<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by H2Finally:
The ability of a company to make a profit is NOT the point.
The point is about how we are all FORCED to pay MUCH HIGHER gas prices because of xyz reasons -- then to find out that those xyz reasons = bullsheit -- because this
ONE company alone is earning
$9.9 BILLION IN 1 QTR.
When Microsoft was deemed "too monopolistic" it got censured by the government. That was for a computer o/s software with lots of alternative
CHOICES for the consumers (you can buy a Macintosh instead).
When Exxon earns $9.9B and the second company earns $9+B PROFIT/QUARTER ("cartel"??!) --
WHERE THE CONSUMERS HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO BUY GAS TO LIVE (don't get semantic and bring up peanut-oil-powered cars
) -- where is the government intervention?
Here's a closer analogy:
If the bird flu virus becomes a rampage in the US, and Roche said "Hey! DEMAND IS UP!!" and charged $10,000 per tablet of Tamiflu and make $9.9B for that quarter -- do you think there will be a public outcry?
Summary:
I don't have a problem if I can CHOOSE to pay the price and make that company rich. But when I'm FORCED to pay the price,
Why so surprised with THIS pubic outcry? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Stuff and nonsense. You're saying this in a Hummer forum, for Christ sake. You have all kinds of choices, as do I, as do most Americans. And Exxon doesn't have a 95% market share like Microsoft (which, by the way, I fully support even if they are a monopoly. They were smart enough and tough enough to market a product that everyone now uses. They deserve to reap the benefits).
You want to blame someone? Blame the government. We still aren't drilling in parts of Alaska or in parts of the Gulf. We haven't built a new refinery in 25 years and government regulations make it a long and expensive process to complete. And if Exxon made a $10 billion profit, I wonder how much a profit was made by federal, state, and local governments that also take a cut of what you and I pay.
And if you really believe you are FORCED to pay, you are seriously deluding yourself. You are paying it because you want to. . .just like I am. I could drive my Stealth and get 2.5 time the gas milage I get in my SUT. Or I could buy a hybrid or I could ride a bike. So could you. . .
Forced. . .what a joke! One would think you were living in the USSR. . .