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Quote by: gr8fuldaniel Quote: |
Quote by: brien Are the oil companies "allowed" to make a profit? | Absolutely. And Enron was allowed to make a profit too. Until they abused the privelege/right. Their monopoly on the California energy market pretty much gave them the PIN number to everycitizen in California. If we didnt pay their asking price, no problem... Rolling Blackout Time. No Problem? That all came about because of deregulation. |
No it came about because of hyper-regulation that was called "deregulation" in
the face of all availible evidence. Enron was able to manipulate the market because
the guns of government set up rules that made collusion and price manipulation
profitable. Enron wouldn't have been solved by arbitrary restrictions on maximum
profits without destroying far more beneficial investment.
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Quote by: brien I spend the money to lease or purchase the land, to drill the well and bring the water to the surface and it doesn't belong to me? Sounds very Communist in theory to me. | Well, we need to draw the line somewhere, imo. At what point should the fed step in and say "ENOUGH, it has become extortion" ? We dont have a Free Market as long as the oil cabal artificially jacks prices using their own greed as the only guidelines for regulation. |
How can it be extortion without someone threatening something? The difference
between extortion and legitimate profit isn't the amount of money received it's
how it was recieved. The oil companies aren't extorting money, they're selling
for what people are willing to pay. If people weren't willing to pay enough to cover
the companies expenses then they'd be stuffed. In fact the real price of oil typically
goes down until the US does something stupid in the middle east.
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Quote by: brien It is like blaming the drug producer and dealer for the drug addict's dependency upon addictive drugs | Not really. The drug addict only "thinks" he needs the product. Even if both his body and mind concur, it doesnt make it true. In todays society they pretty much have us over a barrel. Since we cannot just return to the land as hunters and gatherers, without paying huge licenses, fees, permits, wilderness passes and/or rent/purchase land. Until those government controls are lifted, we have to have affordable fuel to survive as citified folk. |
And what qualifies as "affordable"? Half the price you would have paid in 1900?
Considering that you're much richer than you would have been then that seems
affordable to me.
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Meanwhile, subsisting on Waldon Pond, I would still suffer from the smog produced by big oil even though I am not consuming their product. And the government is allowing it because they have an ego-centric, immoral, idiot planted in the White House to lock in and insure unfettered greed to rob the American citizens of their bank accts.
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It should be noted here that the oil companies usually make less than market ROI.