I'm the Decider

[Kimmifunn]

althoogh not a fan of $tarbuck$, there was a great segment of the big guy on 60 minutes the other evening. some resons why it's expensive is that he pays growers quite a good rate for the beans, and healthcare is a pretty serious issue there. apparently his father got injured on the job and was basically tossed to the curb, made a big impression on him. he spends more on healthcare for employees than he does on beans. and, i believe a 20 hour employee is covered with healthcare.

regarding gas. although placing blame is easy, you're right SJ, the populace needs to get active. start locally, get on that bike. hit up local politicians and move up the ladder. it seems that we elect the best of the worst into office, but that's it. once they are in office they need to be steered. they work for us, we pay their salaries. write them and let them know how you feel,(i know i'm on the white house's black list, i write the president weekly) show up at local meeting and voice your opinion. Sell that SUV, please. we are headed down the wrong fork of the road and we need to turn this bus around.

jr

I have a dvd of the CEO on 60 Minutes. I had to get it for a head honcho over here who wanted it. I kinda wanted to check it out.

 

[John]

It took 9-years following the 1970's oil embargo for gas to reach $1 per gallon. It took 25 more years for gas to reach $2. From there, it took less than 12-months for it to top $3.

Exxon/Mobil recently reported the largest corporate profits in history.

I'm not the Executive Decider, but I've decided that something's not right.

 

[John R]

YouTube - Pink- Dear Mr President - Live

 

[JT]

Sure sounds like "gov should determine prices businesses should charge" to me.

Who decides when it's gouging vs. an "acceptable" profit? The government. Who enforces? The government.

What, in your opinion, constitutes price "gouging"?

Sure sounds like "gov should determine prices businesses should charge" to me.
Then you might want to get your ears checked

To answer you question I think at this point it is Me that determines it is price gouging because that is the way I feel right now

Who enforces? I don?t know but I hope we as a whole can find out.

I will say that I have a problem with a company boasting record profits for a year and not have any sensitivity toward those companies that are going under due to high fuel costs.
The way the Gov. could help us may not be regulating price or getting involved with company profits. But, since they consume more fuel than any industry in the country(don?t know this for a fact but Im can guess they are close) they can make and impact on these oil companies by refusing to pay these prices or reduce consumption for some time. Don?t say they cant since we are at war. They can here in the states.
You can roast me all you want, it doesn?t change me or my opinion. Our Gov can help if they wanted to bring these prices down. Im sure if they cut back their usage for a short time the big oil companies would see the difference and possibly show some price reduction. But I don?t see GB doing anything like that. He appears to be to close to the oil manufactures.

So there is my opinion SlowMovin please take it for what it is worth (not much) and leave it at that. JT

 

[OhioBeachBum]

Nutshell is as long as Americans keep sucking up gas indiscriminately (think 3 ton SUV @ maybe 15MPG vs just about anything else at 30MPG or better), everybody (including those paying attention to consumption) is going to keep getting screwed...

As for politics & politicians, they do (on either side of the fence) produce copious volumes of hot air and b******t. If we could just figure out how to direct the former into turbines and extract the methane from the latter, they'd all at least provide one positive service.

 

[Dreamsicle]

Sure sounds like "gov should determine prices businesses should charge" to me.

Who decides when it's gouging vs. an "acceptable" profit? The government. Who enforces? The government.

What, in your opinion, constitutes price "gouging"?

?Capitalism needs to function like a game of tug-of-war. Two opposing sides need to continually struggle for dominance, but at no time can either side be permitted to walk away with the rope.?

That's the role of the government - to keep any one side from walking away with the rope. All of these people who voted for "less government", which sounds great on the surface of things, are getting what they voted for.

 

[SlowMovin]

All of these people who voted for "less government", which sounds great on the surface of things, are getting what they voted for.

What is it, then, that you wish the government to do?

 

[TooFarTampa]

All of these people who voted for "less government", which sounds great on the surface of things, are getting what they voted for.

I would disagree that the people who voted for the incumbent actually got less government. They may have thought that's what they would get, but they didn't.

Meantime, I don't believe "more government" is what is needed here, in the form of price controls. As Donna and others have so eloquently pointed out, prices rising dramatically based on dramatically increased demand is entirely appropriate and perhaps even necessary for our long-term survival as a nation.

This is a statement based on simple economic theory and physics. I remember wondering even in high school, when I learned that fossil fuels take millions of years to form inside the earth, whether we would have millions of years of supply left or whether we would eventually run out. Now that I know more about how the world works it is a foregone conclusion that at some point we WILL run out. The concept of "peak oil" is very real, and very scary, because so few people are talking about what happens when we truly can't produce what we need. Considering we are far from prepared to fill the gap with alternatives yet, that almost guarantees that our economy will stop growing until we can fix this problem, and since we have bet EVERYTHING in our economy on future growth, this is very very bad.

So yes, the prices should go up because people need to THINK and plan more, and start worrying about the world as a whole and not just complain about having to conserve. I'm not necessarily a "doomer," and I think we are going to be able to work ourselves out of this dependence, but it is going to be rocky and will take sacrifice, urgency and ingenuity.

Regardless, I don't think it's a good time to be sinking Social Security money into the stock market a la private accounts, betting on future economic growth... :roll:

 

[SlowMovin]

I would disagree that the people who voted for the incumbent actually got less government. They may have thought that's what they would get, but they didn't.

You can say that again. One might say our two dominant political parties represent the party of big government and the party of even bigger government. I'm no longer sure which is which.

 

[Dreamsicle]

What is it, then, that you wish the government to do?

Protect its citizens from monopolies, cartels and corporatization at the expense of the greater good.