The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Yeah, yeah, I know....taxes go to "the public". I still find it disgusting that taxes on gas are about 5 times the profits on a gallon, yet the government who levies the taxes wants to investigate the oil companies about them making too much money.

Sigh.

All those numbers don't change the fact that price fixing is illegal.

Oil is a commodity and the market dictates the price.

Unless it's being run as a monopoly or cartel.

Now, personally, I don't think American oil companies are doing anything illegal, based on the price of oil per barrel. According to these numbers when oil was at $37/barrel in 2004, pump prices were about $1.70/gallon. Now that we're at about double the price of oil, we're at about double the price of gasoline. Seems about right to me.

The only thing I notice that's a little fishy is that when oil prices go up, there's an instant rise at the the pump to match. But when oil prices go down, it takes a month to see a drop at the pump. But even that is just pennies here and there.

But, that being said, I welcome an investigation. If it turns up nothing, as I suspect, so be it. But collusion and price fixing are a very real possibility and blindly saying "the market dictates the price" without keeping an eye on it is a sure way to allow price fixing to run a free market into the ground.