This nation’s largest looming problem extant isn’t Iraq, it isn’t homosexual rights, it isn’t Global Cooling, Warming or Tepidity; it’s the price of gasoline — and, by that extension, the resulting economical catastrophe just over the hill.
OPEC forecasts $200 oil. That would place one gallon of gasoline right around $6 to $9 the gallon. My 17-gallon tank would, therefore, at $9 a gallon = $153.00 for a fill.
On top of that, the Demorats want tax after tax after tax.
If you wish to absolutely crush this country, crush the taxpayer, crush the average citizen, you just continue on your current path.
In the meantime, the oil companies such as BP (British Petroleum) and Royal Dutch Shell posted records profits for the past three months — BP’s pre-tax profits, for example, rose 48% in this first quarter. At the UK pumps today, gas is expected to be 5-pounds the gallon. That’s $9.87 per gallon US (at today’s exchange rate, 1 pound = $1.97).
You just watch this country collapse and come to a standstill. There won’t be anything unaffected.
BZ
It’s amazing to me how oil companies can operate on a 3% profit margin while the government collects considerably more than that in taxes (and the Arabs? how much are they making now?) yet everyone wants to blame oil companies for high prices. hell, if you think you can produce, transport overseas, refine, and transport to the retailer for less than that 3% go ahead! nobody’s stopping you!
or we could just whine and snivel some more and put exxon/mobil out of business so we don’t have any major oil companies left in the USA and have to depend entirely on foreign companies for all our energy needs!! just like we did to standard oil and texaco. what we want is to make sure that we don’t have ANY ability to produce ANY oil in country at all, that why we elect who we elect into office! to make sure NONE of our wildlife has to be distressed by seeing any cricket pumps about! AND the more dollars we ship overseas the more valuable those dollars become right? that’s how we are gonna fix the economy! ship as many dollars to the Arabs as we possibly can!!!! AND make sure NO americans have to work in those low paying oilfield jobs here ever again! they can work at wal-mart instead! or for the IRS, taxing anybody industrious until they quit being industrious and fu–ing up our fine economy!
Lets keep electing idiots into office! and if you see any of your neighbors producing any good or service anybody wants or needs, to profit himself and the community as a whole? SHOOT HIM!! we want no profiteering in this country dammit! if anybody is collecting more than 3% profit kill him by the slowest most painful means available! if a girl scout comes to your door asking 4 bucks for a box of your favorite cookies she only paid 2 bucks for beat her to death with a stick! in fact, outlaw commerce of any kind here in the US! make everyone an employee of the state! his job is to watch his neighbors to make sure they never trade anything amongst themselves to enforce to no commerce ban so we can live in commerce free happiness!
Mark: In Fornicalia, we pay 61-cents per gallon of fuel in TAXES. The Demorats want to throw MORE taxes on top of that.
I don’t think the gov’mint WILL be happy until they’ve driven most every business out of this nation due to regulations and taxes.
BZ
A fairly good portion of the problem is that the fed has driven the value of the dollar down. If the dollar was where it has been where it was about $1 = .75 pound then the price of oil would be about $60 a barrell and that would fix the whole mess. But by dropping interest rates, proping up people who bought more house than they could afford, and bailing out loan companies who gave those people the loans the fed has destroyed the value of the dollar.
Next stop dollar on par with the Peso that way the new North American Union wont drive the US into the ground any more than it already has been.
A war for oil, possession OF oil, can’t be too far over the horizon…
And food is next…
If the US would CHARGE for the food it gives away to other countries we would be looking pretty damn good.
BZ,
The reason why politicians (that we elected to represent us, by the way) want to raise taxes on fuel is because in their little pea brains they see that they used to get 40-50% of the price of fuel in taxes in the late ’70s and 80’s. now in the current state of affairs the taxes only amount to 20% or less of the purchase price, as far as they’re concerned you are STEALING from the government now! that’s how they think! REALLY! no shit! and it’s not just the democrats who think like this, many republicans do too.
wmd maker makes a good point too in that rewarding bad fiscal behavior is disastrous to any economy, why would anybody invest in dollars or American banks now? it’s like throwing good money after bad. until banks act responsibly, and people are held to their debt, the value of our dollar will be in the shitter.
the US used to be both the number one producer of goods and services, as well as the number one consumer. now we are still the number one consumer, but what do we produce? crappy software, and crappy movies, and foodstuffs, and we give much of the foodstuffs away… oh, and barbie dolls, can’t forget the barbie dolls!
TF: you, sir, are SPOT ON with that comment; the wars for those two commodities are just over the horizon.
WMD is also correct insofar as the devaluation of the dollar, predominantly due to subprime lending, takes a huge chunk out of dollar’s value.
The American consumers accepting bad loans and the institutions MAKING the bad loans should be allowed to circle the drain.
BZ
We have, as a nation and for the most part, been the ‘good guys’, we fought by the rules, we took care of the helpless, we have poured BILLIONS upon BILLIONS of our dollars into saving 3rd world nations only to have said nations stab us in the back…
Maybe it’s time we became total assholes, some of your readers think I’m a total asshole, they tried to destroy me and my blog, but being the asshole that won’t quit, I really pissed off the sanctimonious when I survived…
Maybe the USA needs to try it that way, forget PCness, lets take care of US 1st, the USA and her people, fuck the 3rd world leeches that are bleeding us dry, it can’t make the pricks hate you any worse now can it??
Agree with Mark. A lot of it has to do with years of enviro/LIEberal/NIMBY air heads not allowing any increase in production and development causing a big shake up as refineries go down for switch over to summer fuel and maintenance. They then pushed food into fuel, and created a massive problem, and the organization that created a lot of the problem, the U(seless) N(ations) has the nerve to ask for a hand out to feed the starving people that they stole the food from.
One part of me hopes the whole system collapses and we get this over with. Clean out the enviro wingnuts, and elitist LIEberals, and we start over.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
And only a few short years ago the Donks were saying that gas was too cheap and we were wasting it. Now it’s not so cheap and they are outraged.
Okay. I’ll admit I have read none of the comments. But I thought you might find this entertaining.
The inside gossip in the business right now is that we are at PeakOil. Which means there is no more incentive or ability to increase production. It is simply not cost effective to produce petroleum from the tars that are still available.
The bottom line, increasing production will depend on exploration in areas that are currently restricted.
Next time your congressman says no drilling in Alaska or on our Pacific coast, he is advocating no increase in crude production.
I remember blogging about the oil fields off of the Florida coast, that only Cuba and China were exploiting (we’re too “green” to use that oil). The rest of the domestic oil that we could be using is another sore point.
The tree huggers that our politicians cater to are successfully hindering our national economy. Who woulda thought it?