Yes imported oil is high priced...is it over priced...I dont know...but we all say is...
I heard on the news tonight (The O'Reily Factor) That it costs OPEC $4 to produce 1 barrel of crude oil which is currently selling for $68 on the open market. It is not a costs based market place.
If IMPORTED oil is OVER PRICED why is the price of gas and other products made with DOMESTIC oil just as high...there can be only one reason...WE ARE BEING F****D BY OUR OWN SO CALLED AMERICAN OL COMPANIES!!!
True, but we all (collectively speaking) willingly say please for the service.
I sell a lot of pizzas at Buffo's. I do not set my prices by what Pizza Hut asks for theirs, I set my prices at what I need to do business...shouldn't this also be true of our american(?) oil companies?
Perhaps in the idylic world. But, not in a capitalistic society. Let's say your restaurant becomes so popular that you are always at full seating capacity and that there are always long lines outside waiting to get seated and served. Further, people in line offer extra money (Big tippers) to reserve a table for them. Do you say no? This is an indication that that you are charging too little for your product. Do you raise your prices? Now you find that because of the high volume, you are able to purchase all your pizza making materials for less money. Your profits go up. Do you lower prices? What will that do to the lines already at your door? Do spend the extra profits on security personel to keep lines orderly? Or, do you raise prices to keep the line length down?
What if you aren't the owner of your restaurant, but are still responsible running the restaurant. How do you convince your board of directors not to raise price to maximize their profits? Particularly when there are 12 people pitching their superior management skills and promising higher profits if only they had YOUR job?
If I am right...america should boycot American oil companies...at the pumps.
All the foreign oil companies that do business in the US have corporate offices in the US, I believe. Prices for fuel in the US are different from prices in foreign countries, because prices are set for what the markets will bear for that locale. This is why the price of gas for the same brand varies with the region in which it is sold (Although there is some surcharge for delivery fees in areas distant from the refinery). When demand rises they can raise the price to maximize their income per unit of merchandise sold. Even if demand reduces somewhat they still garner a higher return on investment. To lower prices, demand must reduce. Only then will the Oil companies, wishing to keep their bottom lines in the high numbers, increase volume by reducing profit per gallon.
Oil companies aren't the only ones fleecing the customers. The auto industry, medical supply, health care, insurance and food industry, including beer and bottled water suppliers, all partake of supply and demand pricing, just to name a few. Go to the grocery store and check the price per gallon of water! Think that reflects the cost to produce?
Boycotts only work if they are not viewed as transient spikes in demand. Bill O'Riely was saying on the same show that we should all just not buy gas on Sundays. Sounds good, and oil company analysts would certainly notice a drop in daily sales. But, they would also compare the weekly and monthly sales rate to determine a true trend in demand.
What may work is a boycott of one brand of fuel Foreign or American. A month, maybe even a week of dismal sales would certainly lower that brand's prices until demand picked up. But, there are a lot of people to organize to make this effective. Many people resent being told what brand of gas they can buy, and this makes boycotts fail. Even Exxon recovered nicely from their "boycott" after the Exxon Valdez incident. People "forget" and are easily swayed by slick TV marketing ploys to bolster sales. These people spend big bucks on perfecting advertizing that appeals to their widest demographic customer base. TV can be soo good, yet also soo bad.
Time for bed...
Cheers,
