Does it seem like excuses are being made for the oil prices?

Question

Every single day when oil goes up, all i can hear is excuses, to justify the hike in oil prices.. I wonder what a Exxon Valdez spill would do to todays oil costs? Something that wasn't a big deal at all in the late 80's would drive barrels out of the roof today.. all this seems like excuses with no real materialisitic reality.

Answer 1

The only excuse the need is inflation. All prices go up. I want to hear the excuses for all the whining and crying.

Answer 2

I just read an article that said hike in oil prices had nothing to do with supply and demand. lol WHAT!? It has to do with weakening american dollar what?! A. supply and demand always are indicators of price. B. The us is not the only country in the world so how does our dollar weaken it that much? It is 2 things really, one is that people that were trying to make money on the housing market and buyin stocks (speculation) are now doing the same in oil. So housing goes down gas goes up. 2nd is greed. WHen sugar taxes occured, prices go up, they know we pay it and when taxes disapear, prices are the same. It is greed. Remember when katrina caused a so called "shortage" in oil prices spiked. It has returned immediately because they know we will pay it. Hey someone gets rich (those taht pump the oil) and we suffer. Well we got the numbers and outrage and they are looking for the culprit. Everytime i hear they are looking for it oil drops a little... it means we are squeezing and someone is faultering. I garuantee you the public will want to see these people made example of. I really just want us to lose our oil dependency and start using alternatives so that we can support an american economy with our dollar and not an arab country.

Answer 3

Unfortunately, something much simpler, less sinister, and a lot more cruel is going on -- the simple laws of supply and demand, with supply diminished by not just availability, but also by poor planning, short term greed by corrupt lobbying and campaign finance systems, and 25 years of politicians not wanting to tell voters what the voter doesn't want to hear.

Europeans have been paying this much for decades because their politicians double or triple the price with added tax.  At least a fair amount of those taxes go to changing to higher gas mileage requirements and alternative energy.

Here, Carter's National Renewable Energy Lab loses funding to bus vs rail, big car makers vs small, and the country generally loses in favor of the status quo of anyone with enough money or influence to preserve it for himself.

The only fix is an educated, demanding, involved polity.

BTW, exxon/valdez type stuff happens all the time (they still haven't cleaned up Bhopal's Union Carbide plant).  Only desperate locals or terrorists who threaten big oil installations cause investment $$ panic.  Better if campaign finance and lobbying were less attractive than public service.

Answer 4

Back in 1979, we had gas riots in my home town, today people are like lambs to the slaughter.

Levittown was crazy that night

We as a nation must say no more to big oil and stop buying gas for a week, prices will come down