Quote:
Originally Posted by Adak
The Liberals make a nightmare.
True story, from a few years back. (Before Katrina).
Bubba, an enterprising guy from the deep South, blah, blah, blah 
This is NOT the report I have posted about, but it is a similar one:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/s...1#.UJDcgYZJWuI |
Stossel is well known for his bias toward the right and his overly facile reporting on right wing issues. I'd respect a link to an impartial source more than a link to Stossel's chewing gum for the conservative brain.
Stossel ends his report with the following quote:
Quote:
Today's fat oil company profits have led many to scream that they're gouging, but the higher prices are a signal to oil companies to drill for more oil.
"The high price is a big flag that's planted in the ground that says, 'Hey, come over here and make money,'" Roberts said.
Then people rush supplies in, and soon, prices come back down.
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Look at any current analyses regarding the cost of oil. It's not a simple black and white equation. However, if you want to blame the cost of oil on a single factor, let’s use OPEC for the sake of argument. OPEC is a common culprit that sets oil prices for any number of reasons. They may limit the amount they export to get a higher price. In such a situation people cannot "come over here and make money." Someone can go to an OPEC country (or where ever) and drill a zillion barrels of oil. But if OPEC is manipulating its exports to keep oil at a certain price range, too bad for you. Or take the problem with high oil prices in Cali a while back. That was a problem at some of the refineries, not a drilling problem. Or the outbreak of a war can effect oil prices. And I could give many more reasons why Stossel’s quote is naive at best, disingenuous at worst. So, please don’t insult our intelligence with pronouncements like the ones you provided the link to.
You and your pal Stossel seem to feel that gouging is actually a virtuous activity. Please spare me from tiresome opinions derived from the fallacious thought of Ayn Rand. What if there was a famine? What if you were a fat cat sitting on the food supply for every single state in the US? You decide to sell your stock for $100/single grain of wheat. Massive starvation results. In fact, so many die that there are no farmers left to till the fields next spring. There’s no one left to "come over here and make money.” Well, I suppose, that’s business as usual in Rand’s Libertarian utopia., Atlas just shrugs and walks off; everyone who dies deserved to, and John Galt rapes Dagny Taggart. I guess it’s cool for libertarian guys to use their women like some commodity. Happy ever after for the Libertarian crowd.