Just a few end of the day thoughts. . .
I don't personally know many people who have served in the military -- whether living now or passed on -- but I know today was special for many touched by the loss of a loved one who served as a soldier. Today I did reflect on some of those I love who have already passed on; mostly I recall with fondness my grandparents on the Dalzell side. I do miss them a lot.
Today I went fishing with my boys and a good friend, Paul. And that's all it was for most of us: fishing. Not catching. Paul did catch one small trout, but none of the rest of us got anything (except wet feet, smelly hand, and sunburns!). But, it was nice to be out casting a line on a beautiful day here. There was an hour -- or probably more like 40 minutes -- where a guy not twenty feet from us on the bank pulled out his limit of five fish (all decent, plump trout too!). It's hard to figure how that happens. He was catching fish while folks on both sides of him got nothing. There's a special skill or one of life's mysteries there or something.
I also was thinking this holiday weekend about how a year ago at this time our kids had just finished the school year, we were packing things up for a move, and we were pretty unsettled about jobs, where to live, etc. I feel blessed to be where I am today! I'm also praying for a blessing on friends far and near who stood by us, supported us, prayed for us, helped move us, and so much more. May God bless you all as you have blessed us.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
My Rant Against Gas & Oil Companies
Outrageous! Unbelievable! Gas prices are out of control and nothing seems to be getting any better. Gas is now $3.38 a gallon in Oregon and rising. The price has gone up .88 cents per gallon since the beginning of the year! Hmm. . . no natural disasters, no oil fields blown up, no pipelines shut down. What's up???? Here are my main reasons why I think something is wrong here:
Lack of competition. Our free-market, capitalist system is not operating correctly; supply and demand are not regulating prices. Why? We have too much of a monopoly in the oil business. If this wasn't true then why wouldn't some company say, "hey, we are willing to ONLY make a couple billion dollars this quarter, so we'll undersell these other greedy companies that are making multiple billions." There just isn't any competition to lower prices (or any incentive by the few big companies left -- heck, their boards & CEOs are happy to be raking in the billions and billions). I think that the huge oil companies need to be broken up.
Lack of new refineries. Some may point to supply issues, but I think the big companies keep manipulating prices by claiming they have a lack of refinery capacity. So, they rotate shutting down refineries for "maintenence" and claim that they always have supply problems when doing the annual switching over between summer and winter blends. This is all bogus, of course. They know every year exactly when they'll have to switch blends and they know just when they'll need to do any maintenence. Also, though it really is going to be difficult (read "expensive") with new environmental regulations to open any new refineries, you can't tell me that with all the billions and billions coming in as profits in each of the last several quarters that they don't have the capital to make some new refineries a reality! (Back to my first argument though; with no real competition why should they? They're making way more now than ever before!)
Greed. Simply put: big oil is making lots of money and they don't want to back down. They want to make more and more. Greed. They don't care that the average American is getting killed on their gas and oil expenses. They don't care that companies that have big travel or transportation costs are either going out of business or else having to hike up their prices to all the rest of us. They don't care that these costs are starting to have a huge effect on our economy and on individual families financial well-being. They have tasted big profits and they just want more and more and more. . . My rant is not just against the big boys here either; many of the suppliers and local station owners are profiting too as prices seem to jump up overnight, but never seem to go back down. I heard a commentator a few months back saying that OPEC had set some goals (this would have been 2-3 years ago) for supply levels that they would be happy with if oil was only in the $30-something per barrel cost. So, when the market went crazy and climbed rapidly up into the 50s, 60s, and higher per barrel, their original price expectations and production levels were all shook up. Now, would OPEC be willing to sell oil at only $30 a barrel? Would American and other world suppliers ever go for those old prices? They could still make lots of money, but greed keeps them from ever lowering the prices back down once it has come up. There may have been some reasons (hurricanes, for example) that caused some (though certainly not ALL) of the price hikes a couple of years ago; but once these causes were gone, the prices just don't ever go back down. Greed!
Futures trading. This is actually just more greed. There are people that are making money by playing the market and they want prices to go up. And stay up. And go higher. This is not in the best interest of anyone except those making money trading. More greed.
Is there anything wrong with a company making money? Nope. A well-managed company that supplies a quality product or delivers good service should make a profit. But what we have going on right now is unconscionable (sp?) and perhaps could be criminal; at the least it seems to be based on low ethical and moral standards. Are we -- the average American people -- outraged enough yet? We have a system where we are all trapped by our reliance on fossil-fuels for personal and commerce transportation, for heating, and for much electrical energy production. How can our big suppliers with any small measure of conscience keep raising the prices for all of us and then quarter after quarter declare record profits? We're being robbed!!! I guess we either have to have a revolt or the government has to step in.
I'm sure I could think of some more arguements, but that's probably enough for now. Still, I'm burning about this issue a little bit every day. Especially when almost every night there's a story about new record prices. We've paid over $80 the last two times we filled our Yukon XL (yes, it's a big gas-guzzling SUV, but I don't have the capital to switch vehicles right now and need something to travel in as a family of six); even our Toyota Camry is killing us as it topped 50 bucks for a fill the other day. You know, if gas prices go up by just .01 cent a gallon and you multiply that out by the gallons sold across the country on a given day, that's a HUGE profit jump. So, what's happening when prices are jumping 5, 6, 7, or 8 cents a gallon on a given day? Unreal!
I walk to work every day and I've told my two oldest kids to look for summer jobs at nearby business places that they can ride their bikes to. When electric cars get more common, efficient, and affordable, I'm right there! I wish I had one now. We're going to have to quit paying these oil bandits by weaning ourselves off of their products. But since that won't happen overnight, something's going to have to change now to bring relief.
Lack of competition. Our free-market, capitalist system is not operating correctly; supply and demand are not regulating prices. Why? We have too much of a monopoly in the oil business. If this wasn't true then why wouldn't some company say, "hey, we are willing to ONLY make a couple billion dollars this quarter, so we'll undersell these other greedy companies that are making multiple billions." There just isn't any competition to lower prices (or any incentive by the few big companies left -- heck, their boards & CEOs are happy to be raking in the billions and billions). I think that the huge oil companies need to be broken up.
Lack of new refineries. Some may point to supply issues, but I think the big companies keep manipulating prices by claiming they have a lack of refinery capacity. So, they rotate shutting down refineries for "maintenence" and claim that they always have supply problems when doing the annual switching over between summer and winter blends. This is all bogus, of course. They know every year exactly when they'll have to switch blends and they know just when they'll need to do any maintenence. Also, though it really is going to be difficult (read "expensive") with new environmental regulations to open any new refineries, you can't tell me that with all the billions and billions coming in as profits in each of the last several quarters that they don't have the capital to make some new refineries a reality! (Back to my first argument though; with no real competition why should they? They're making way more now than ever before!)
Greed. Simply put: big oil is making lots of money and they don't want to back down. They want to make more and more. Greed. They don't care that the average American is getting killed on their gas and oil expenses. They don't care that companies that have big travel or transportation costs are either going out of business or else having to hike up their prices to all the rest of us. They don't care that these costs are starting to have a huge effect on our economy and on individual families financial well-being. They have tasted big profits and they just want more and more and more. . . My rant is not just against the big boys here either; many of the suppliers and local station owners are profiting too as prices seem to jump up overnight, but never seem to go back down. I heard a commentator a few months back saying that OPEC had set some goals (this would have been 2-3 years ago) for supply levels that they would be happy with if oil was only in the $30-something per barrel cost. So, when the market went crazy and climbed rapidly up into the 50s, 60s, and higher per barrel, their original price expectations and production levels were all shook up. Now, would OPEC be willing to sell oil at only $30 a barrel? Would American and other world suppliers ever go for those old prices? They could still make lots of money, but greed keeps them from ever lowering the prices back down once it has come up. There may have been some reasons (hurricanes, for example) that caused some (though certainly not ALL) of the price hikes a couple of years ago; but once these causes were gone, the prices just don't ever go back down. Greed!
Futures trading. This is actually just more greed. There are people that are making money by playing the market and they want prices to go up. And stay up. And go higher. This is not in the best interest of anyone except those making money trading. More greed.
Is there anything wrong with a company making money? Nope. A well-managed company that supplies a quality product or delivers good service should make a profit. But what we have going on right now is unconscionable (sp?) and perhaps could be criminal; at the least it seems to be based on low ethical and moral standards. Are we -- the average American people -- outraged enough yet? We have a system where we are all trapped by our reliance on fossil-fuels for personal and commerce transportation, for heating, and for much electrical energy production. How can our big suppliers with any small measure of conscience keep raising the prices for all of us and then quarter after quarter declare record profits? We're being robbed!!! I guess we either have to have a revolt or the government has to step in.
I'm sure I could think of some more arguements, but that's probably enough for now. Still, I'm burning about this issue a little bit every day. Especially when almost every night there's a story about new record prices. We've paid over $80 the last two times we filled our Yukon XL (yes, it's a big gas-guzzling SUV, but I don't have the capital to switch vehicles right now and need something to travel in as a family of six); even our Toyota Camry is killing us as it topped 50 bucks for a fill the other day. You know, if gas prices go up by just .01 cent a gallon and you multiply that out by the gallons sold across the country on a given day, that's a HUGE profit jump. So, what's happening when prices are jumping 5, 6, 7, or 8 cents a gallon on a given day? Unreal!
I walk to work every day and I've told my two oldest kids to look for summer jobs at nearby business places that they can ride their bikes to. When electric cars get more common, efficient, and affordable, I'm right there! I wish I had one now. We're going to have to quit paying these oil bandits by weaning ourselves off of their products. But since that won't happen overnight, something's going to have to change now to bring relief.
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