, I believe in equal rights, and I think nobody should have to pay for health care. On the other hand, I am 110% against our Canadian gun control mess, I'm all for capital punishment, and I think Canada spends far too little on its military. Even with my left-leaning ways I found F-911 to be nothing more than Moore staking out a personal vendetta against Bush. I think Bush is about as smart as a chimp, but I don't trust Moore any more than I would trust a republican.

One thing that the vast majority of people doesn't seem to understand is that "Big Oil" has little to do with the price of a barrel of oil. Oil is a publicly traded commodity and it's the buyers that set the price. If you've got something for sale and get an offer of $60, and then another guy offers you $61, of course you're gonna accept the $61. That's how oil works. Right now everybody wants to buy it because they think they can sell it down the road for more money. It's a rare commodity with an unstable source and an uncertain future. Demand is high, so the price is high. Eventually this thinking will hit the wall and the price will come down again, but it'll never hit $30 a barrel again.

Now, don't get be wrong. "Big Oil" certainly has a part in it, but not a huge part. Big oil is 100% responsible for the high prices at the pumps right now because the gas that's being sold at stations right now was bought for $40-$50 a barrel. They jacked the price up and are making profits, selling $40/barrel gas at $65/barrel prices. This sounds unfair to us, but we forget that these are businesses. They exist to make money, not to make life easier for us. More money = happy shareholders.

Big oil could also help by pumping and refining more, thus changing the supply/demand ration for the better, but they would be fools to. Why would they flood the market and thus lower the value of a commodity that has a finite supply? If they've got a billion barrels in the ground, they will eventually sell those billion barrels. It's better for them to sell those billion barrels over ten years at $60/barrel than over five at $30.

Domestic big oil (Texas and Alberta) could help us out by selling their oil domestically for less, but why should they? If I owned a big oil company and had offers of $40/barrel within North America and $65/barrel in southeast Asia, you can bet your arse that oil would be on a boat.

And the governments of oil producing countries, including Canada and the USA, stand to gain from high oil prices not only from taxes but from royalties. Whether you believe that Bush is keeping prices high on purpose is irrelevant - he is not, of course, but he certainly isn't doing much to lower them either, and not because his family is involved in oil - it's because high oil prices are actually good for an oil-producing economy (such as Texas and Alberta). Look at Alberta's recent riches - not only have they paid off their provincial debt, they have a huge surplus. Billions of dollars that they don't know what to do with, and those billions are there because a budget that was written with estimates of oil revenues from $40/barrel prices are now much, much higher. So they're in no great hurry to lower prices either.

No, Big Oil isn't fully to blame, and governments are in no hurry to help us. The only relief we will see is when demand eases, and demand will only ease when prices get high enough that we have no choice but to use less. Not good news, but the truth rarely is, and all we can do is bend over and relax our sphincter muscles. It's a wild ride and it's only just gotten under way.

Re: Gas Price crisis

Reply #37 – September 01, 2005, 08:40:06 AM

it finally hit over a 1$ (1.147$) a liter here and if it follows the news by the end of the month it will be up to 1.40.i sure as hell hope not cause neither my XR-7 or SC run well on reg and prem is nuts.

Re: Gas Price crisis

Reply #38 – September 01, 2005, 12:59:45 PM

Quote from: oldraven

You have it completely backwards. Supply and demand are the two factors driving gas prices up. The more we use, the more it costs. Not the other way around.

Actually, it is the other way around. As the price increases, more people are willing to sell at the higher price, increasing supply. Supply/demand is a confusing thing. I used to think it worked like that, too until I took econimcs and really saw how things operate. It does make sense if you think about it.

*edit* It seems after reading the remainder of the thread, the typical supply/demand curve doesn't apply to things with limited supply. Economincs will always be confusing.

"I'd explain it to yea'... but I flunked economics. Not my fault. They taught it at 8 o'clock in the morning. And there is absolute nothing that you can learn out of one bloodshot eye." - Lewis Black.