Congressional inquiry of Oil industry profits

man, that is true.

everyone ignores that profit margin point every time i mention it. plus, it really isnt my business to care who makes what percent profit. if i dont like it, i should try to move towards being less dependent on whatever i think is too expensive. i should never use the coercive force of the government to manipulate people to sell items to me at the price i like.

i dunno how people can still hang on to the notion that the government stepping in between buyers and seller of a legal item is ever a good idea.

 

in the providing-security sense, yes, but not to protect me from buying things i want to buy, or selling things i want to sell, at prices i choose. it is your mentality that prevents the standard of living from being much higher worldwide. it is the fear of freedom that has restricted prosperity for all of history.

take a look at every country across the world that is not as rich as america. the main reason they are poor is because people think more like you than me. people think they need a central authority to protect them from everything. just like the idiots you have mentioned in the middle east who need a strongman to bully them, because according to you, they are incapable of freedom.

a more free economy is a more rich economy.

assuming that is true, that is not the case with oil companies. and it is definitely not true about communications anymore.

maybe red needs protection from evil companies, and should move somewhere where the government keeps a tighter lid on scary commerce. you might learn that restriction doesnt equal prosperity.

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enron was committing fraud (which is essentially theft), that is when the govenment actually does need to step in. that is the government's job, to enforce contracts. not to stop you from entering into them or exchanging money for goods and services.

can i have an example?

i am in favor of the government protecting me from violence and theft, but not prices. i can decide for myself when things are too expensive.

and i finish by asking yet again, what % profit is too much? i figure by the 8th time i ask i might get an answer. and my arguments that higher oil prices will drastically quicken the transition to different fuels always seem to be ignored. you fellas hear nothing except that the you are scared and need the government to protect you from freedom.

 

Government regulations are the reasons why we have monopolies and no competition in the utilities industry. Same goes for natural gas, water and cable. Try starting up your own power plant and see what the government tells you.

Certainly there needs to be some regulations and oversight in these industries, but it should not restrict competition as it currently does.

Years of regulations is what led to the AT&T monopoly. Thankfully the Reagan Administration broke up this company and deregulated the entire communications industry. The gloom and doom crowd cried that it would result in higher costs to the consumer. 20 years later we enjoy cheap (and more) communication services.

Same goes for the banking industry. Banks were heavily regulated and told where they could do business. They could not operate outside the parish/county they were registered in, much less across state lines. They were told what kind of services they could offer. Again, the Reagan Administration decided to deregulate the banking industry in the mid 80s, much to the dismay of the gloom and doom crowd in this country.

We had 8 banks in the BR area back then. Take a look at the yellow pages to see how many banks we now have. Sure, most aren't local banks, but who cares? They offer many more services than we had available back then.

I'm sure there are other examples of deregulation. I honestly can't think of one that turned out to be bad for this country. I'm not suggesting they turn people loose and not regulate anything, but I am suggesting that our government removes those regulations that prevents more competition.

Don't know about you, but I'd like to have another cable company in BR to choose from. Might help keep those Cox rates in check. Same goes for Entergy.

 

Interesting article about the future of oil prices, and some thoughts that they might be headed down in a big way. Makes the profits look a bit more palatable (assuming no anti-trust activity -- specifically for you, martin :wink: )

http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/12/04/business/outoil.php

 

that article is good and i like it.

people are afraid of things that will never happen. the oil companies are not gonna collude to raise prices to crazy levels to make wild profits. they don't need to. and they dont want everyone to hate them and resolve to become less dependent on oil.

but people are scared of corporations. they are crazy like that. people want something to be scared about. they want a problem to solve. and then when their solution makes things worse, they think that proves them right, that there was a problem in the first place. the solutions are the problem.

and an example of this that affects me is rent control. rent controls cause housing shortages, which drive rents up drastically for non-controlled apartments (like mine). they also cause shady black markets for controlled apartments. developers stop building and maintaining buildings they cannot profit on the way they see fit. this makes things even worse. and people have a sense of entitlement as if they deserve certain products at certain prices. i digress and i could go on forever about this but for once i will spare you. the point is that controls on sellers will result in the opposite of the intended effect.

yesterday i read of two different alternative energies having some sort of breakthrough. one weird buckyball film thing, and also some sort of new organic bio-oil thing. i wouldnt be suprised if investment in these things increased tenfold if oil prices doubled. but they are moving along at a more relaxed pace, because we dont really need them yet. if we allow the market to roll, we will move along to bigger and better things than oil. the solutions will arrive at the same time we really need them, as if by magic.

you can pretty much draw a direct correlation between prosperity and capitalism. the more capitalism you have the more growth you have. the pie is bigger and everyone has a bigger piece. america is so rich now that our poor people are fat. it is great. but we could do better. if we get onboard the capitalism train and push the economy much further away from government manipulation than it is now, i am sure our standard of living will rise to unimaginable levels in no time. whore-bots, sex holodecks, it could all be ours.

conclusion: if you want a whore-bot, then oppose congressional oil hearings.

 

C'mon Red, give me a break.

Deregulation is not just a federal issue, it's a state issue as well. Very little has been done by the Louisiana Public Service Commission to deregulate utilities since the federal government made their changes back in the 90s. The PSC still control both the players and the rates they can charge. And many of the utilities are owned and operated by municipalities.

Just look at what happened in Lafayette earlier this year. The city owns their utilities and now they are getting into the telecommunications business and will compete directly with BellSouth and Cox. Of course, they don't have to pay taxes like private companies and can use tax dollars to provide low cost services. Sounds really fair, doesn't it?

Some people just want the government to provide everything for them. Glad I'm not one of them.

 

The guy I talked to at the public service commission yesterday said natural gas was deregulated a few years back - at least the price of the gas at the well. He said they only regulate the price the gas companies charge to deliver it. I was just curious and gave them a call after I got my gas bill this month and the actual price of the gas increased 270% over what it was a month or so ago. $143.00 just for a hot water heater and two gas lamps. I wonder what the the cold natured folks who had to use the heat had to pay?