Monday, September 8, 2008
hurricanes and gas prices
With the recent threat of hurricanes such as Hanna and Ike, many people across the coast have had to evacuate. I think this is a big enough inconvenienve already, however to add the the distress of people losing everything they have or having thier homes destroyed, gas companies have drastically hiked up gas prices. They do this becuase they know people have no choice if there was an evacuation. Crude oil has gone up to $109 a barrel due to the recent hurricanes moving up the gulf coast. When OPEC meets next week, there has been talk that some members want the price for the US to stay at $100 a barrel. To me this doesnt seem much better. I think that it is morally wrong for the gas companies and other people to intentionally hike the price of gas up when they know people who are troubled have no choice.
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What do you think we should do? If we grant corporations rights and legal protection so that they can efficiently provide goods and services, we might consider the situation in one of these ways:
1. Transportation costs are a necessary public good. Profit-driven provision of gas results in profiteering, since Americans can't wait out high gas prices . . . although corporations can wait out resistant consumers. So, we should provide gas on a socialized model, like some other countries.
2. Transportation costs are a necessary public good. Profit-motive is necessary to keep the market working, but profits should be limited by the government to a certain percentage, say, pegged to crude oil prices.
3. Transportation costs are a necessary public good, and profit-motive will regulate costs properly if we keep the market working properly. We need to break up the giant oil companies in order to allow them to have less power in the marketplace, and be more subject to the forces of economic competition.
4. Transportation costs are a necessary public good, and the weight that large companies have in the market results in market inefficiencies through forms of price-gouging and de facto price-fixing. But still, any governmental regulation or intervention would just make things worse.
5. Market forces will determine whether gasoline costs are the most efficient way to meet our transportation needs. Gasoline prices ought to rise until they run into competition from alternate modes of transport. If we aren't willing to look into other ways to get to work, as a nation, in the mornings, then oil companies deserve whatever the market will support. The market will not find balance if we limit oil company profits.
What do you think about these perspectives?
Rising gas prices are a growing concern for Americans. Especially when it comes to natural distasters such as hurricans where people are forced to evacuate. However on a daily basis people are forced to pay these high prices for gas becuase they have no other choice..sure they could use alternate forms of transportaion but why should we change our whole lives becuase the oil companies are hiking up gas prices so much to make more of a profit for themeselves. Plus people who live in rural areas or that have to take the highways or travel long distances to work dont have much of an option to take public transportation or ride bikes. To me it doesn seem like theres much of a competition with the oil companies they all have the power. One example of the growing gas prices I experienced when i came home this weekend...there is NO gas. almost every gas station at any given exit in GA is completely out of gas. people in Atlanta line up out the parking lots and into the streets just to get gas at the few that have it. its insane. It really shows how our economy is suffering greatly due to the competition for oil.
The gas price crisis is just an addition to the economic crisis we face...or should I say, if the economy was in better condition, the gas price would not be an issue. I believe that the struggle at the pump is going to come. I had an opportunity to live with a German student the first three weeks of this semester and he informed me that a gallon of gas is about $7.50 in Germany, so in reality, Americans have it made. The struggle comes with the economy in that Americans are having a hard time finding and keeping jobs and making enough money for them to make a decent living. If the economy was in better shape and people were able to become financially stable, it is my belief that the gas price crisis or dilemma will dissipate, but with the economy the way it is now...GAS will continue to hurt everyone's pocket until there is some resolve to the economic crisis.
It is the job of the next President to solve this issue so GET OUT AND VOTE ON NOVEMBER 4th!!!!
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