The LEFTovers: Gas Prices

Oily executives lobby Congress for profits - Opinion

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"Working-class people struggle to fill their gas tanks at nearly $3 a gallon while oil company executives help their companies rake in profits of figures in the billions - something seems off-kilter in this situation."

-The "working-class" was not forced to buy the gas for their cars. How is it "off-kilter" when the oil companies make their money from the people who voluntarily pay them? I suggest you read this article by Dr. Harry Binswanger, Gas Prices and Bush's "Appeasenomics" to further exemplify my point.

"In the third quarter, four of the nation's top oil companies, including Chevron Corp. and Shell Oil Company, earned $25 billion in combined earnings while crude oil was priced at $70 a barrel, according to an Associated Press story. Again, something does not seem quite right here."

-Everything seems very correct. If a business owner chooses to raise the cost of their product, and people still choose to buy it (with their own freewill I may add) at the same rate as before the prices were raised, profits are all but unavoidable. Now if by saying "off-kilter" you mean unethical business practices, well...you're still wrong. As Dr. Binswanger says in the above linked article:

"...two factors obviously account for the price being higher than it should be: our failed "policy" in the Middle East and environmental regulations. In regard to the latter, the Democrats who are blaming rising gas prices on the president are the very ones who scuttled his attempt to lift even a few regulations on drilling offshore and defeated his proposal to start drilling in Alaska (ANWR)."

-The bottom line is this: The left assumes that when a company turns a profit, all the money that the company earned is given exclusively to the CEO's retirement fund (like they didn't earn it in the first place, but have no fear, I'll keep going), and that none of their capital is put back into the business to create more efficient ways to get oil from the ground, thus making oil cheaper for everyone.