Originally Posted By: milkboy
Originally Posted By: NHHEMI
Originally Posted By: milkboy
Originally Posted By: NHHEMI
I am with you. If milkboy thinks gas prices are based on supply and demand I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn, NY to sell him.
That
is a nice bridge - I'm ready to write the check ! . . . as soon as you
explain how the price of anything, anywhere, is based on something other than the seller getting the most that he can for it ? and why that somehow magically doesen't apply to gasoline ?
That is something different than what you said earlier. The supply and demand argument is mostly a smoke screen for your 2nd comment at least currently. At one point and time you could argue S&D for gas with refinieries running in the mid to high 90% of capacity rate, low supply, and increasing demand for gas.
You can not argue S&D today as refineries are not running at or near max capacity( they are actually closing some to lower supply because they have too much capacity = manipulating the supply to manipulate the price ), there is so much supply it is being exported, and demand is not at dangerous levels related to supply.
There is adequate refining capacity, supply( gas and crude ), and demand is not at dangerous levels even with China. Gas is at a minimum being sold at $1+ a gallon too high. I know what kind of system we have here( Capitalism )and I support it. I just don't like it when companies lie and manipulate and then aske me to smile while they bend me over.
Supply and demand is NOT behind current gas prices at all. [censored] of the highest order.
I think we're making the same argument ?
I originally said that the price of gas always goes up this time of year, in anticipation of the summer travel season.
That's not a smoke screen, that's a direct statement. Does this sound better ?
When demand goes up, they can - and do - raise the price for that reason alone.
The first thing I'm doing with that bridge is raising the tolls
I think your understandings of supply and demand are a bit off. You do not have to be at maximum production capacity for supply and demand to work. The supply is what they (the producers) make it and the demand is what we (the consumers) make it. If their supply remained constant and our demand decreased, they would cut the price in order to move their inventory. If our demand stays the same and their supply decreases (seasonal switchover, refinery explosion, oil embargo, etc.) then they would raise the price so they can milk every possible cent out of each gallon.
If they price it too high, people drive less and buy less, leaving excess supply. If they price it too low, people drive more (to a point) and buy more, eating up the supply. Prices settle somewhere in the middle (economics is as much of an art as a science due to the fact that you are dealing with human behavior, which is not always rational or predictable). Charging "as much as they can" is when they hit that sweet spot where the supply and demand meet at a certain price point.
