They do it because they can..
They do it because they can..
Capitalism in its uglier side is showing its true colors. The oil company shareholders want profits, so their companies do whatever it takes to please them and only them. The more the better...
At one time, when the fear of God was the beginning of wisdom, people tempered capitalism with a genuine concern for his fellow human being--or at least a healthy dose of respect for the Almighty--as in there will be a special extra-toasty spot in Hell for those who crush the poor for gain. Businesses generally tempered their supply and demand basis of pricing with the concern for the common good of their fellow citizen. At one point even those who ran oil companies thought this way--as unbelievable as it may seem to be today. Now, with the 'gangsta' morality (It's wrong only if I get caught.), and the relativism many in this world have embraced (If it feels right to me, then it's the best way, and you're free to believe in your own way; there are no absolutes.), you can sue or otherwise get as much money as you like and not give a @#$% about anyone who may suffer because of how you did it. The oil companies have caught on. They don't fear God--at least a version of God who cares about 'infidel' Americans, Europeans, Australians, or other 'western' cultures, and don't care about 'little' people. What's the result? Raising prices and wringing us dry worldwide.
Domestic price gouging is done because the oil companies can get away with it and have cast off ever increasing amounts of moral restraint. Competition? What's that? They've been getting away with price fixing and trusts for so long, there's been no other way of business for years, and US citizens don't seem to notice anymore.
Look what eventually happened with the anti-trust federally manditated breakup of the monopoly of Bell-Telephone and AT&T. Though phoning people still costs some money, you can now call from Alaska to Florida long distance for an entire month without hanging up for less than what it cost to talk to someone in a neighboring state 30 years ago for 20 minutes. Phone company employees aren't starving, and their executives live well, but even the poorest can now afford at least some kind of phone.
How about breaking up the oil monopoly and make them competitively get prices down? When oil really gets scarce? Ration it like we did in the 1970s. We'd learn restraint, car pool, and not be run into destitution like the current policy of big oil is having us do. Leave the prices at reasonable levels that won't turn most average citizens into debtors. Same with natural gas and heating oil, plus the rest of petroleum-based products.
I hope that it doesn't take thousands or tens of thousands of people freezing to death this winter for our government (Before anyone says "Republican" this or that, remember that Democrats run both houses of congress!) to forcibly take action and lock a $40.00 a barrel of oil as a maximum, and $1.50 a gallon gasoline as a federally manditated maximum. Sure, some OPEC countries may balk and try to hold out for a time, but in time they will be glad to get our $40.00 per barrel--and supply it generously. Or maybe it will take 100,000s or....
As for me, I'm praying that genuine concern for others will take the place of greed that seems to be driving gasoline and other petroleum products' prices way above reason. Someday, if it continues this way, those oil share holders will sit all alone in their cold dark mansions wondering why their gardeners and service staff have fled to the hills, their downed power lines were not restored, and their $17.00 per gallon heating oil not delivered because the delivery person left town for a 'safe' location weeks earlier. What use is all that money if there's no way to spend it? We will have gone on to better things and left them behind--I just hope it doesn't happen that way. Oh, yes, there's that pesky "judgement day" factor, too... Maybe that toasty parcel will get a bit crowded in the not too distant future.
Chris
, I appreciate what you are implying! I was once a bleeding heart, but then they stitched me up!
