Quote:
Originally Posted by AC2717
that is crap to be honest. lets tax them so when their profits get cut they just raise price. and youknow what the whole thing about other countries, well guess what, they get schooling, health care, dental care, and other perks that we have to pay for. Here we pay for the gas and these things. That arguement does nto hold water and I for one am sick of hearing it.
Gas needs to be regulated like a utility, but you know what they will screw that one up as well.
Oh wait can we start drilling now? pretty please, wish this would have never stopped
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Read the foreign news sites and you will see why regulation is not working.
British people are currently protesting their government's fuel taxes which put their gas prices much higher than ours right now. Their liberal party is currently in power and the conservatives are quickly gaining ground as a result of those in power taking the blame for what's going on.
I have many friends who are British and I've yet to hear more than one positive comment about their health system because the quality isn't there. In Canada, the national health service is falling apart - there are many Canadian healthcare seekers who cross the border into the US in order to self-pay for quality and timeliness that aren't available from a government.
The more money any given government gets its hands on (regardless of the source), the more it will borrow against tomorrow's anticipated revenue, and the further into debt it will go, until finally it becomes financially impossible to support any longer. We could tax the windfall profits of the oil companies, but the government will very quickly learn to rely on that income. That will be a problem when the bubble bursts. What goes up comes down just as quickly. There are already career investors selling their oil stocks as a result - cashing in now instead of waiting to see what happens. Something has to break - no one knows what it will be, but whatever it is, the current oil profits are not sustainable long-term and therefore a tax on their profits could never be a reliable source of income for the government.
In countries that regulate the price of gasoline by subsidizing it (like Indonesia,) the governments are feeling the financial strain and calling it quits on subsidies. There have been riots when the people of those countries discovered what it really costs.
What's all this mean for the marinas around here? If so many other countries are feeling shock of high-priced oil, then we Winnipesaukee Boaters can't expect our leaders to be able to change anything. Our problem starts with the fact that there's very little supply cushion in oil right now. Demand and supply are just about equal. Knowing this, Wall Street oil buyers are panic buying. The panic buying model is best illustrated by the rush of people who go to the store as soon as the weatherman mentions a chance of snow. They fear it might be the Great Blizzard and that they may face a shortage of personal supplies so they mob the stores to buy a million things they probably won't even use. With daily oil output currently meeting demand (barely), the Wall St. buyers are going into panic-buy mode at the mention of the slightest possible interruption in the supply (which would cause a shortage, if it happened.) These guys on Wall St. want to own barrels of oil in the event of such a shortage.
So where do marina gas prices (and others around the lake) go for the summer? As long as the news on possible interruptions to the oil supply are quiet for the summer, prices would stay about where they are now.
Don't let the lack of a shortage fool you: We're in a situation where it wouldn't take much of an interruption in supply to create one. If a hurricane starts to form, or if news breaks that a strange-looking man is lighting off firecrackers within 10 miles of an oil pipeline, the Wall St. oil buyers are going to speculate that there will be a sudden shortage and they will bid up the oil price on that day. We will feel it in the form of higher gas prices, as will everyone else in the world (when the foreign oil markets react in the same way.) If the threats to the supply keep coming, the price will keep rising as long as supply remains only slightly greater than demand. Everyone will look to and blame their ruling powers regardless of what party they are, and people in many countries will demand that any taxes on fuel be removed.
What we really need is a much bigger oil supply cushion like we always used to have... or the means to make up for any shortage that comes along. "Having a cushion" is the universal safety solution for just about everything, like when you go hiking in the White Mountains, you bring an extra set of clothing (I hope!). Your original set of clothing is enough, but White Mountain weather could change all that.