Well, as has been discussed elsewhere, either you are in favor of nationalizing the oil industry, or you are not. As long as it is a privately owned industry, they can charge what they want.

Are they overcharging? Surely. Are they setting record profits while the common person is struggling to afford to heat their homes and fill up their car with fuel? Yes.

But what exactly are you suggesting when you say "the government should take a look at gas prices". Look at them and do what?

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

Remove The Half That Is Highway And Road Taxes!

Now, now.

We can't have any of that common sense stuff. We need to keep on track: big corporations bad, socialism good.

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2010 528Xi
I demand justice.
Or, if there must be injustice, let it be in my favor.

Reynold's Wrap: it's not just for hats anymore.

I personally think they do not spend enough money on the roads. The roads here in New York are awful. I have no problem with paying taxes which go to fixing the roads.

I have a problem with corporate welfare, and that is where more than half of my taxes are going the last few years. I have no problem with paying taxes to go for goods and services to be provided to the people.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

.... too bad our president doesnt

Oh nothing, just the extortion of the public.

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An unwavering defender of those I see worth protecting.

"promote the general welfare, not provide the general welfare"

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

If it's really supply and demand then people could do something about it. But would people do something about it? NO. In all honesty it's nothing more than greed on both ends. Will it change? Not a chance

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"What you hear in a great jazz band is the sound of democracy. “The jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligent communication.”
Harmony happens whenever different parts get to form a whole by means of congruity, concord, symetry, consistency, conformity, correspondence, agreement, accord, unity, consonance…….

The problem is that there is no choice. The oil industry is a cartel. You cannot choose to buy from someone else besides OPEC.

And in our current society, oil is a necessity just like food. What if all food came form the same company. How would you go about protesting that company? Starve yourself?

This is why Wagner says the government should step in. I was being sarcastic when I suggested that there is nothing they can do. The truth is that plenty of countries around the world have indeed stepped in and implemented price controls and regulations. However, such things would be a step towards socialism. If you want pure capitalism, then there is nothing the government can or should do.

But don't fool yourself into thinking that oil prices are the result of anything related to supply and demand. The laws of supply and demand only work when there is competition and/or the product being sold is not a necessity.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

Yes people can do something about it. Although we did not get the price reduced by half of anything like it we managed to get our chancellor to sit up and take notice. After the people created the fuel crisis in September 2000 he froze the duty for over 3 years and in the past 7 years it has only increased by something like 2ppl. No way now would Gordon Brown dare increase the duty like what he did in the past.

Over here we pay something like say 90ppl of which roughly 48ppl of the price is made up of duty and then we also have VAT of 17.5%

But don't be fooled the major oil companies don't make much profit from the retail side of their business in fact often a loss. All the profits comes from exploration

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“Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?”