Laws Against Price Gouging

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Flubber


As usual, short term thinking . .. . . Yes a price ceiling would cut prices now but as you admit , new capacity gets LESS likely

I didn't say there would be no new capacity. I said they would not over build capacity.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Price ceilings worked great during the 70s oil crisis

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Price ceilings worked great during the 70s oil crisis

I think they could have been done better. The thing is that exploration still increased under the controls, but at a moderate rate. In 1979, exploration exploded when the controls were lifted. The result was depressed prices.

[Imran Siddiqui]

In 1979, exploration exploded when the controls were lifted. The result was depressed prices.

This proves your point... how?

[Impaler[WrG]]

I think their should be illegal to purchace vehicles getting less then 40 MPG unless the buyer has some proven need for it (for example you actualy haul a metric tons of bricks around on a daily basis because your a brick layer). Vehicle registration costs should increese exponentialy the lower the gass milage of the vehicle.

I estimate that 20% of the Vehicles on the road are consuming 80% of the gasoline (classic 80/20 rule) and most of them have absolutly NO need to do so, its simply a status symbol on the part of the owner or the person lives 2 hours from their place of work to save on housing costs (thus contributing to urban sprawl)

For some individuals to consume so much of a vital resorce in a time of shortage is unacceptable and imoral.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Well first you'd have to get some cars that can do 40 mpg without being a sardine can . Hell, Camry's only do something like 35 MPG on the highway.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

In 1979, exploration exploded when the controls were lifted. The result was depressed prices.

This proves your point... how?

If a ceiling price was put on wholesale gasoline refiners would still build new refineries.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Kidicious


If a ceiling price was put on wholesale gasoline refiners would still build new refineries.

Again with the blanket generalizations. Since no new refineries were built in the US in the last 25 years, how exactly does limiting the potential upside HELP this situation ??

And why again is any of this needed or desirable to restrict a refining industry which had marginal profitability at best historically??

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Well first you'd have to get some cars that can do 40 mpg without being a sardine can .

Heck, my Miata can do close to that already.

Hey, wait a minute...my Miata is a sardine can.

[TCO]

Just based on the sentence and the author, this thread should be erased and the originator sterilized.

[Zkribbler]

TCO...TCO...TCO

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Flubber
Again with the blanket generalizations. Since no new refineries were built in the US in the last 25 years, how exactly does limiting the potential upside HELP this situation ??

Have you been reading the thread? I've repeated myself more then once already. Obviously, since there is more demand for gas than there is capacity to supply gas, there is incentive to build refineries. The problem is that there maybe too many built since the price of gas is so high.

You're only looking at incentive to build refineries, and not looking at the whole picture. A windfall profit tax will increase consumer surplus and help the refining industry not over expand again.

And why again is any of this needed or desirable to restrict a refining industry which had marginal profitability at best historically??

To lower gas prices!

[notyoueither]

We don't need lower gas prices, we need much higher.

We should be taxing gas on the scale they do in Europe.

Forget telling industry and people what they have to do. Hit them with the stick and let people come up with their own solutions.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Hit them with the stick . . .

Politicians really, really don't like to do this to voters.

a politician is an arsehole
upon which everyone has sat,
except a man.

...e.e. cummings

[Ned]

This eagerness of politicians to punish people for making profits from short-term shortages is as old as the hills. Arguably, it was a contributing factor to the fall of the Roman Empire when the despicable Diocletion imposed price controls on the Empire. This lead to economic dislocations that Herr Emperor fixed by tying people to their professions and/or land. The economy of the empire simply collapsed as it increasingly became a barter economy. As well, the Empire had to hire foreign soldiers as it could no longer recruit new soldiers from other professions. Only sons of soldiers could be soldiers, etc. We all know where this lead.

When the price of bread hits the roof during a seige, should the good king impose price controls? Not if he wants anyone to risk running the blockade to bring in more wheat.

Ditto oil. If you want more supply, you simply have to keep away from price controls of any sort. It was price controls, after all, that caused the economic meltdown in the '70s. And it was the lifting of price controls that was a major contributing cause of the boom that began in the '80s.

The single most important thing, therefore, in any economy is that price remain unregulated in any manner.