Originally Posted by
jungle
skybolt said:Big oil is a monopoly that exists with the quite acceptance of the US government.
Actually it is an oligopoly, few sellers, due to the huge capital required to run the research, exploration, drilling and many other functions required of an energy company.
The government actually makes three to four times as much as the oil companies on each gallon of gas sold. Government intervention in free markets, even those with few players such as the US automakers, has almost always resulted in very poor results for all involved.
Exactly right:
If you want to get mad at someone, get mad at Congress. 1/2 of the price of gasoline is taxes! Company A buys raw crude from (insert middle east nation here), ships it to a US refinery in a super-tanker. US owned super tanker? Pays taxes, increases shipping cost. Refinery: pays property tax, income tax, unemployment tax, social security tax, workers compensation tax, has to hire a legion of accountants to comply with 8,000 page Internal Revenue Code. Crude gets refined (refinery has to shut down every 2 months to switch gas formulas, because due to EPA regulations and various state regs, state X requires a different gasoline formula that state Y, and so on...). Gasoline gets put into trucks and shipped to your local quickie mart. Trucking company pays all of the above taxes. Quickie Mart sells you gas. Quickie Mart pays all of the above taxes AND the pigs in Congress tack on 18 more cents per gallon in excise tax and your state collects 15 to 25 cents per gallon in sales tax!
Oh by the way, India and China have about 2.3 BILLION people thirsty for crude. Get on your Huffy and pedal dudes!