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That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday, - Page 69

post #2041 of 2203
2/4/09 at 10:16am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

If we're going to use numbers to put things in perspective, $45 billion in profit averages out to $7.5 for every man, woman and child on the planet.
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post #2042 of 2203
2/4/09 at 12:15pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by nolesrule
If we're going to use numbers to put things in perspective, $45 billion in profit averages out to $7.5 for every man, woman and child on the planet.
Or funds the Federal budget for about 5 days.
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post #2043 of 2203
2/4/09 at 12:47pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by nolesrule
If we're going to use numbers to put things in perspective, $45 billion in profit averages out to $7.5 for every man, woman and child on the planet.
I would be happy if every man, woman & child just gave me $0.01 each
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post #2044 of 2203
2/4/09 at 1:13pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Gatie
Hush Dave. The financial world is a zero sum game. You know that every dollar put in a "fat cat's" pocket is one less dollar to feed the hungry and clothe the poor. It could never be used to employ the willing and pay the working.
Right, sorry. I should get back to my zero-sum work here at the office. We made a profit last year, and I get to keep my job. Lousy fat cats, getting us work and making profits. I hope that's not too evil of us.
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post #2045 of 2203
2/6/09 at 8:09am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkHastings
Exxon made it's largest profits in history!

Banks are closing, people are losing their jobs and homes, bailouts are killing this country and were letting these fat cats get by? Something ain't right.
Mark, when you refer to the fat cats, are you referring to the CEOs of the oil companies, or to the shareholders?

I've run into more than a few people who think that corporate profits end up in the pockets of the CEOs and their cronies. This just isn't so. Profit is what a corporation has left over after lining the CEOs' pockets with prodigious amounts of cash.

And the profits belong to the company owners, which, in the case of a publicly held company, is the shareholders.

Remember also that company profit is most often eventually re-invested into corporate assets in order to meet growing demand for its product. And an oil company needs to make billions in profit if it ever intends to build a new multi-billion-dollar off-shore platform, or refurbish a fleet of tankers. The oil business is expensive.

Until a year ago, demand for oil has doubled every ten years since the industrial revolution. Oil companies simply must make the profit they're making if they are to grow sufficiently to keep up with growing demand. Ironically, if the oil companies didn't make this kind of profit, supplies would dwindle in an expanding market, and prices would go up.

So just because it's a jaw-droppingly big number doesn't automatically make it obscene. In an expanding market, big businesses are required to make big profits in order to keep up with growing demand.
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post #2046 of 2203
2/6/09 at 8:30am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianW
Until a year ago, demand for oil has doubled every ten years since the industrial revolution. Oil companies simply must make the profit they're making if they are to grow sufficiently to keep up with growing demand. Ironically, if the oil companies didn't make this kind of profit, supplies would dwindle in an expanding market, and prices would go up.

So just because it's a jaw-droppingly big number doesn't automatically make it obscene. In an expanding market, big businesses are required to make big profits in order to keep up with growing demand.

Are you saying that if profit went down, prices would go up due to shortages? Nope, once again, my "Zero Sum Game" theory proves you are wrong. Every dollar taken from greedy profits means more dollars for the poor. Pay no attention to the gas lines of the 1970's when price fixing gas resulted in decreased profits, causing a worldwide oil crisis due to lack of supply. Even/Odd days of the week and "No Gas Today" signs never really happened.

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post #2047 of 2203
2/6/09 at 9:34am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

It fascinates me that neither success ("excessive" profits) nor failure (huge losses by some companies due to their own incompetence, followed by a government bailout) is looked upon by many as something that should be allowed to happen. I much prefer "reward the competent and don't reward the incompetent".
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post #2048 of 2203
2/6/09 at 10:16am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertR
It fascinates me that neither success ("excessive" profits) nor failure (huge losses by some companies due to their own incompetence, followed by a government bailout) is looked upon by many as something that should be allowed to happen. I much prefer "reward the competent and don't reward the incompetent".

Success and failure are not a result of one's actions, we are either victims of an oppressive system, or simply cast upon the waves of luck. Neither of which is "fair", so the biggest problem facing the success of everyone is to eliminate the "unfairness" and make everyone equal. We have to punish the wealthy and powerful, in order for things to be "fair". The fact that this often results in everyone's life declining to the same levels of poverty just goes to prove how "fair" it is. I quote Alvin Lee:

"Tax the rich, feed the poor, till there are no rich no more"

Indeed.
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post #2049 of 2203
2/6/09 at 10:28am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Are you saying that if profit went down, prices would go up due to shortages?
I think this is actually a fair question (all snark aside ). This will always happen in a growing market. (And the oil market has been the very definition of growth -- half of all the oil we've burned since the industrial revolution has been burned in the last eleven years.)

In a contracting market, all bets are off, at least until things stabilize. The US automobile market is a good example of this. It is a contracting market, and GM -- which has the infrastructure to serve 50% of a growing market, but now serves only 20% of a contracting market -- finds itself profitless (having to support that burgeoning infrastructure), but there is no shortage of cars.

But your Zero Sum Game theory still holds up impressively as it enforces the transfer of wealth from the auto industry fat cats to the oil industry fat cats.

Put simply, if you sell something people want to buy, you'll make a profit! How cool is that?
Quote:
I much prefer "reward the competent and don't reward the incompetent".
Right, and that's exactly the way it IS working. (Well, except for the "don't reward the incompetent" part. )
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post #2050 of 2203
2/6/09 at 10:36am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianW
Put simply, if you sell something people want to buy, you'll make a profit! How cool is that?

Not cool at all. What about the people who can't sell something people want to buy, because losing the birth lottery means they were born with a genetic predisposition to suck at selling stuff? The ol' "suck at selling" gene rears its ugly head and they are cast upon the waves of fate, ending up on the island of skid row. What about those poor slobs, hmmmmmm?
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post #2051 of 2203
2/6/09 at 11:07am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Gatie
What about the people who can't sell something people want to buy, because losing the birth lottery means they were born with a genetic predisposition to suck at selling stuff?
Hey, c'mon, Jeff. We all suck at something, and we can't all suck at sucking like the fat cats, now can we?

And, of course, I'm using the proverbial "we", given present company.
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post #2052 of 2203
2/6/09 at 11:10am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianW
Hey, c'mon, Jeff. We all suck at something, and we can't all suck at sucking like the fat cats, now can we?

And, of course, I'm using the proverbial "we", given present company.

Hehe, "suck at sucking".
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post #2053 of 2203
2/6/09 at 11:54am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Gatie
Hehe, "suck at sucking".
Suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.
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post #2054 of 2203
2/6/09 at 11:57am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Gatie
Success and failure are not a result of one's actions, we are either victims of an oppressive system, or simply cast upon the waves of luck.
This is my current theory of success.

Gather a group of people and each one toss a coin a hundred times. Some get a mixture of heads and tails; but a few will heads many times in a row (and some with tails). So it is in business. Most businesses make their random decisions with mixed success and failure and those are the normal companies. But every now and then, some company gets "heads" every time, and a GE or Microsoft is born.

But it's not brains or savvy. Just luck. They're the guys that happened to toss heads 60 times in a row.

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post #2055 of 2203
2/6/09 at 12:37pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveF
This is my current theory of success.

Gather a group of people and each one toss a coin a hundred times. Some get a mixture of heads and tails; but a few will heads many times in a row (and some with tails). So it is in business. Most businesses make their random decisions with mixed success and failure and those are the normal companies. But every now and then, some company gets "heads" every time, and a GE or Microsoft is born.

But it's not brains or savvy. Just luck. They're the guys that happened to toss heads 60 times in a row.

Well, I guess it's better than some other theories, which say anyone who tosses heads more than 50/50 is automatically a cheat who is stealing from the poor and exploiting the working class.
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post #2056 of 2203
2/6/09 at 12:55pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

While we are getting all philosophical:
Quote:
Tax the rich, feed the poor, till there are no rich no more"
I like the song but the idea will never work. Rich and poor are relative terms based on each other. If man "A" has $1 and the "B" has $5, man "A" would consider himself poor and man "B" considers himself rich. Now if man "A" wins $10 and now has a total of $11, he would consider himself very rich. But does that make man "B" poor?

The only way I would consider someone truly poor is if they can not afford the basics needed to survive. Once you have met that criteria, and have more - then you are rich. After that it just a matter of who is richer. Growing up I had 2 pairs a jeans, 5 t shirts and we heated our house with a wood burning stove. This was in the 70s. We always had food to eat and always busy with family and friends. I never once considered myself poor.

Quote:
Success and failure are not a result of one's actions, we are either victims of an oppressive system, or simply cast upon the waves of luck.
I agree to an extent. We do have to show up and play the roll.

Back on topic - Gas in KY $1.75 for about a month now.
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post #2057 of 2203
2/6/09 at 12:59pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Gatie
Well, I guess it's better than some other theories, which say anyone who tosses heads more than 50/50 is automatically a cheat who is stealing from the poor and exploiting the working class.
I think the whole analogy is flawed. Businesses are run by people with purposeful actions. They aren't governed by random events. I've heard it said that "luck" is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity. Bill Gates was prepared to meet his opportunity. So were the Apple, Google, etc. founders.
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post #2058 of 2203
2/6/09 at 1:19pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertR
I think the whole analogy is flawed. Businesses are run by people with purposeful actions. They aren't governed by random events. I've heard it said that "luck" is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity. Bill Gates was prepared to meet his opportunity. So were the Apple, Google, etc. founders.

Nope, it's all a roll of the dice. Bill Gates isn't smarter or more talented than the guy at the car wash wiping down cars as they come out, he's just lucky.

PS - I hope you know I'm joking. I know I'm really not that obtuse.
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post #2059 of 2203
2/6/09 at 1:21pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Gatie
I hope you know I'm joking.
Jeff, I've read enough of your posts over the years to know where you're coming from.
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post #2060 of 2203
2/6/09 at 1:58pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

And in the Albany, NY area...gas continues to inch up. It is now at $2.05 in many places--after holding for quite awhile at $1.99.
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post #2061 of 2203
2/16/09 at 6:16pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Here is an AP article (that ran on the front page of my local paper today) which does a decent job of trying to explain the correlation between gas prices and oil prices:

Crude oil is getting cheaper — so why isn't gas?
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post #2062 of 2203
2/16/09 at 7:41pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Jeff, you're far from obtuse. You surely recognize Gates has got at least 99 "heads" in a row in his life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertR
I think the whole analogy is flawed. Businesses are run by people with purposeful actions. They aren't governed by random events. I've heard it said that "luck" is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity. Bill Gates was prepared to meet his opportunity. So were the Apple, Google, etc. founders.
As for being governed by random events, that depends on one's view of "determinism"...
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post #2063 of 2203
5/5/09 at 6:46am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

2 prices in town today, 1.89 and 1.99. im assuming the rest will be 1.99 by the end of the day. The kicker? i filled up for 1.75 just thursday and today is tuesday.
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post #2064 of 2203
5/5/09 at 10:56am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

I filled up for $1. 94 last night. Today it is $2.25 What happened?
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post #2065 of 2203
5/5/09 at 11:02am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Quote:
Originally Posted by drobbins
What happened?
Nothing but the normal price increase due to the weather warming up.
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post #2066 of 2203
5/5/09 at 6:18pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

We jumped from $1.94 to $2.29 today. I really don't have a problem with $2.29 per se, but a 35 cent jump just leaves the feeling of getting hosed.
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post #2067 of 2203
5/5/09 at 7:13pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

$1.85 to $2.29 in about a week and a half here. WTF?
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post #2068 of 2203
5/5/09 at 7:15pm

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

^^ It's called "getting close to memorial day"
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post #2069 of 2203
5/8/09 at 6:26am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

another dime last night. thats 30¢ in 7 days. that seems more gougish than memorial dayish to me.
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post #2070 of 2203
5/8/09 at 7:11am

Re: That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday,

Yeah. It's rough when they change the middle number in the price overnight rather than the last number...
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