Pelosi: Oil companies should pay royalties

[OriginalWheelman]

The cost of doing business is factored into any company's pricing structure. Includes power plant, fuel cost, insurance, labor, taxes, royalties, whatever. If the profit goal is set at 5% of revenue, they raise prices accordingly as the costs go up. They don't lower the profit goal. Raise taxes, raise royalties, raise anything. The customers pay the additional costs in the form of higher prices.

Thanks for the Jr High economics lesson. We all know that it is the end consumer who ultimately foots the bill for everything, but Corporations get taxed, then the people who get the dividends get taxed. Corporations are already paying more than their fair share of taxes, and it's time to stop making them out to be the bad guy.

[OriginalWheelman]

First off... There is collusion going on in the market. Normal industries fight to keep prices down so that they can sell more product than there competition. In the oil business, the only time gas stations compete is in a gimmick price war that occurs just before the station owner goes out of business. Now I know it's not the local station owners that control prices more than a few cents, but why aren't Exxon, Mobile, Shell, BP, etc... fighting to cut each other to move more volume? Where's the competition. There is none, therefor, there is collusion, which is illegal. But perhaps they oil industry lobbyists have sufficiently lined the pockets of anyone who might pose a thread to investigate that issue.

Let me correct you here. I spent a few years in the gas station business. There is competition, and it is on a station to station basis. Everyday before I started my shift I had to drive past every station in a 2 mile radius and scout prices. The "evil" oil companies often offer discount gas to stations (5 - 10 cents off) so that they can compete with other gas stations. There is competition, but we're talking about 2 or 3 cents, but to be fair, that's really all the room there is.

[ishkabibble]

Damn, you had Econ in Jr. High?

Guess I shoulda went to private school.

[AZhitman]

Damn, you had Econ in Jr. High?

Guess I shoulda went to private school.

I did too.

In Alabama. Gifted program, not private school.

Of course, back then gas was 12 cents a gallon.

[ishkabibble]

That's because there was no demand for it back then... the internal combustion engine hadn't been invented yet.

[OriginalWheelman]

Maybe someone can explain to me why the price of gasoline that is already drilled, refined and shipped to the local gas station changes twice a day? I mean the price of Milk at Kroger stays the same all week.

I realize that the price of corn fluctuates through out the day at the Chicago market but the Sodexo food services doesn't change the price of cornbread twice during the day.bud

Like I said, oil companies will give discounts to stores. I didn't mention that this is often on gas they already have in the tank. So a lot of times it's big oil that is absorbing all of the market drop. When you get in 30,000 gallons $4.00 POS price, and move 2,000 gallons a day, you end up sitting on that gas for a while. If the POS price drops to $3.75, the station would need to lose money to compete. In order to offset this, it is the big oil companies that eat the $0.25 a gallon that they already sold, in the form of a rebate. They could leave the station stranded, but they realize that would be their death. I'm sick of people that don't know how the gas business works suggesting how to reform it.

[OriginalWheelman]

Damn, you had Econ in Jr. High?

Guess I shoulda went to private school.

NYS public schools actually. Graduated from Eden Central.

[Soravia]

Gas stations have less margin than Corn producers in Iowa using illegal immigrant slaves. By the way, did you know that Mr. Obama received a lot of support from those farmers and won much of their votes?

[Cold_Zero]

Soravia,I have failed to find Indiana Corn, Soybeans or other farmers using Illegal Immigrant Slaves...Also the price of farming has gone up 200% because of the price of oil has sky rocketed.

[telcoman]

I did too.

In Alabama. Gifted program, not private school.

Gregg

Alabama schools!

Now I'm beginning to understand you and your posts

I wouldn't brag about that if I were you.

No wonder you back McCain!

I don't have the list handy but are there any Alabama schools in the top 100? How about the top 1000 or do we have to reach to the top 10000?

Telcoman

[audtatious]

School location means absolutely nothing. I went to a small/unknown tech school in GA and I spend my time telling people with Masters and Bachelors degrees from uppity colleges what they need to do to fix their crap.

[OriginalWheelman]

Gregg

Alabama schools!

Now I'm beginning to understand you and your posts

I wouldn't brag about that if I were you.

No wonder you back McCain!

I don't have the list handy but are there any Alabama schools in the top 100? How about the top 1000 or do we have to reach to the top 10000?

Telcoman

Well we learned more in grade school than you learned in college so I wouldn't go makign fun of him too badly.

[AZhitman]

Gregg

Alabama schools!

Now I'm beginning to understand you and your posts

I wouldn't brag about that if I were you.

No wonder you back McCain!

I don't have the list handy but are there any Alabama schools in the top 100? How about the top 1000 or do we have to reach to the top 10000?

Telcoman

Actually, since you want to be an uninformed jackass about it, the public school system there in the late 70's was ranked in the top 5 nationally.

I spent 4th, 5th and 6th grade attending classes 2 days per week at the local community college (Latin in 5th grade - yeah, baby) as part of a state-sponsored program for accelerated learning, and was invited to Duke University to participate in a national summer program for gifted elementary school students.

Keep in mind, I lived in one of the most socioeconomically depressed areas in an incredibly poor state.

When I moved to Mass (Cape Cod), I was so far ahead of my peers academically it was a tragedy (although my peers were MUCH better off financially). Subsequent moves to KS and AZ were even worse, with none of those schools even having programs for gifted students.

I scored in the high 700's on my SATs (99th percentile nationally). Graduated from a State University with honors (without doing much homework).

Then, when I considered going into the military, I had the state's highest score for the year on the ASVAB and scored in the top 90% nationally on the OQT (hope I got the acronyms right)...

Of course, none of that means much in the "real world", but your assumption is both ignorant and dangerous.

Furthermore, SAT scores on a whole are very similar between AL and your beloved home state, so perhaps you'll think before you adopt and spread widely-held notions based on stereotypes in the future.

[smockers83]

But all of Alabama is rural, therefore he hast to worry about it and automatically thinks its nowhere near as good as living in a city. He believes his dirty metropolis is the best and only way to live. My high school was and still is in the top 20% in the state and one of the few districts in the whole UP, and probably the state, that are growing which attests to how good the district is. We even have bus service to other districts, some kids coming from an hour or so away.

[96Qowner]

Yeah, I guess people in the vast rural parts of this country just cling to their fabulous educational systems out of bitterness and frustration, huh?

I had a very similar experience in Fargo. My classmates went off to school at Harvard, Brown, Yale, Northwestern, etc. One was published his freshman year at Yale and another now runs the linear accelerator at Stanford.

Yeah, we all ignorant hicks here in the boonies.

[audtatious]

Telco has already informed us in Indiana that we are backward hicks who's opinion should not matter in the least because we don't have enough liberal radio stations when driving through the state.

[smockers83]

Telco has already informed us in Indiana that we are backward hicks who's opinion should not matter in the least because we don't have enough liberal radio stations when driving through the state.

Lol, there aren't any liberal radio talk shows because they don't listen to the radio, they read newspapers.

[rn79870]

Education is more the result of personal effort than school of choice.

(Ignorant hick? I won't buy that regardless of what you say. Although, anyone who chooses to shovel snow 4 months a year does seem to have something loose somewhere.)

[96Qowner]

Although, anyone who chooses to shovel snow 4 months a year does seem to have something loose somewhere.)

Ah, but it sure does keep the riffraff out.

Right, smockers?

[rn79870]

Lol, there aren't any liberal radio talk shows because they don't listen to the radio, they read newspapers.

You might want to check this...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...radioLiberal radio is alive and well. It's anarchist radio, like Rush that's probably dying.

[AZhitman]

You missed smocky's sarcasm.

Us hillbillies don't have the interweb. We read the paper on the front porch.

p.s. Wikipedia blows goats, and conservative radio outlets outnumber libby ones.

[AZhitman]

Bump (so we can all revel in redneck glory)...

[peetar]

You might want to check this...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...radioLiberal radio is alive and well. It's anarchist radio, like Rush that's probably dying.

I would say it is "alive". I certainly wouldn't characterize it as "well".

Why do you think Speaker Pelosi wants to re-instate the fairness doctrine? Because Left talk radio is doing "well"?

[96Qowner]

Gregg

Alabama schools!

Now I'm beginning to understand you and your posts

I wouldn't brag about that if I were you.

No wonder you back McCain!

I don't have the list handy but are there any Alabama schools in the top 100? How about the top 1000 or do we have to reach to the top 10000?

Telcoman

Heheh, gotta love the internets. Lookie here:

In 2001, Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) test takers have scored above the national average for ten consecutive years.Source: The College BoardAlabama's SAT scores also beat the national average in gains over the last ten years. Math scores are up 19 points from scores ten years ago while verbal scores increased by nine points. (2001)

http://realtyvan.com/page3fa.html

MONTGOMERY, AL - U.S. News & World Report, one of the nation's leading sources of news analysis and service journalism, recently released its updated list of America's Best High Schools. The list included 31 Alabama high schools that met key criteria and fall into three categories of distinction: gold, silver, and bronze.

http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?s=8354374

[rn79870]

Bump (so we can all revel in redneck glory)...

A redneck liberal? If you believe that then you'll believe Bush has an exit plan!

[smockers83]

Ah, but it sure does keep the riffraff out.

Right, smockers?

Precisely. Now, if you asked me, people who live where there are constant forest fires and the ground shakes to the tune of 5.2 on the Richter, you have something a little loose. I'll take my 200"+ of snow and go skiing whenever I want to for free and then maybe groom when I'm done. I'll retire somewhere in the Rockies any day over SoCal, AZ, or FL, I might have condos there, but my mainstay will be in CO most likely. I don't want to live some place where its constantly the same, I need my seasons (variety), and a couple feet of snow is a must for Xmas.

The sarcasm in my comment on liberal radio was that its not flourishing like conservative radio. Conservative radio hosts are being paid record amounts (uh oh, windfall profits) because its doing much better than liberal radio. Whenever I turn on the AM, I hear conservatives, no liberals. Hence they read newspapers. Us hillbillies can't read anyway, so why do we need newspapers? That's why man invented the radio.

[peetar]

A redneck liberal? If you believe that then you'll believe Bush has an exit plan!

I have seen TONS of redneck liberals in the souF.

They are all on welfare, meth addicted etc.

They are the neo-leftys. There are a ton of them up her in WA too.

[smockers83]

The UP is considered redneck country of MI and its mostly Democrat. I myself am not a redneck Yooper.

City folk

[AZhitman]

Hold on, I'm not done bashing telco for being wrong (yet again)...

[ishkabibble]

I'm still upset that you called him "my boy"