Price of gas no longer a political issue in US?

[Micah Goodman]

Originally posted by Kontiki


Oh, of course. I just found it funny that within the span of one post, the author could declare that increasing supply won't do anything and then blame Kerry and others for not agreeing to increase supply.

Your right I should have also added that refining capacity needs to be increased as well. Sense most people do not want a refinery in their back yard the chances of also increasing refining capacity in this country is slim to non existent. I attempted to convey, I guess unsuccessfully, that the prime culprits in high oil prices are a wide range of issues. Some of those are taxes. Democrats as a rule favor high taxes. But I did not state or imply that they are the only reason that prices are high. I also quoted a drop of in production and an increased demand as well. If you took the factual statement of Senator Kerry’s record as political bash then I am sorry to have offended you. But I get tired of people implying that high oil prices are some Machiavellian plot to enrich oil companies.

People pay more for a gallon of spring water than a gallon of gas in this country. Yet I don’t hear people complaining about the evil agenda of big water. The left propagates policies that inflate gas prices. If you honestly believe that high gas prices are a good environmental policy then fine I won’t argue that point with you. But if you then turn around and claim it’s a corporate sponsored scam, then I find the pro environmental arguments dishonest and dogmatic. Please note that I do not mean the statements in this last paragraph to apply to any one single person but to the extreme environmentalists as a group.

[Kontiki]

Fair enough. I wouldn't classify myself as a hard-core leftist, although I'm sure Ned would disagree. Personally, I'm against opening up ANWAR for drilling, would consider some other areas, for increased refinery construction and capacity (provided they met appropriate environmental regulations) and pretty indifferent over the cost of gas (ie. I don't think it should be a policy point to reduce the cost at the pumps unless there's illegal market manipulation at work). I don't think there's any big oil conspiracy, but at the same time don't think that the oil companies are crying too much over the current state of the union.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Micah Goodman

People pay more for a gallon of spring water than a gallon of gas in this country. Yet I don’t hear people complaining about the evil agenda of big water.

To be fair, people who buy Dasani, for example, are misguided to begin with.

[Kidlicious]

There's no oil conspiracy. The price of oil is high because of the weak dollar and low expectations about future demand.

You can't really blame environmentalist though. The oil companies make a lot of money poluting the environment. They should be held accountable for the bad situation. The only solution they come up with is drilling for more oil.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Kidicious


You obviously need more explaination since your economics is so weak. See there's a concept, really simple actually, called the law of diminishing utility. Higher gas prices don't affect rich people's utility as much so they aren't concerned with them.

Rockhead!

Let's quote your original statement, emphasis mine:

Only poor people will conserve with higher prices. Until most Americans are poor higher prices won't lower consumption.

Plenty of entities will conserve in response to higher energy prices, from poor people to shipping companies to energy-intensive industries. To argue that the law of diminishing utility impacts the "poor" more is not to argue that it doesn't impact other groups as well... but that is what you claimed:

"Only" the poor will be affected enough to conserve.

Wrong.

To repeat myself; that statement is so wrong as to be incoherent. The economy is a lot more than just "rich" people and "poor" people, Kid.

Anybody remember that thread where Sten and GP figured out that Exxon/Mobile paid over $70 billion in taxes and licensing fees paid to various governments? I'll dig around for it and try to find the link... pretty interesting reading.

[JohnT]

I also support CAFE levels increased to an average of at least 30mpg on new cars and 25mpg for new SUV's by 2010.

[JohnT]

Found it: Exxon Profit Soars, with Sten's calculation on the last two pages.

[DanS]

Demand for oil is fairly inelastic over short periods of time. Neither poor people, nor rich people, nor enterprises, will conserve much in the short term.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by JohnT
"Only" the poor will be affected enough to conserve.

Wrong.

To repeat myself; that statement is so wrong as to be incoherent. The economy is a lot more than just "rich" people and "poor" people, Kid.

'poor' doesn't specifically specify certain people. It means that generally 'poorer' people have more elastic demands for gas.

If you don't understand what I'm saying you can ask about it or just ignore it. You don't have to be rude.

[Dauphin]

You're a hoot.

[Kidlicious]

I don't know how to take that, but I'm glad that you are amused.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It was probably in the negative because of your tendancy to weasal when you've been shown wrong .

[:) Smiley]

Walking on campus today I hear these LaRouche nuts spewing stuff about impending economic doom, I come home and log onto Poly, and...

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
It was probably in the negative because of your tendancy to weasal when you've been shown wrong .

That only happened once, and this isn't that time.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Smiley
Walking on campus today I hear these LaRouche nuts spewing stuff about impending economic doom, I come home and log onto Poly, and...

Yeah, don't worry. It'll be fine. Go back to sleep.