I'm truly no economist. But if I understand supply, demand, investment and depletion correctly (which I guarantee I do not): This is not (for once) oil companies fault. They suddenly have a limited number of barrel chips to throw in, and they're damn well going to get as much as they can for them. I hardly blame them for this. They're all in. If I was clearly, obviously running out of my product, as was the rest of the clamoring world, I'd hell yeah start charging outrageous prices for it. That's capitalism for ya.
WaPo this morning:
Every time Sohaila Rezazadeh rings up a sale at her Exxon station on Chain Bridge Road in Oakton, her cash register sends the information to Exxon Mobil's central computers. If she raises the price of gasoline a couple of pennies, chances are that Exxon will raise the wholesale price she pays by the same amount.
Which I quote here not to argue with Jess, but to raise his point: if the Exxons and Shells of the world are "all-in", and the product they're selling is about to run out, why wouldn't they make as much as they can right now this minute, against the day (soon?) when they've got no gas to push to market?
And the thing is, again, these companies are not moral beings, they are capital entities. Making the cash is their reason for being.
So when another Exxon franchisee asks,
"Why is the government giving Exxon subsidies and tax breaks when they're making billions of dollars and when they squeeze every dime they can out of every dealer who made that profit for them?"
What can one say, except that I'd prefer our government wasn't in the business of protecting capital interests, which are really quite good at looking out for themselves.
If congress is determined to dole out corporate welfare, it really should come with a lot of strings. Strings which demand that more money is spent researching new forms of energy (and yes, profit,), rather than saving up for the rainy day which most of us are already experiencing.
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